kicking off fall activities

now that we know our teachers and the end of summer is becoming very real, we get back into our activity schedule too with the first soccer practice of the season. thankfully the rain never came.

this is mason's first year on the larger field and he is pretty excited about it.

even better was that mason knew four of the kids on his team. looking forward to a great season! love.

football hall of fame grande parade

it is early. we are tired. but it is parade time! the boys and i loaded up in the backseat and we were off. we did stop to pick up some "peace, love and little donuts" on our way. we saw these donuts for the first time at the parade a few years ago and only got around to trying them in the past year. yum, yum!

before the attack.

happy, happy boys. (notice the "manning" jersey on the guy behind manning.)

each year we are a little smarter. this year we brought a football to throw in the street while we waited. mason was really excited to play catch with big pop - and maddux too.

mason outlasted big pop and maddux so daddy stepped in to relive them.

madelyn had her own way of staying busy.

manning too. this boy loves his raisins.

charger colors represented.

once the sun came over the roofs, we were blinded! that is one tip we forgot - do not cross the street so that you don't have to look into the sun. oh well.

mason finally took a break and manning saw an opportunity.

our animal lover was very excited for the ponies.

grandma is not a fan after waiting on him when she was a teenager.

maddux had to take a break from the super long parade.

excited for the angry birds.

kung fu panda! (we have never seen the movie but they love the idea of a kung fu panda.)

the highlight (for both of them, i think) every year.

it was hot this year for this long parade. we were all ready to go home and cool off. while grandma loved amish country, i think this was pretty special for big pop. love.

take mason out to the ball game

mason chose to join his baseball team at a pittsburgh pirates baseball game where they were going to get to walk out on the field! it just so happened that the trip was planned for his birthday. we were actually planning a trip to pittsburgh for last weekend but pushed it back when this opportunity came up.

espn bought the rights to the game which caused it to be pushed back from noon to 8pm! yeah, mason and daddy were going to be the only ones going to the game (and the tickets weren't exactly a bargain). they had to show up by like 5:15pm so a quick change after arriving at the hotel and they were on their way (they were able to walk to the field from the hotel).

just before crossing the river to the field.

and the rest of the kids and i were stuck at the hotel fairly early in the evening. the plan was to let them watch some cable (since we don't have it at home), but they didn't offer disney junior and everything else (the few options) were already into age inappropriate programming. but at least we had our swimsuits and could go to the pool. oh, oops. i didn't (and she didn't) pack madelyn's. sigh. there was a lot of crying about this - even the boy who didn't want to go to the pool was suddenly devastated to learn that it wasn't an option. 

our view.

 so we went in search of our own fun.

i tried to get the kids to go with me to explore some sort of street fair (with a large concert stage) outside the hotel but two of the three were terrified of the crowd. they wouldn't even let us walk to look for a restaurant. (i think the problem was i only had two hands and three kids and the crowd was very thick.) so we went back to order dinner instead.

i found an amazing deal on pizza so we got bread sticks that we wouldn't normally order. i was planning on tipping the delivery guy by adding onto my credit card total, but he didn't speak english and there was nothing for me to sign. i seriously felt awful watching him leave without a tip! i had no cash. the pizza was delicious.

train spotting. they asked for the picture to show mason.

we took another spin through the hotel (turns out we weren't able to even find the pool) to try and burn off some of the pizza energy before taking long baths and getting ready for bed. we ended up getting really into the food network shows (madelyn especially!) until they all fell asleep.

meanwhile at the pirates game, mason and daddy were having fun on the field. matt said that the heat and waiting (their team was over an hour earlier than they actually needed to report to the field) really got to mason. they were brought out on the warning track and were able to snap a few pictures.

found the padre's score

i started to get a little nervous towards midnight when they still weren't back and had a decent walk through an unfamiliar city. i was so happy to see them arrive back safely! the birthday boy had a wonderful time and was very excited about all of the 'gifts' he received at the game - a pirates jersey and a hat. not to mention some dippin' dots. happy birthday, sweet boy. love.