Backyard Baseball

Ever wonder what I do with all the batting practice balls my kids and I collect? Well, I turn some of them into Cut-Balls. A long time ago when I was in elementary school, some kids made these so that we could play with them at recess (they wouldn't let us play with hard balls). My brothers and I kept playing this new Cut-Ball game all the way through High School. Scott and I have even introduced our PE classes to the game. To make a Cut-Ball, you cut the stitching to and take the cover off. Then you stuff a sock or something soft inside an sow it back together. It makes the ball squishy.

These Cut-Balls are also great for practicing catch without the fear of getting hurt - pretty important for preschoolers. And they make a great ball for playing in the backyard.

Now we can play baseball almost anywhere -- and we have. Below are some pictures of my kids (mainly Tommy) playing baseball in our backyard and in various places across the country.

Here is Tommy pitching to his friend Noah in Colorado.In the picture above Stacy (Tommy's 2nd cousin once removed) pitching to Tommy in Steve and Dee Dee's back yard. Dee Dee is Kim's 1st cousin once removed. Below is Tommy pitching to Samantha. Samantha is Tommy's 3rd cousin and Stacy's niece. It is all very confusing, but everyone got along great even if they didn't know how they were related.Tommy played ball with his first cousin JD in Atlanta. First they played in JD's front yard . . .and then Tommy got a game going at JD's Church.
Tommy loves to have people play baseball with him. He even got his Nana to play with him in our backyard.

Now Tommy likes to dress up when he plays.

Here is Tommy in action.

Tommy even wanted to play baseball in the snow.

The Traveling Hat

Last Spring I bought a hat for my youngest son Casey. When I saw the cartoon Little Bill, I thought it was so cool that his hat had a "B" on it for Bill. Well his shirt has a "B" on it in the picture to the left but trust me, his hat had a "B" as well, I just couldn't find a picture of it online. A couple years ago I bought my son Tommy a Texas Rangers hat because it had a "T" for Tommy. Tommy always referred to it as his "T" hat. So since my wife is a Cubs fan a Cubs hat made sense for Casey.

Here is a picture of Casey wearing the hat out on our patio. But Casey doesn't really like to wear hats, so his "C" hat ended up on the ground shortly after I put it on his head.

However my $5.99 has not gone to waste. Other people have taken to wearing Casey's hat, and on the trip that my family and I took last summer, the hat ended up on several kids' heads in several interesting places. Here are a few of them.

Casey's sister Alina decided she wanted to wear Casey's hat to the Cubs game. We saw the Cubs play the Reds at Wrigley field in early July. Here is Alina in Casey's hat.

Casey's new friend David wore the hat on a trip to Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo. David is the firstborn son of Nick and Rachel. Kim used to baby sit for Nick when he was little, now Kim and Nick have kids about the same age. Here is David in Casey's hat.

We visited Casey's other cousins in Atlanta on our trip. Most of Casey's cousins live close to us in California. J.D. is the oldest of Casey's cousins and he took a liking to Casey's hat as well. Here is J.D. sporting Casey's hat at the top of Stone Mountian in Georgia.

Casey's brother Tommy loves to wear hats. He managed to find Casey's hat when we made our final site seeing stop of our summer road trip. Here is Tommy wearing Casey's hat at the rim of the Grand Canyon.