After the variable weather that characterized our spring season, it finally looked like it was going to really become spring-like. Our flowers continued to bloom and the crabapple tree on our lawn seemed to put on a good show this year.
Unfortunately, after many days of >30C weather, we got this...
May 15th should be nice, right?
We had cancelled our hike with friends along the Bruce Trail last week because the weather was uncomfortably hot... this week we cancelled because it was uncomfortably cold and snowing.
Things soon turned the corner and jumped into summer after that last gasp of winter. On the May long weekend, Wendy's mom took us to Stratford for our annual trip to a musical. This year was "A Chorus Line". I think Parker mostly appreciated the traditional Tim Horton's stop on the way there and the Dairy Queen stop on the way back!
Parker began his umpiring job for the Dundas Little League by jumping straight in and working his first time ever as plate umpire. He did well, but was nervous about making mistakes. He looked huge in comparison to all the players, although that might partly be due to his equipment.
He also umpired a T-ball game and it was a lot less stressful for him.
Our garden really took off with the warm weather and we were able to harvest a good amount of rhubarb. The kids won't touch the stuff, so Wendy and I will have the eat the rhubarb crisp that I made.
Maddy certainly is enjoying the nice weather. Here she is in a hammock at Mel and Murray's place. She was mostly dry after a few dunks in the pool, and just wanted to rest after all that exercise.
After doing one shift as an umpire in the field, Parker graduated to being the home plate umpire at a T-ball game on his second shift. Even better, he did it solo!
Parker's first solo home base umpiring shift
Although a bad photo, this was as good as I could get in the sharply setting sun. Parker was supposed to be an assistant for a game on Tuesday this week, but the game was cancelled due to bad weather. The teams rescheduled to Thursday at a different field, and Parker was the only one available. He did very well on his own!
On Sunday we had a drop-in party for the three boys - Adam, Stanley, and Parker - to celebrate the end of the school year. Parker graduates from grade 8 on Tuesday this coming week (going to high school in the fall), Stanley heads back to China for the summer on Wednesday (going into grade 12 in the fall), and Adam graduates from high school on Thursday (going to Mohawk College in the fall). Such a busy week, it was best to get the real party out of the way early.
After Adam had constantly bugged us about getting him a good camera (he got the taste for quality cameras from borrowing Eric's), he was comforted by opening up a box with a Canon Rebel T3i (18 megapixel) SLR kit with a good zoom lens. His parents know him well.
Adam happy to receive a real camera
He was holding back on giving a kiss to mom, but eventually relented! I think I missed catching the kiss by about 0.3 seconds (it probably lasted only 0.2 seconds...). Maybe I'll borrow his camera to get better pictures next time.
'Kiss me right here, or no driving my car...'
Stanley also got into the festivities and was presented with a few things that he can take home to share with his parents.
Stanley at the party
Parker got a watch from us as well (so he could wear it umpiring) and his aunt and uncle got his a game controller. One of our guests (a pretty young lady also graduating from grade 12 this year) asked Parker if he coloured his hair - she hadn't seen him for a while. I had to break it to her that, actually, he just washed it.
Check out Parker's hair - it is clean!
There were a number of other fantastic gifts that the kids received for their special graduations, but they can let you know after they send out their thank you's.
This last bit is mostly for my mom - I have had trouble explaining what kinds of plants are growing in our garden, so I thought I would just take a quick visual tour so she could see it. Beware - boring 6 minutes of video if you are not into gardening...
Parker umpired his first game today! He was a line umpire for a major T-ball game.
Starting his very first game
Wendy and I sat on our lawn chairs just like we have done since he was 5 years old. The memories of those years came flooding back as we slapped at the mosquitos, brushed off the caterpillars, and braced against the cold wind. The only thing missing was a rain storm!
It was a little surprising to us how many people we actually knew at the park. I guess many in our baseball/hockey community have even younger kids than we do. Sitting there, it felt vaguely like we were a set of grandparents lounging on our chairs watching someone else's kids play ball. Maybe we'll get really good at the grandparent thing before we have to do it for real!
Not sure, but it looked to us like Parker had just a little bit of fun - you can decide for yourselves.
After a long day on the job
23 May 2014
Adam was the lucky recipient of a scholarship from Hamilton Health Sciences Board of Directors ($1,000 for college) and yesterday was the presentation ceremony. This "leaders of tomorrow" scholarship was available to dependents of HHS employees. 20 kids received the scholarship this year.
All the 2014 winners
Here is a short video of the presentation.
When Adam got home, he actually consented to having a photo taken of him with the certificate (the cheque had already gone into his wallet).
As soon as we arrived home, I made a quick dinner then took Parker to his on-field umpire training session. Here he is with the other freshly minted umpires!
The umpires of Dundas
For those following, Wendy had surgery today and all went well! We arrived home about 7pm and she is resting comfortably.
Parker is finally doing something new, so now we can have a post about him!
Parker "aged out" of the Dundas Little League last summer and wasn't interested in continuing to play baseball in the next league up. He decided in the fall that he wanted to try umpiring.
Parker with his new official Official hat.
Last night, Parker went to his first umpire training clinic, and has at least one more before the season opens and playing starts on a weekly basis.
He has nothing else to do this summer, so we are very happy to see that he has finally secured something to do. We don't expect that the extra spending money will present a problem for Parker...
Parker received a hat, a shirt, and a rule book to study
