One Short Day in the Emerald City

My friend, Kim, and I celebrated our birthdays (a little late) with a trip to Nashville to see one of my most favorite plays - WICKED!!! We had a great time talking, eating and watching this amazing play. Thanks to Damon for the tickets! You are a great husband! This was Kim's first time to see it and my second. It was so good again. Laura Beth wants to go with me next time to see it. After this production, Kim and I are trying to work something out to take our girls to see Little House on the Prairie coming to Nashville.

True Blue Fans

A true fan buys an Atlanta Braves blue snow cone so at ALL times, they can be sporting their teams colors . . . . .

Wouldn't you want them cheering for you?

We also introduced them to the rally cap. Carter thought this was great. Sunday he wanted to pull out the rally cap in the 3rd inning because we were behind 0-1!!!! We did pull them back out towards the end of the game but they did not help.

While We Were There . . .

While in Atlanta for one game, we might as well stay for another one since we drove all that way. We were treated to a MAJOR surprise when the kids (and parents) got to walk to the warning track all around the field before the game. Carter thought this was the best thing EVER!! He got very close to the dugout where he saw thousands of batting gloves (one of his favorite baseball supplies) as well as Glen Hubbard (the Braves first base coach - also seen in the top right picture). Carter peeks in the dug out and said, "Hey, Hubbard!" to which Glen was most gracious and said, "Hey, kid!" We loved looking for us on the big screen and stopping for pictures at important places. Carter even climbed the outfield wall to "catch a fly ball just like the big buys." What a time we had! We were able to get up close and personal to a few of our favorite players and even met one of the Reds' players - Wladmir Balentine. He was so kind to throw LB a ball and then came over to give both kids autographs. Carter got a ball from "Kitchen" (real name is Kenshin) Kawakami - a new pitcher for the Braves this year Carter has favorites on every baseball team with the exception of maybe two. With the Reds he has 3 or 4 favorite players so his sign for Sunday's game was "6 year old divided" and he listed the players he liked for both teams.
Then to continue the birthday celebration, he asked for a homerun. David Ross delivered that one for him with a monster shot! Carter was so excited!

Not to be out done, LB made her sign and cheered for her team just as loudly as Carter did! We got an extra bonus with 3 innings of free baseball that day! It was a long day but we all enjoyed the cool breeze that blew our way and just being together as a family.

A Braves' Birthday

Labor Day weekend we took off to Atlanta to celebrate being Braves' fans and to celebrate Carter's birthday. We were so excited when my cousin Katie and her family met us at the game Saturday night. My kids loved being with their cousin Avery and, I believe, she loved being with them as well.One of the biggest events (for us) was getting the kids' pictures with Homer the Brave. We have been scared of Homer in the past so this was a HUGE step for us and I love how these pictures turned out. Of course, we were there when the gates opened to watch batting practice from the outfield. We also played around at Tooner Field where our worlds of Star Wars and baseball collided for awhile. We took our seats two rows from the field. Roger McDowell, the Braves' pitching coach, walked by and Carter showed him the sign he made.
Roger read it and told Carter, "We will try our best, kid!" The people in front of us were amazing and told the bat boy it was Carter's birthday weekend. So, in the 5th inning, Carter got a foul ball for his birthday! He was so excited!

Carter did not a get a win but we got a lot more than that! What a great way to celebrate our 6 year old!

My 6 Year Old

We have enjoyed celebrating Carter the last few weeks - yes, I said weeks. His birthday was August 26 and we celebrated with baseball cupcakes to school and supper at Rice (Los Portales) in town. It was a great day. I got out of planning a party when we struck a deal with the boy. He had been asking if we were going to go to a baseball game this summer and we told him at the time we probably would not be able to. Once we saw we could, we told him we would go to a Braves game for his birthday party. Of course he jumped all over that, so no official party was planned. We did grill out and got an ice cream cake the weekend after his birthday. We loved celebrating our very special Carter and were very blessed to have both sets of grandparents there to celebrate with us.

Granddad, Carter and Gran Willis
Mama C Welch and Carter

Opening presents

Happy Birthday, Carter!

We love you!