Last Miracle League Game

So yesterday was Stephen's last Miracle League game of the season, since we are so close to Halloween all the kids got to dress up in their costumes to play baseball.  The Duke baseball team were our buddies for the last game.  Every year we have an annual Halloween bash at our house and this year our theme is 'Alice in Wonderland' therefore the kids are going to be the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat for Halloween. This was our trial run to make sure we have everything we need for our costumes, the kids loved getting all dressed up! 

The Cheshire Cat singing the National Anthem.

Stephen making a run for it with his buddy Tito, they managed a home run!!

Figuring out their next move

The Mad Hatter after getting his trophy for Star player

The Mad Hatter & The Cheshire Cat after a great last game! 

Whirlwind

I can't believe I am already behind, I just started last week!  Last Sunday we had a crazy fun day.  After church the kids headed to the Museum of Science downtown with Danielle for the 'Animal Grossology' exhibit, it couldn't have been more perfectly tailored for my children.  Lily Gray wants to be a veterinarian one day and loves every thing about animals, the exhibit was home to her.  She learned all about the weird gross things animals do that no one really knows about. Example, did you know that male frogs swallow the female frogs eggs just before the hatch and they belch out the babies?  Or one of Lily Gray's favorites, that a tape worm can grow up to 60 feet inside a human intestine.  Stephen loved the exhibit too, all the the animals were interactive, talking and moving all over the place, he was so entertained.  Thankfully the exhibit wasn't very crowded on a Sunday afternoon so it was easy for Stephen to move around and get right in the middle of everything.  The kids had such a great time that we had to get the 'Animal Grossology' book to learn more cool facts about animals.  

Learning about the 4 stomachs of a cow and how cows fart

One of the many talking animals, this bugs was telling us all about dung beetles

Learning why cats cough up hairball (because their digestive tract is too small for it to pass all the way through)

Playing the match the poop to the animal game, Stephen favorite! :)

All in all, the kids had a fabulous time at the museum!  After they got home we quickly bathed and feed the kids so we could head back to church to package meals for Stop Hunger Now.  The children's department was in charge of packaging the meals and we thought it would be a great family activity for everyone to participate in.   Stephen was such a trooper, having a busy day already running on little sleep, getting close to bed time and being in a crowded room with tons of kids he managed to help package hundreds of meals before giving out.  Lily Gray and one of her best buddies Avery were at the same station with Stephen. Avery's job was to poor in the rice, Stephen put the vitamins in and Lily Gray finished off the packages with a scoop of veggies. The kids did such a great job!  Lily Gray's favorite part about the whole experience was getting a hairnet, every night since then she was worn her hairnet at night while she reads! :) 

Lily Gray pouring the serving of freeze dried veggies 

Sweet Avery helping package

Team work

love.

Where did the time go?!?

Where did the time go?  In the blink of an eye my kids have completely grown up on me.  This summer was such a whirlwind of fun times at the beach, summer camps, my brother Alex's wedding, swimming pool expeditions and Stephen's surgery- it's hard to believe it has already come and gone and we are well on our way to Halloween.  In order to try and capture all of the wonderful memories my family is making I (aka Danielle) has decided to start a blog to keep track of it all.  My hope is that weekly I can update with fun things the kids and I have done, trips we have taken and funny moments we've had. This is the beginning of the crazy journey into our lives!

This week we had lots on our plate, besides the standard therapy sessions, dance lessons, piano lessons and homework pile we also had the FABULOUS Spooktacular at Marbles Museum for special needs families.  The kids had such a great time meeting everyone and seeing everything they had set up, it was so nice because it wasn't overly crowded so we could easily get Stephen around. 

The kids were greeted by stromtroopers and R2D2, Lily Gray loved it because she was R2D2 last year for Halloween.

We also got to see Darth Vader and more stromtroopers, they were so great with the kids!

Ok so this year we are having an 'Alice in Wonderland' themed Halloween party and Lily Gray is going to be the Cheshire Cat and Stephen is going to be the Mad Hatter.  This lady at Marbles painted this AMAZING Cheshire Cat face on Lily Gray in a matter of minutes- we are going to do our best to replicate this for Halloween but it was unbelievable! 

Here are both kids with their faces painted like the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat, they LOVED every minute of it.

Saturday we had Stephen's Miracle League game, this week our buddies were from Grace Christian school and Stephen had the sweetest buddies.

  

Lily Gray loves to sing the National Anthem at these games, she has become a Miracle League celebrity. 

The kids warming up on the field before the game starts.

Stephen getting a pep talk from one of his buddies.

HOMERUN!!!!!!

The whole team after a great game! What an awesome way to spend Saturday afternoons.