We Heart Little League

Is this not the cutest little baseball player you have ever seen?

I'm quite sure he is the cutest one I have seen. 

Oh, the emotions that accompany these photos for me. 

 

This one was on opening day, after the opening day parade. I was so proud of him. 

It was freezing outside, and we had to walk for multiple blocks, but he did it. With his team. 

He was part of the group. I cried. Not going to lie. 

For those of you who know us well, you know about our little Ronan.
I won't post the details on here, but essentially- his current listening/understanding and patience/turn taking skills were not quite where they needed to be in order for him to properly enjoy being on a regular sports team right now.

Enter Little League. An amazing organization.
Little League has Challenger teams set up throughout the country for children with any delays, handicaps or other special concerns to be able to enjoy America's pastime!

We are a sports loving family. Noah loves them all. We have three boys.
Playing team sports is something we strongly feel is an important
 life skills builder for anyone involved. And, it can be so much fun on top of that!
Sports are an onion of life skills.
Ronan may not quite be ready to reach the inner levels of that onion quite yet;
but we wanted to make sure that he got the opportunity to get whatever he could.
We wanted to make sure that he at least got the opportunity to play,
to have a uniform, to be part of a team.
Living overseas, children with any delays and differences can be a gamble.
You have to find just the right fit. We didn't know what the opportunities for sports would be once we moved back overseas; so we made sure to jump on the opportunity when we had it!

They were so fantastic. The volunteer coaches, and all the Majors teams who
came to play an extra game every week,
rotating through and giving our little ones a real experience!
Little League took such good care of us all.
They had the same uniforms and equipment, same fields as the other teams.
Just had a little more support.
It was so much more emotional of a season than I thought it would be for me.
In a great way. Of course there were hard moments of frustration, but I cried nearly every week watching these little guys do their best and be cheered on by everyone!
We are so grateful for the experience, and would recommend becoming involved to anyone.
Ronan still has a long way to go before he's a Major Leaguer,
but he really did grow and learn so much!

Also on opening day, these pics with our amazing little neighbor, and fellow Little Leaguer: Mr. J. 

Boy we love this kid. (And the rest of his family)! But I can honestly say, that little J was one of the only non-adult people in the last few years to make a true genuine connection with Ronan. There have been some wonderful people who also have, but mostly adults or his brothers. We are still really working on the making new friends things with others. J is a bit older than him, but he was so great with him! Ronan loved him, and really enjoyed being around him. That is huge praise indeed. 

J was in the Majors, and was so sweet to want to help him. We had to get a picture of our little baseball buddies. Of course my luck,  Ronan wasn't in the cooperating mood for a great picture, but still a good representation of them. Thanks for being so wonderful M family!!! 

Ronan preferred to sit on the bleachers than in the dugout sometimes during the games
 (or play in the grass behind them). But, who can blame him?
Sitting on the top of the bleachers is so fun for a little kid!

 Ronan and Coach Joe.

He was awesome! So good with the kids!

 Warming up

 Playing in the outfield

Patiently waiting his turn to hit. This was rare.

 Mostly not-so patiently waiting to hit was his style.

This is why we wanted him to play though. 

Team Sports are awesome for teaching important life skills!!

Classic dugout picture. Although, I don't think he was as much concerned with the play as how hot it was! Still cute though. He looks so concerned! 

Just look at those bright, happy eyes!

Hitting was definitely his favorite part. Such a big boy!

This Little League season had it's share of ups and downs. He had his moments where he would freak out with frustration for a minute, but then he would have awesome moments of sheer joy and being proud of himself, while also having so much fun! It was a little hard to be totally sure, as he still is not the biggest conversationalist; but I'm pretty sure he "got it". The basic idea anyway, of being on a team. He was excited, and proud of himself. He knew that he got to wear a uniform, and that he was matching everyone else. He learned that he needed to take turns, and the different parts of the game. He did understand too I think, that this was "his thing". Which made me happy for him. It was worth all of the work and effort, for him to know that it was his turn. We had been going to Porter's games all year, and this time it was for him. Even if he couldn't express it, or fully understand it; I know it meant a lot to him to get to have the experience. He got to be on a real team, and play a real team sport.

Can't wait till next time! 

Tornados Spring Soccer

 This spring Porter finally got to play on his first official soccer team.

The Tornados! 

(As I had missed the deadline for signing him up in the fall by a couple of days. boo.)

They had a great season, had lots of fun and had seriously one of the nicest coaches of all time!

Coach Steve was simply awesome!

We have now been blessed to have parents on both his basketball team and soccer team this year
that were amazing photographers, and shared with us!
Now, a sampling of his season...

Porter in his Tornados uniform

This darling team. A great group of kiddos. (and his buddy Matthew photoshopped in)

Some action shots

I was proud of myself for actually getting him kicking in this one!

 Coach Steve presenting him with his team T-shirt and trophy

two trophies this year. the kid is on fire!

(now this Trophy wasn't for the championship, but it did have his name on it, 

so it was a close race for which one was his favorite!) 

His cheering section! 

I think my favorite part of this year, was watching Miles watching his brother!

He loved to sit in "his chair", and be just like Daddy! 

He would clap and shout along. It was so cute. Love these brothers!

And yes folks, this next one is foggy- the humidity on the camera lens. yuck. 

still a cute picture though.

Great season buddy

Go Tornados!

10 Amazing Years...and we FINALLY made it Serendipity!

 10 Amazing Years!! Yes. 

It is still blowing my mind. How did time go so fast? 

In any case, we FINALLY made it to Serendipity!

(more on that in a minute)

As I attempt to document the most important things of the last Spring and Summer,

I thought the perfect place to start was with one of the most important things that happened.

We celebrated our 10 Year Anniversary!!

In perfect fashion, 10 years of creating a full, happy, wonderful and busy 

life and obligations caught up with me, 

and I ran out of blogging steam for a while, right before our anniversary.

That doesn't mean, however, that it was any less awesome, romantic, meaningful and terrific for us!

We had a wonderful anniversary! 

To be honest, our actual 10 year anniversary probably couldn't have

 fallen at a worse time logisitically for taking a big anniversary trip. 

 We happen to be in the USA for training at FSI- which basically means it is impossible to take a big vacation. They had Noah's training schedule packed pretty tight. The "ten years ago me" would have been pretty sad about the prospect of not doing some big trip ON our anniversary. I'm into dates like that. However, the "ten years in me" -just happen to have 10 amazing years of  10th Anniversary Worthy Trips already under her belt! Seriously. We have been so incredibly blessed to have seen so many places and things that most people will never see one of in their lifetime. It really puts things into perspective. We love our life so much, and count our blessings every single day.  So instead we made it count where we could, and have opted to do a beautiful beach vacation after the fact, (coming up here soon, hopefully)! Yay for being near some beautiful islands! 

Also logistically- our anniversary was on a Thursday. Boo. 

Being that our primary source of babysitters were teenage girls in DC, 

that wasn't the best option for the  big date night. 

So Thursday night, after flowers and chocolates- we took the kids to Panda Express! 

The same restaurant that we went to back on our first date all those years ago. 

We told them our love story, (which I'm sure they enjoyed oh so much:) and reminisced about our wedding day!   There is nothing better to remind you how far you've come and what you've accomplished in ten years than wrangling 3 rambunctious boys while out to eat!

 We have something tangible to show for our time and effort: chaos and laughter!

We also made sure to document the actual day- 

 Photos courtesy of Porter

The bi-product of 10 terrific years-

3 handsome boys to share our dinner (and life) with

 

 

 the flowers and chocolates; 

he's a keeper with my traditional purple tulips (just like my wedding bouquet)

and I made him a candy gram like I did when we were dating. yup. I'm that sappy.

Now for the BIG date.

We went to Serendipity 3!!!

There's a story here too, 10 years in the making. 

The first time Noah and I spent any time together was at his apartment in a big group, as I had tagged along on a whim with a friend who was already friends with all of "the guys". 

That was a fun day, but no big deal; and I left right after that for a 

weeklong trip to NYC to visit my roommate who had just moved there. 

As the movie Serendipity had just come out, we of course made sure to join the other throngs of tourists to get ourselves some Frozen Hot Chocolate at the real Serendipity. I picked myself up a cool little 

T-shirt, complete with bedazzled "Serendipity" across the front. It was a cute shirt. Seriously. 

Well, while I was gone on my trip, Noah apparently set to work devising a plan to ask me out the minute I got home. When he finally got ahold of me, plans were made to go out that very evening! 

I had just returned, and was wearing my Serendipity shirt.

Now, I'm a Colorado girl- so to get straight to my heart he took me to a rodeo. He's a keeper. 

Since this was a casual event, I decided no need to change out of my cute t-shirt.

Thus, I was wearing my Serendipity shirt on our first date!!

He held my hand that night, and we've never looked back. Been together ever since!

It was in every sense of the word, Serendipity. 

Fast forward through the years...

we have had friends living in or near NYC for much of our married life,

 and given family circumstances that landed us on the East Coast a decent amount-

 we have been to NYC numerous times throughout the years to visit them.

Given the sentimental connection to our first date, we have tried to go together. 

Boy have we tried. We have attempted on numerous occasions, and even tried to make reservations-

but we have always been foiled by hours long wait times, 

and we either had something like tickets to a show, 

or just decided we didn't want to stand outside for 4 hours. boo. 

So ten years in, we had still never been together. 

As we searched for a place to go for our actual date,

 sans kiddos to celebrate on Friday night,

(I didn't want to go just anywhere. Sure, you go to a nice restaurant, 

but we've been to nice restaurants. It needed to be a little more special.)

SO

we discovered that there was a Serendipity that had recently opened in Georgetown! 

I was thrilled!

Of course it wasn't the one in NYC, but it was still Serendipity!

Given our tight schedule for the time being, we knew we needed to take what we could get! 

drumroll please....

so finally after 10 years of trying, we finally got to get nice and cozy, 

and share a Frozen Hot Chocolate!

Also, as luck would have it, 

 the technical name of the restaurant is

Serendipity 3- based on a story of 3 princes. 

As you might know, 10 years of marriage has blessed us with 3 handsome princes of our own!

Loved it. 

Here is a quick pic of me in front of the story about the princes.

 What an amazing 10 years we have had together. It has been so wonderful, and full of spunk and adventure! I never would have dreamed it could be so incredible, and through every challenge and triumph we have gone at it together! 

Thank you Noah, for being the best partner a girl could ever have in life!

I love you more every day, and can't wait to spend the rest of eternity together!

Happy 10th Anniversary to us!!!

Who needs "Back to School"? I'm going "Back to Spring"!

As promised earlier, there were some pretty big things that I still needed to blog about from this last few months. Before Back to School officially hits, I decided that I want to get on those. I'm hoping to get caught up right away, so we can officially move on with the new school year! Here we go...

One Week Down

Ok, here it is. I am back at it. Sorry for the radio silence! Getting ready to move, keeping the kids busy with sports, school, doctor's visits and just the plain old fact that America makes me feel so "busy" all the time; all helped in making me just give up for a while. However, I do have a list of things to catch up on, and I reserve the right to go back in time here shortly. 

The trip here was overall terrific, (another post of it's own here soon), and we arrived safely and happily in one piece- minus a small air-sickness incident at the airport on arrival; complete with a quick trip to the quarantine/health unit at Narita Airport. boo. After Porter was cleared to leave though, we excitedly headed home and enjoyed the drive into downtown and across the Rainbow Bridge (of Cars 2 Fame)! The boys were very excited about that! 

It's funny how this all-consuming moving around the world thing works. You would think that arriving in the new country would completely be the most stressful part of the whole thing. And for many people, I think it is. Now, I'm not saying I have never had those "what the heck did I just get myself into" moments, and granted...we've had some pretty great  postings so far...but anyway, for me, when we actually arrive and I get a few days to get settled I feel so free for a while! This huge weight has been lifted. And the weeks between arrival and when we get our stuff are just a nice little vacation from things. I love it. Of course there are the basic things of paperwork at the Embassy and getting cell phones, internet, etc. But other than that- all the other things on my to-do list are for once actually done!  And, it's not yet time to put away all the rest of our boat shipment yet so I feel like I can actually relax and explore without feeling guilty that I should be doing something more productive!

So anyway, now on to the good stuff. We've been here a week now. So far, we LOVE it. Tokyo is awesome. The housing compound we are living on is terrific. It's got all the amenities we could dream of, and it is going to make living here a breeze I think! Noah has an awesome 10 minute walk to the Embassy, so the commute it fantastic! We can walk to nearly everything we could want- or just hop onto the amazing metro system! This will still take some getting used to, as we've really only done one trip- but I think it will be my new best friend. I'm just chomping at the bit to go explore all the Japanese Fabric and craft stores that I keep reading about on expat blogs! Once the boys are in school, then I'll get down to business:)

First impressions: It's hot here. yup. It's humid here. Yup. I was completely soaked through by 10:30 am yesterday morning after an hour long walk and stop at the park with the boys. That's ok though, we were prepared for it, so I'm not surprised or complaining. Just saying. Next, they have a Costco, AND the pizza and rolls taste exactly the same!! Who's got two thumbs and is THRILLED about that? Well, every member of my family, that's who! Next, lots of people ride their bikes here, which is wonderful. I've enjoyed watching them do it, however, as I've seen now at least 10 ladies riding their bike in super fancy stilettos! They have some serious skill. I'm very impressed. Now to the umbrellas. I've never seen so many umbrellas. Rain or shine. Don't leave home without it! After walking around in the heat for a few days I completely agree that a little shade goes a long way in helping to survive these summer months! Now I'm on the hunt for a good umbrella for every member of the family. They've got some really slick designs. The Bento boxes. Seriously, I am in love.  And the last first impression for this entry is how beautiful the gardens and shrines are here. We've just explored a couple so far, and I can tell that they are going to knock my socks off in the Spring! Come on Cherry Blossoms!!! 

I'll leave you with a few pictures of our first week here.  Hopefully many, many more to come as we explore this awesome place! 

Leaving the hotel for the airport in LA. The bellhop told us he'd never seen such a full luggage cart. Seriously? Well, I told him that we were actually packing "light" this time, we could have had like 8 more bags!

 This was an all day, all sunshine flight to the Land of the Rising Sun!

(and before Porter started feeling sick)

 Luckily, even with the sunshine, the boys all did get a little sleep!

Thank you to the flight attendants who let Miles sleep instead of making him sit upright!

Don't worry, he is still buckled in tight, just laying down.

 First trip to Costco!!! wooohooo!!

Porter, showing off his pizza and soda- 

and continuing his year long tradition of looking to the side.

 Still have no idea why he has taken to that?

 So happy I can still get my bagels!

Did you know they make a Toyota Noah in Japan?! 

Now there's a car for us! Too bad we didn't know about it before we bought our other car.

 Eating Frosties at Wendy's! Also, do you notice the Turkish restaurant right across the street?!

We can't wait to try it out!

 The view from our balcony! The boys LOVE exploring all the rocks and trails. This is only a portion of the grounds. They are going to be amazing in the Spring!

 The Shrine near our house. So neat. 

 And last but not least....the PARK! 

We have spent a good chunk of our time so far at our little park. 

Ronan likes checkin' out the construction worker's across the street...

 And the swings....their very, very favorite spot!

My mobile command central....

This baby has seriously saved my life during this transition! 

It is absolutely perfect for Tokyo too, with all of our walking , this baby fits great through all of the doors, sidewalks, and has proved to be Ronan's little "fortress of solitude" when he's feeling stressed. 

I don't know if we could live without it now!

 Oh, and we definitely can't forget the vending machines! They are EVERYWHERE! 

It's astounding. They are super handy though, I think we can get used to this!

 This treat looks particularly fun to me...

haven't tried it yet though. I'll let you know how it is.

We've had a terrific time here so far, and can tell that we are going to Love it here. 

We are becoming fast friends with Japan.

Better Than The Big Dance

So Porter recently finished up with his first ever season of playing basketball.

It. was. awesome. 

Red Falcons 2013

aka the best little basketball team ever!

If you know Noah well, then you know that watching college basketball

 is pretty close to one of his VERY favorite things on Earth. 

To watch our little Porter play this year, and truly learn to love the game is a dream come true!

Porter was the tallest on the team (something we guess may continue to be the case),

and thus, we've been trying hard to teach him about his important role as 

"The Big Man".  He had never really played at all before this, and now he asks every day to go outside and shoot hoops (still weeks after the season has ended). He can do it for literally hours!

It was so great to see these darling little guys kind of "learning" the game at the beginning of the season- but by the end- wow. They were playing serious, exciting REAL basketball! 

It was so, so fun to watch and it was a great season. 

 at practice, under Daddy's watchful eye

We decided to put him on a team this year with one of his very best buddies, L. 

L's Dad was the Assistant Coach, and the whole team was great. They all had such fun, and it was a terrific group of kids and parents. Definitely the kind of "family" feel we were looking for. 

One of the best parts of this season, was that one of the other kid's Dad is an actual Sports Photographer! He was so awesome, and took so many great shots throughout the season to share with everyone! It was nice to not have to worry about taking pictures too. I could just watch! 

Most of these are all courtesy of him! 

Porter and L in action together!

P is #10 (so his backside anyway)

My favorite part of the next two shots is that Porter is smiling! I love that he was having fun! 

That is what it is all about!

Our terrific coaches!

And well, not to brag or anything-

but, they pretty much ROCKED IT this season!

They surprised everyone, not having really played together or anything before; 

and came together to take it all the way!

They had a single elimination tournament after the season and they WON the entire thing!!!!

The Championship Game was SO crazy exciting! Porter had an awesome block, then a rebound on that block and I nearly cried it was so awesome! Dad was proud he got two "really good fouls". 

They gave the whole team these big trophies, and I don't think I've ever seen him smile so much! 

Way to go Red Falcons!!! 

2013 Champions

 P and L together with their trophies

I think this is now officially one of Porter's most prized possessions. 

He was SO excited. He made sure to sport his Gatorade moustache too!

We love you buddy, and are so proud of you!