SHMS Baseball

When Capitol Hill Little League was getting ready for the Spring season, Owen had a decision to make, swim lessons with Gabriel or baseball ... they both happened on Wednesday nights. Somewhat to our surprise, Owen chose swim lessons, at least in part because he figured he could just play baseball on the Stuart Hobson team. We noted that he'd have to try out and make the team, and he'd be playing on a full size 90-ft diamond with 7th and 8th graders, but he was undeterred. When try outs rolled around, Owen did his best, came home and told us he made the team. Not only that, he ended up starting in right field on opening day, the first time in several years a sixth grader had started.

The Panthers ended up being a bit of a juggernaut this season. Working around all the rainouts, they won their first game 21-2, and kept up the blow-outs all season winning 19-0, 13-2, 7-0, and closed out the season winning 12-1. Owen used his small strike zone to his advantage with a 1.000 on-base percentage this year (though he didn't have a batting average, since he walked every time and thus didn't have an official at-bat for batting average purposes), several steals, and a bunch of runs scored.

When the playoffs rolled around SHMS was the top seed, but due to all the rain the schedule had slipped a bit. Unfortunately the first playoff game was scheduled at the same time as 8th grade prom, and despite Coach Campbell's best efforts, the other team wouldn't let us reschedule (one thinks they might have known this was their only hope). As the kids learned, league rules allow you to end a game with fewer than 9 players, but you need to field a full 9 to start the game. Eight kids showed up early to warm up for the playoff opener, and text all their 8th grade teammates trying to convince someone to skip prom (Owen's pretty sure he won't need much convincing when he's in 8th grade). The other team showed up right at 4 when the game was scheduled to start, and the umpire officially told us we couldn't begin unless we got a 9th player. At that point the kids were hoping for rain (which was in the forecast, and wouldn't be a surprise at all after over a foot of rain in the past couple weeks, and plenty of ominous clouds on the horizon). One thunder clap, and the game would be postponed, but the weather gods didn't cooperate, so when 4:20 rolled around the other team took the field, and the umpire officially called the forfeit.

Not the best way to end a great season, but Owen had a great time this season, and we'll get 'em next year!

Girls Gone Mild

The last time my college roommate Audra was in town, Owen was a baby and Nora wasn't even a twinkle in anyone's eye. And while we've managed to meet up for various reunions since, we recently decided Audra was overdue for a return to the east coast and some quality bonding time.

So after Allen made us a lovely dinner Friday night, we kicked him and the kids out (John left the night before) and spent the weekend seeing pretty much every monument DC has to offer plus several museums all while biking, walking, eating, drinking, talking and just generally enjoying each others' company.

It was a really good visit -- we just need to get the rest of the J1 Crew out next time.

A Weekend at Katherine's

With Elaine and Audra having a girls' weekend, the kids, grandpa and I all headed up to Katherine & Lee's for a 3-day weekend long birthday celebration for Katherine. We're always excited for fun and games up at K&L's, and of course this provided Katherine with ample opportunity to stretch things out and delay opening presents as long as possible, so she was pretty thrilled too ;-)

Rain dampened our bonfire plans, but we had plenty of fun in the conservatory, and with two nights, we were able to make a pretty good dent in the keg ;-) Nancy & Danny joined us on Sunday night for dinner, presents and cake, and yes Katherine did eventually open her presents. She even liked the rusted round standing bell thing that Elaine picked out and carried home from Eastern Market after Katherine ordered her one too many margaritas after the Classic ;-)



(click here for all the pictures)

The Classics

It's been a while since our family participated in the Cluster's Capitol Hill Classic -- the annual school fundraiser that involves a 10k, 3k and fun run. In part because it's been a while since our family was in the Cluster, but also because, quite frankly, we didn't exactly kill it last time.

But five years has passed! Owen is now in sixth grade and was on the school baseball team! Nora is training for the Girls on the Run 5k! Surely we can handle three kilometers. Besides, Aunt Katherine is in town now and she loves to run! So we signed Aunt Katherine up for the 10k and decided the rest of us would stick to the 3k.

The first sign of trouble was that Aunt Katherine didn't finish under her "worst case" scenario time. It was humid, and the water stations were sparse and too far apart and multiple runners said that while a 10k typically equals 6.2 miles, on the Classic course it was 6.4 miles.

But the kids were excited. And their friends were there (and Mom Mom and Grandpa). And we were only running 3k (which in Classic terms is 2 miles). And it was all great... for the first two blocks. I told the kids that Mom Mom, Grandpa and Aunt Katherine would be waiting on East Capitol and we just had to run there so they could get a picture. Only they got confused on the route and ended up near the finish instead of the start. By the time we realized we weren't about to see them, the kids were mad that they were running for nothing and started walking. Slowly.

Around the halfway mark, Allen managed to rally Owen and they jogged the rest of the way, finishing a respectable 23:53. Nora would sporadically run in between bouts of complaining (I have to go the bathroom! It's hotter now then it was before!), but sprinted at the end for a decent 29:07.

They were in much better spirits (well mostly) after a series of water fights with their friends and some bagels and we were in much better spirits once we had some tacos and frozen margaritas/cervesas in us.


Until next year!

Concerts

When Nora was promoted to Sinfonia 1 after her winter concert, we were really proud of her, but a little sad for ourselves. See, for three months this fall, when Nora was in the Debut Orchestra and Owen was in the Young Artist Orchestra, both kids had orchestra on Saturday morning (although Owen's started an hour earlier). It was glorious -- we could drop the kids off, run errands and grab coffee, and then pick them both up in time for lunch. But Nora's advancement meant that while Owen's rehearsal is from 9 am to 12:30 pm Saturday morning, Nora's is 1 pm to 3:15 pm Saturday afternoon. We now spend most of Saturday shuttling children back and forth.

But the one bright spot in this scheduling nightmare, is that the Sinfonia and the Young Artists are on the same concert bill in the spring. So on Saturday May 19th, we headed to THEARC Theater to hear both kids play.

Nora was first with "Presenting the Strings" followed by "Can-Can." We were a little nervous because in the last few rehearsals, Ms. Cuffy, the conductor, had been pretty tough on the violas. They sounded great, though, and it was pretty impressive how far this groups had come.

Owen's group was the grand finale and decided to take the audience on a musical journey. They started with Bradenburg, then went to Argentina for Tango Noir (which included some improvisation by some soloist), and ended with a middle eastern dance song (which also had a soloist). It was really impressive and a lovely way to end the season.

Pictures in the Park

One of the Spirit Parties we won for Nora at the SWS auction was a group cherry blossom photo session at Stanton Park by our friend Maria (mother to Owen's friend Patrick and Nora's friend Brandon). There was some confusion with the invites, and we missed the party (as well as the cherry blossoms), but Maria kindly did an extra session with Nora.The photos are wonderful and we can't wait to have Maria take some family photo sessions this fall!

Birthdays and Mother's Day

Sunday May 13th, 2018, another collision of Mother's Day, Elaine's birthday, and Mom Mom's birthday. We celebrated with an early birthday dinner at Katherine's on Saturday night, and a Mother's Day brunch in the morning. It really wasn't enough though since there's only so much you can do to celebrate so many special occasions at once, so this is only really the beginning. The month of Elaine birthday celebrations will continue with the U.S. Botanic Gardens cocktail party this Thursday, dinner at Little Pearl next Thursday, and dinner at Kith & Kin the last Thursday of May :-)

"Staring at Stars" by Nora Fawcett

Going to Mars
Staring at stars
Building a statue of me

Wearing donuts
Ready to go nuts
All on Mars to see

My flying pig with
A unicorn horn
Pricks its butt
On a spiky thorn

Going to Mars
Staring at stars
Building a statute of me

De Colores

For the Spring SWS concert, Nora and her classmates got to demonstrate their Spanish skills (which is impressive given they've spent the past two years studying French) as well as their piano or ukulele techniques. Nora opted for ukelele and did a great job -- which you can almost see if you look in the back right corner of the screen;-)

Perpetual Motion

After a year of taking lessons, Nora's gotten more comfortable performing in public. Just don't ask her to make small talk beforehand...

And without further ado, from the girl that can never stand still: Perpetual Motion. #recital