Robert gets ejected...

I think it is funny to tease Robert about it, but don't want anyone to think he is one of those psycho Little League parents so I am putting the whole story here.
Our boys have been working hard at practice (and when we have nothing going on we go out for even MORE practice) Jake has been working on not swinging when the pitch is high. At yesterday's game Jake was up to bat and had a full count. The final pitch came across his helmet. Jake didn't swing, yes finally all that practice payed off. Unfortunately our umpire called it a strike. I never knew the strike zone included the helmet. Jake was called out and went to the dugout and cried because he had done exactly what dad told him to and he got out. Rob was basecoaching at 1st and at the end of the inning walked back to our dugout. He couldn't resist just one comment to the umpire as he walked past. He said "Good job making a player cry because you couldn't call it right when it came across at his helmet." The umpire gave Robert a warning and Robert walked to our dugout to calm Jake down. Robert was at our dugout door talking to Jake and the other players when the umpire decides to walk towards our dugout and continue the fight with Robert. The umpire then says "You can't argue balls and strikes ump". Robert said "I am not the ump, I am a coach" and for that was ejected from the game. For Robert's temper and what he probably wanted to say I was amazed that he held his tongue and think that it is rediculous that the umpire can walk over to our dugout to continue the problem when Robert is no longer questioning the call and doing what he is supposed to be doing and Robert get's ejected.
Then at Jake's next at bat we were in the last inning and had 2 outs already. Jake got struck out making the final out. This putz of an umpire who has been told that his bad call already made this child cry has to call the strike and the out very exaggerated and over dramatic. He did not call any other strike or out the way he called Jake out. It is pathetic what somebody on their power trip will do, especially when they are supposed to be enforcing sportsmanship.
This is a first in our family, but given our number of boys and their love of baseball I don't think it will be the last time it happens. The more I thought about it the more mad I got. There were other things with the other team that did not even get questioned (the other team manager is also the President of the League go figure) So I got up in the middle of the night to write a letter to the league. We will see what happens. So yes Robert is one of those crazy Little League dad's but not really!

Slow and steady wins 2nd!

Jake decided his pinewood derby car should be a turtle. He made a drawing for me and I said we couldn't do that. We went to a handy dandy tool man for help cutting and he had us a turtle just like jake wanted in a few minutes flat (thank you Todd!). We painted and put wheels on it and got it ready for pinewood derby. Jake won 2nd place and he had lots of fun.

Scouts

Trevor has been just a few requirements away from earning his tenderfoot. The two that gave us problems were the 1/4 mile run and the pull up (Thank you Aaron for help with the pull up). He did these and then had to show improvement and beat his own score. His first time on the 1/4 mile run was 2 minutes 18 seconds and on all of our tries he missed beating that time by a second or two. We tried and tried, and finally got it. Trev was so proud that he did it that he wanted a picture of the watch used to time his run. Finally he actually beat it by 3 seconds. So anyone who lives within ear shot of El Diamante probably hear all of our cheering when he crossed the finish line!

Somebody Stop Me!

I get these really good ideas for things that would be totally cute (like cutting 1,500 stars for Blue and Gold Dinner). Well they would actually be good ideas if I could turn the work over to somebody else and just stand back and see how cute it was. Instead I get these ideas and decide to do them and then when it comes to actually doing them I get annoyed at myself for even thinking of it. Today we did snacks for the baseball team. I decided to make them baseball sugar cookies. They really weren't that much work, but with everything else we have going on at the moment I was thinking I need someone to stop me when I get these ideas. The kids loved them though!

BRRRRRRRRR!

This is so not my idea of fun! Trevor went snow camping with his Boy Scout Troop. We bought him more thermals and borrowed snow gear. They camped one night. Trevor and Josh shared a tent. They played in the snow and went sledding. He had fun, but was exhausted when he got home. He was in bed before 7 that night.

It has been said...

" A good friend will come bail you out of jail... a true friend will be sitting there beside you saying, "Dang, that was fun!""

When we had our pack popcorn sale we did a contest that the top seller would get to silly string a leader. Since we only had 3 boys sell popcorn we decide to let all of them silly string! Jake got to silly string me, I think it was the highlight of his life so far!

Blue and Gold Dinner

Last night was our pack's Blue and Gold dinner. Set up this year went MUCH smoother than last year. My car did not roll across the street and hit a mailbox (giving me an even more stressful day!). And I had many friends show up to help set up. The cultural hall looked great (notice the stars in the background, it really did look good!). Everything went off as planned. Jake got the volleyball belt loop and 4 Silver Arrow Points (That means he did 40 extra things from his book). Take down went smoothly and then I came home to colapse. All in all a good night!