First Summer Weekend

Thursday was the last day of school. So on Friday, we made our lists of what we wanted to do this summer, and then went to the pool. Jack seemingly made five new friends (apparently he knew one boy from a camp he attended for 2 weeks last summer...I can't remember people I met last week) and they threw a ball around the pool for two hours. Kate swam and jumped and turned somersaults in the water, like a little fish. I bought them both ice cream.

Saturday, Jack had a baseball game. He made a great catch of a fly ball in left field, potentially saving two runs. Jogging off the field he got a fist bump from the pitcher and a high five or back pat from the coach...I don't remember, I was too happy about the catch. Truth is you don't see a ton of fly balls to the outfield at this level, and not many of those get caught. I wrote a big F-7 in the score book and congratulated him as he came into the dugout. He was actually pretty cool about the whole thing. Later he put a couple of balls in play (one hit and one an error) that drove in four runs in an 8-1 win. We walked home happy, him talking about driving in four runs (which were really less impressive than the catch, but whatever, as long as he's happy).

Afterward, Kate wanted to go back to the pool while Jack wanted to hang out and watch the soccer, so she and I went to the pool for a couple of hours, she again a little fish, us again getting ice cream. Back home that evening, we grilled a steak and played soccer in the backyard with our new dog.

Sunday, Jack had a baseball practice, Emily and Kate went to the pool AGAIN, and Jack had a video game birthday party at a classmate's house in the afternoon. We cooked out, played running bases in the backyard with our dog, and at night I caught a firefly, which Jack and I analyzed and I thought of his great third grade teacher, talking about his enthusiasm for learning.

Good start to the summer.

Last day of school

It's a tough competition with the teacher they both had in kindergarten, but Jack and Kate had probably their teachers we most liked this year, two awesome ladies who were admittedly smitten with our kids. Kate's teacher, at our first parent-teacher conference, I recall her pausing, taking a breath, and saying, "I LOVE Kate. She is so sweet and helpful, both to me and the other students, and she's very encouraging." It was a great year and I think Kate became happier, friendlier, and a better person this year. Plus she learned to read and did this ridiculous new math that I barely understood myself. But it was a great year, and today, after saying goodbye to basically every teacher she recognized, she went to a play date at a friends house and ate pizza and ice cream.

Jack, meanwhile, had probably the best teacher I've ever even heard of this year. Ms Gullotta was a wonderful teacher who was both sweet and kind and old school, the only one who kept the kids until 3:00 p.m. before opening her door. And most of them still didn't leave.

Some of the stuff she said to me today she had told us before, but it still really hit home. She said Jack was an extraordinary student, smart and talented and always eager and anxious to learn. "He inspired me...he inspired the other kids, I think to be better students. He inspired me to be a better teacher. He is an amazing kid." What do you say to that? I think I sputtered something about how great she was and how much he loved having her, all true, but I didn't put it into words as well. He had been in a reading group with her class the previous year -- he's currently reading at a sixth-grade level -- and she said she hoped she would get him in her class, and when she got the list, she immediately went down it to see if his name was there. I hugged her and she said "I've got my fingers crossed for Kate," and I said we do, too.

Then Jack and I went home and bought tickets for the New York Comic Convention in October, went out to a bar, er, restaurant, to have wings and watch the World Cup, and got some swings in at the batting cages, since some bad habits have crept into his swing. And then came home and played with our new dog. What's that, I haven't blogged about her yet? Ok, next time.

Happy

It's almost summer, and the kids are feeling it. Today, Jack had a baseball practice, and then we came home and made a steak on the grill. I don't even know exactly what started them off, but they started singing a commercial for goldfish crackers and just, uh, cracking each other up. They took turns singing and posing, posing and singing. And laughing at each other's poses and songs.

And then we all played the running bases game in our backyard, laughed, and went to bed.

Best Father's Day ever

Woke up to coffee, plus a smiling Jack proudly bringing me toast and a hard boiled egg he had made (well, the toast, anyway). Kate was very sad she had slept in, but I said I really needed orange juice. So she was happy.

Kids brought me cards they had made. In Jacks's, he and I wore our Port Chester Pirates gear, him his uniform and glove, me my coaches' shirt. In Kate's, we were smiling, and birds and butterflies flew about our heads. Their cards said really sweet things, too.

We went to the Mets game, and a Met led off the first with a long home run. We ate burgers and hotdogs, then finished with ice cream for all. Jack kept score for the first time. The kids posed cheerily for pictures. After the game they ran the bases. In most of the pictures, one of them gave the other rabbit ears, a goofy tradition that some days I would expect them to be too tired or cranky to do. (Late night last night.) And they were tired, but not cranky. Sweet and funny all day.

Way too long drive home, pizza, a catch with Jack in the backyard, kiss goodnight for Kate. Finally bed and not a peep from either kid. Great day.

Lot of random

Jack has been really into playing catch lately. Every night. Sometimes we play catch, sometimes he pitches to me. This afternoon we played half an hour of wiffle ball. This morning, he walked into the backyard on his own with his glove and ball to toss it up into the air a bit. To be honest he's kind of wearing me out. But I'll take it.

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Kate loves this scooter we got her. It was her present for Jack making the Summer Travel team. If she has to go to the park all the time for his games, she may as well have a scooter. She's pretty impressive on it, zipping all over the place like she's the Silver Surfer or something.

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Emily went out with friends tonight, so it was just me and the kids. I made a pizza which Jack inhaled and Kate half ate, half picked around the edges, because at some point recently she decided she didn't like tomato sauce. Kind of cuts down on the dinner options. But she ate some, and they both had watermelon for dessert.

They got into their pajamas, and we watched an episode of Gilligan's Island, me sitting between them on the couch. I brushed teeth and washed faces, then read a Magic Kitten chapter with Kate and some Calvin and Hobbes strips with Jack. Turned out lights, told them I loved them, hugged them, put them to bed. Then I came downstairs and wrote this quick blog.

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