I Have a 1st Grader!

Yesterday was John's first day of 1st Grade. This is also his first time of going to school for a full day. We had met his teacher last week and got to see his classroom, and he was very impressed to have his own desk instead of a shared table, like he had in kindergarten. His best friend from last year is in his class again, which we were hoping for. So far, so good. He loves his teacher and is excited that he gets to eat lunch at school and go to recess twice a day. The only issue we had, is that the new shoes I got him gave him a blister the first day he wore them. I guess we should have broken them in, instead of waiting for the first day of school to wear them. He ended up in his ugly, worn out shoes from last year today. Oh, and the bus coming home was 45 minutes late! He didn't care, but it definitely had me worried. I assumed on the 1st day it would be a little late, but 45 minutes was crazy. Plus, it was raining, and I didn't want to walk back home and get the car for fear that's when the bus would come and we'd miss him! It turns out that because of the construction going on at the school, they had the buses line up differently, which resulted in all of the buses getting stuck and being unable to turn and leave the driveway. Ugh!

1, 2, 3 Strikes You're Out...

The kids and I had another Cards game this week. Luckily, we had much better weather than the last game. We were supposed to get down to the stadium at 4:45 to see batting practice and meet one of the players, Skip Schumaker, who I have a huge crush on, um, I mean John's favorite player. My friend Melissa works for the Cardinals and had set it up so we could go on the field and meet Skip. Unfortunately, we relied on public transportation to get to the stadium and ended up missing Cards BP. When we got there, we went down on the field and Melissa ran over to the dugout to see if she could catch Skip before he went to the locker room. He was already gone, but he had left a bat, signed for John, for her to give to him. I couldn't believe he did that! My crush is a good man. I really want to keep it for myself. It's a used bat...so holding it would be like holding his hand, right?

After getting the bat we watched a little bit of the Brewer's batting practice and a ball rolled over to us, which John quickly grabbed and claimed as his own. I was holding the bat, so I was ok with that. After getting our picture taken on the field, Melissa took us around the stadium, around the offices, up to the control room, and we ran into Kerry Robinson, who used to play for the cardinals and now works in their offices. John had him sign the BP ball, even though Melissa said it was a little weird having a co-worker autograph things. But hey, the guy offered!

Next we went to the Kids Club area where Melissa ran into another co-worker who hooked the kids up with throwing a few balls in the pitching speed cages. Then she came back over with Kids Club bags and necklaces for all 3.

We got to have dinner in the Red Bird Club. Bacon wrapped hot dog for me and pretzel covered hotdogs for the kids. Delicious!!

After all that excitement, Melissa had to leave, and left us to find our seats for the game. We didn't stay for the whole thing since it was a night game and we had been down there for so long already. We ate some peanuts and watched 6 innings or so. The kids were beat by the time we got home. It was such an awesome day, and I am so thankful to Melissa for making it such a neat experience for the kids. She and I are going to a game together at the end of the month and I am teasing her that she needs to top this trip to the game. :)

Oh, and we didn't win. Boo!