the sun has arrived.

I dare say summer has arrived and the sun is here to stay.

How do I know?

1) Baseball.

Carly's interest in baseball was increasing, so we headed to the store and got her a $5 plastic mitt and ball. She is a pretty good catcher (though, the velcro helps) and has quite the arm when she uses the right form. Chris is teaching her to step when she throws, but it usually comes out as a giant stomp followed a few seconds later with a throw. It sure is cute.

But most impressive? Our two and half year old can hit the ball out of the air when Chris pitches it too her. And when she connects, she connects. We might just skip t-ball and go straight to the Majors.

[that blur is the ball she just hit, pink dress and crazy hair and all.]

The girl definitely caught her daddy's passion for the game. It took forever to get her inside, and even then we had to bribe her with fruit snacks if she came in to eat dinner.

[play ball.]

2) Picnics on campus and . . . more baseball.

On Friday we headed up to meet Chris on campus and go to a baseball game that we thought started at noon. Well, upon arrival we learned that it started at 3. We were bummed, and planned to play for a bit and have a picnic, then head home in time for nap time. Well, I was very disappointed because it took me 2 HOURS to get everything prepped and everyone out the door for our little adventure. And I happen to love baseball games. So I wasn't willing to give up to easily.

Carly and Chris walked the stepping stone path about 600 times, and I fed John and came up with a plan. We would play a little longer and eat our picnic, then we'd walk up to the Student Union and have MSU Dairy ice cream, then we'd walk back down and go to the game. Carly would skip her nap, but go to bed nice and early. We'd have a wonderful day. 

And that is exactly what we did.

["stepping on the stones". Carly's day would have been complete even if this was our only activity.]

[I'm a chocolate person, but MSU makes a mean strawberry ice cream.]

[Carly and daddy checking out "the water mountains."]

After a 3-hour delay with three kids under 3, we finally made it to the ball park. It really is the best place to be during the summer. I'm sad this was one of their last games. We'll have to make it to a bunch next year. It was cheap and very family friendly.

[take me out to the ball game.]

Both babies ate and did really well, though they both managed to soil their diapers while we were there. Carly was very interested . . . for a whole inning. After that she spent a lot of time climbing up and down stairs and socializing with other kids. We made it to the 6th inning before we could feel everyone coming apart at the seams, and made our escape.

[Sparty boys.]

[Carly reaching her energy limit.]

It was a really wonderful afternoon. Relaxing? No. Exhausting? Yes. But we did it. And it was fun. And that means so much these days.

We got home and it took Carly all of 15 minutes to look like this:

3) Swimming!

Michigan finally got with the program and decided to heat up. Our pool opened, and yesterday we headed for a swim (along with the rest of our neighborhood).

[ready to jump in with daddy.]

[snoozing Q.]

But, the sun hasn't been very hot very long, so the warm day didn't make for warm water. It was so cold. I could barely stand to put my feet in. But Carly really wanted to swim, so her good daddy jumped right in, and helped her swim back and forth across the pool.

[staying warm with my snuggle bug.]

Carly came out with blue lips, shivering uncontrollably. We wrapped her tight and she got to snack on a Rice  Krispy Treat, and we had to talk her out of going back in.

[little miss blue lips.]

[John wasn't very happy when he found out we weren't, in fact, going fishing.]

[pool babes.]

It was just about the most perfect summer weekend you could ask for.

Yay for the sun.

xoxo.