Play Ball

 Owen's birthday is always right before school starts and so his party is inevitably the last weekend of summer. As the daughter of a teacher, I'm always amazed at how difficult it is to assemble a quorum of Owen's friends then, as they wrest the last days of freedom from the waning days of summer. This year, Owen had expressed an interest in doing laser tag, but as Allen had already gotten 12 tickets to the Nats play on Sunday thinking that it could be an extended family celebration (it couldn't -- everyone had conflicts) which meant that laser tag could only happen on Saturday -- when only two of Owen's friends would be available.

So instead, Allen bought even more tickets. 12 kids and 4 adults later, we headed to Nats stadium for a Sunday afternoon game against the Marlins. The weather was great, parking went smooth, and there was a free kids' "Nat-light" giveaway. We quickly found our seats, passed out drinks and then Allen & Nora got a round of pretzels for everyone while it was still a respectable 0-0. A few innings later, Nora and I decided to go exploring and by the time we got back it was a less encouraging 3-1 Marlins. By the time Allen and I returned from getting food for everyone in the fifth, it was a downright depressing 5-1 and Owen was suggesting we call it a day. But we persevered... until the seventh inning stretch with the Nats down 10 runs. We headed home for video games, ice cream cake and a very enthusiastic rendition of "Happy Birthday" while the Marlins scored again.

Despite the game itself being terrible, Owen and his friends had a really good time catching up and hanging out before the first day of school. And while we would have preferred it if it was the Nats doing the scoring, it was nice of the Marlins to score one run for every year of Owen's life.