Killer Bees

Isn't that a great team name? 

It's very intimidating when you're 6 and you're about to whack a baseball right off the tee into who knows where. 

And Cody was a very ferocious Killer Bee...

 

 As you can clearly tell . . .

 

But give him a Creamie bar, and he's as sweet as can be.

 

Parent side note:  Why didn't anyone tell me that T-ball was a waste of time??  I thought it would be good for Cody to learn how to play baseball, but they really didn't teach him much besides - hit the ball and run around.  In order to not hurt anyone's feelings, no one is ever "out" and it doesn't really matter if you actually run to home plate or just run back to the dugout.  In order to be fair, there were three kids in the middle playing "pitcher" and there was no point in getting the ball, because they had no idea what to do with it when they did.  And obviously I don't know that much about baseball, or I wouldn't have paid someone to teach my kid how to play.  AND PS: I am NOT a fan of treats at the end of the game!  Is it just me?  For my 6 yr old, all he wants is for the game to be over so he can get a twinkie or popsicle or candy bar and sometimes a juice box to go with it.  Maybe my child is just too deprived of these things.  What happened to water and maybe orange slices at half time.  Anyway, at least he got a cool hat and shirt that he likes.  And I think he mostly had fun, so don't let this deter you from signing your child up.  Just look at his smile - maybe that's worth it, right?

Simple, but they all had a ball

Cody wanted a "sports" party for his 6th birthday celebration, and I was all for it.  One, I was pretty sure I could come up with some "games" and two, they had the supplies for it at the dollar store.  Score!

I let him invite 8 friends (since that's how many invitations were in the package) and we ended up with 6 little boys + his bros, which was perfect. 
As they arrived, they got to make their sports visors . . .

Then we headed outside to shoot some hoops.  Luckily we had awesome almost summer-like weather...

They also got to try their hand (or foot rather) at soccer.  

Dribbling and making goals . . .

 

And practicing their "no hands" moves . . .

We also had some baseball planned, but since one of the boys had to leave early we decided to go ahead and get on to the real party stuff - presents and cake!  For the presents, I had the boys sit in a circle and pass around a ball while music played, if it stopped on them, they got to give him their present.

Cody was so sweet to all of his friends and so happy about each one of his gifts.  And I love to see how happy little boys are to GIVE gifts.

And then it was onto the "cake" . . . or cake pops.  Love these things!  They are fun, easier to make than they look, the kids love them and best of all, not messy! And did I mention dangerously yummy?

But since we couldn't stick candles in those, we had to improvise . . .

and the ice cream cups work great!

(PS I always use these at kids parties, so quick, easy and small portioned for little tummies)

As with all parties, it went by fast and the kids had a blast. 

And I don't remember this when I was six, but Cody actually had multiple birthday celebrations (and I haven't decided whether it's a good thing or a bad thing that I didn't take pictures).  So this party was on Saturday.  On Sunday, we had a family party at Grandma & Grandpa's with Chinese food per Cody's request.  And then on Monday, his actual birth day, he got to take treats to school AND we got to go to the fire station for dinner and brownie sundaes.  And if he wasn't spoiled enough, we even got to go for a ride in the fire truck, which despite what you may think doesn't happen very often and is quite a treat for these daddy-loving boys. 

It was a happy birthday indeed for this little man.

Highlights of 2008 - organized sports

Corbin got to play baseball and soccer for the first time this year. It was an interesting experience. He did "Smart Start Baseball", which is one of those things where they don't really divide up into teams - it's more of a parent/child learning thing. Too bad they had the parents pitch for part of it, poor Corbin never had a chance with me getting like 1 out of every five in any remotely close area for him to even try and hit. He had fun, but I don't think he is going to be a baseball kid. Too boring for him (good for me, because I tend to agree.) The funnest part was seeing the kids running randomly around after they hit the ball, trying to figure out what this whole thing was about.

Soccer was the usual 5 year old bunch ball. For monst kids it was their first year playing, but a few of them were quite natural. Corbin was a little timid and too nice to take the ball away from anyone - even the other team. He was really good at letting everyone have a turn. he told me he did like practices way more than the games though. In his words, "why would anyway want to just fight over one ball the whole time?" In practice they all got their own ball and they played all different kinds of fun games. He had a great coach - Thanks Jennifer! We had fun watching him. Who knows if he will do it again next year, but you have to let them try it all, right?