Evan's an Oriole!

We're very excited for Fall.  We've got football, cooler weather, apples and pumpkins, Halloween, and T-Ball season!  Yep. that's right: Evan has joined his first organized sports team.  The Northside Orioles (3-6yo) had their very first practice last night, and Evan was incredibly excited.  Mike volunteered to help coach, and was even more excited that Evan's an Oriole - Mike was an Oriole when he played "little" ball too! 

Who knew when we took this photo in May that Evan would soon BE an Oriole?!?

They started with some stretches, and running the bases.

Then there was a detailed but VERY important discussion, about where home plate is.  And which base we run to first ("that one"), and next ("over there") and next (we caught on to the pattern... "third"), and last ("fourth" No! Home plate!)

Next was a big discussion of how to hold a glove, on which hand, and how to throw.  They buddied up for throwing drills, and were able to work up to a respectable distance between lines of kids.  Evan was tossing some pretty well!

Lastly it was time to practice batting - everyone's favorite!  Evan listened well to Coach Pat, took two swings, then hit it nice and solid.

Time to run the bases... and guess who's not too far behind?  Drew wanted so badly to play with the big kids and was not at all pleased to be strapped firmly in the stroller most of the time.  

At the end of practice, an incredibly dirty, sweaty, and tired Evan declared T-Ball "very good."  He was a little disappointed that T-Ball doesn't just mean "run around a lot, hit the ball a lot, and have a party at the end."  The taking turns hitting, standing still while listening to Coach, practice drills, and lack of uniforms (yet) was tough for all the kids.  It didn't help anyone that it was 92 with 99% humidity either.  However, he's already talking about next week's practice, and the first game is in a couple weeks.  This is going to be fun!