All-Star Baseball

I have to write down what is going on with the U-12 Simsbury All-Stars baseball team before I forget. Hopefully Quinn can read this 20 years from now and have some very fond memories!

The roster was:
Quinn, Drew, Nicholas, Joseph Gugliemino, John Flammini, Alex Pepper, Jacob Williams, Jake Godwin, Kyle Flynn, Nolay Hussey, Gianni Marchetti, Chris Paolella.

Coaches were: Mark George; Matt and Steve Paolella.

So far their record is 4-2. The regular season the record was 3-1, with the only loss being to Canton. In the playoffs, we lost to Avon in the first game at Sperry Park. This was the game that had several questionable calls by the umpires...for example, one of our kids was safe at third, until the manager talked to the umps and they changed the call to out, even though the ump admitted he couldn't see the play! That was just one of several shaky calls. The good news is that we went on to beat Avon last night to get into the D6 championship game!!

The team had great success playing at the Terryville field. We beat Torrington on Tuesday July 5 to advance to the playoffs. This was a great game for Quinn. He started off rough making errors at shortstop, and I was getting worried. In the third inning, our team was down 10 runs and we were figuring out how not to get "mercied," let alone win the game. Quinn came in as a relief pitcher with no outs in the inning. He got us out of the inning with no more runs. Then, Simsbury proceeded to score a run or two of the next couple of innings, finally blowing the game wide open in the fifth. Tri-town went through about 6 pitchers. At this point it's like 10:45 at night. I had no worries that Quinn would have the mental toughness to finish the game! Simsbury wins!

After the first playoff loss to Avon on July 8, the team went back to Terryville on Mon. July 11 to play Tri-town. We had beat this team earlier, in fact "mercied" them, but the coaches knew this game could be much closer. Drew pitched this game, and the score was 3-3 after 3 innings. "New game" for the fourth inning. Simsbury started scoring runs and went on to win the game by a pretty wide margin. Quinn closed out the game in the sixth inning. Another win!

Last night Simsbury played Avon in Harwington. Weather was sunny and breezy. The sun was bright and it looked like to was difficult for the outfielders to see. The wind was blowing out and I was very worried that Avon was going to hit some home runs pretty easily. Kyle is on the mound for Simsbury. The game starts out close...2-1 Simsbury after one inning. Quinn had an awesome lead off hit. (We are the home team, so we have last ups). Quinn is at shortstop and it seems like every ball is coming to him hard. There's at least one where he doesn't make the throw to first in time. Then, a rocket comes at Quinn and he gets a ball in the side. He says he could see the ball mark. He's doubled over for a couple of minutes, but is ok. Also, Matt is all fired up because there was a bad call in the first inning...the catcher blocked the plate and one of our runners was out. Matt goes nuts and yells at the ump. But the ump says "you can't talk to me." and Matt settles down. This may have worked in our favor later on, because later we have a runner at third base who is called out. The umps have a talk and the home plate ump overrules his call and the runner is "safe!" back at third. The score is 5-1 after 3 innings. All our players are hitting! Gianni, Chris, Jacob and Jake all hit the ball well. The score becomes ____. You can see that Kyle is getting tired, and Avon is hitting against him, so it's great we have this lead. He makes it through the fifth inning (barely). Quinn is pitching in the sixth. We get two outs, but are struggling. There's guys on base the the score is now 10-6. Coach takes Quinn out and puts him back at shortstop. Jake Godwin is in to pitch. I believe Avon gets one hit. Then, a grounder comes to Quinn and he throws it to Gianni at first to make the last out of the game!! Simsbury wins!!!

Updates

We are having a super mild winter and have yet to have any snow days. We just had 100 days of school, which means that Quinn is more than halfway through fifth grade. He is taller and broader and is playing a tough left wing on his PeeWee A hockey team. He usually plays with Noah and Ryan and has Dan, Matt, Pete Burke and Russ Stone as his coaches. The highlight of the season was the team's championship win at a January tourney in Pittsfield, MA.

If someone had told me two years ago that Matt, Quinn and I could always agree on watching HGTV, I would have been very surprised! We do seem to watch a lot of TV these days...we're still hooked on "The Middle" and have been enjoying PG-13 movies as long as they aren't packed with crude humor. We just all really enjoyed "Batman - The Dark Knight". Quinn has been reading a lot of good books at school, but I still can't get him to really read at home. We do talk about books, and he is very persuasive when trying to get me to read a book he likes.

Quinn is doing ski club for the first time, and he loves it. Of course, hockey practice is always the same night. Maybe next year will be different. The conditions have been pretty bad, but he still loves it.

For family news, Rick has a new job in NYC, and I hope he is getting used to the routine of the commute and longer hours. After a rough year, Abby is back visiting Chris on a regular basis. Mom is comfortable for now at Arden Courts. On the Heagney side, we are all in love with Finn! Barb is loving retirement and spending time with Finn. Diane is trying to figure out what to do with her sinking house and painful jaw. I hope she can figure it all out and have some peace. We all miss Aunt Cake, and Grammy, of course. This superbowl (50 at Levis Stadium), we will miss both Grammy and Mrs. Mathewson.

Summer 2013

I know summer is almost over, because I”m sitting in South Windsor watching Laura Stamm hockey camp. Saratoga was really fun this year, with our usual collection of fun visitors and some pretty good weather to go along with that. Quinn still hasn’t caught a fish much bigger than a hockey puck, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. One day, he and Noah were on the dock the entire day except the few hours they went on the Melanson’s boat.

We never had any really big winners at the races, but Matt had a few winning days. Quinn decided to bet the superfectas, because he’s looking for a big win. At least he didn’t get discouraged when his wins were few and far between. The racetrack was not too crowded...there is definitely something to making more visits in July than in August. It will be interesting to see if we get back there for one more weekend. It was kind of a special year due to the 150 anniversary of the racetrack.

Here are a few of the new things we did this year: Jackie and I took Quinn and Mei to Howe Caverns. It was a much longer ride than we thought, but the drive was beautiful and the tour was well worth it. We kept fibbing to the kids that we’d be back for the third race, but it was certainly a little later than that. We also watched a bunch of movies at the house this year, finally taking advantage of their collection. And we played several games of pool. Cindy and I did two things that were not too exciting but fun; we stayed at the house one rainy day and just hung out. And one day, we actually completed a jigsaw puzzle right at the racetrack. That could be a first for any visitor at the races! Another first: Addison and I made it to the second bridge on kayaks. And Jackie and I jogged one morning for at least four miles, turning into the neighborhoods off Meadowbrook Road. One more first: we found a great casual restaurant in Glens Falls called City Tavern that had yummy wings and dipping sauces.

We had our usual giant collection of empty wine bottles every night. I’m sure the owners were horrified with our wine by the case deliveries! But at least we weren’t driving anywhere. Apples to Apples was fun as always, as was learning to play Mexican Dominoes.

Finally, I got to revisit two places Matt and I used to go to long before Quinn was born. First, we went to a SPAC concert to see Victoria Justice and Big Time Rush. Hopefully when Quinn reads this in a few years, he’ll be laughing! Drew was not interested in the music at all, and Matt and I had to cover our ears to protect our eardrums from the screaming girl fans. The other place that I haven’t been to in years, but Matt makes an annual visit is the Ballston Spa golf club. I actually birdied hole #6, so that was a lot of fun.

Time to wrap it up and watch more skating drills.

Ottawa Trip 2013

Our trip to Ottawa was really fun! As you can see in this picture, we skated the canal, and even though I can now cross is off my bucket list, I'm excited to go back and do it again. The conditions were ok on this day...the day before was pretty snowy and windy. It was very hard to skate slowly because you had to keep pushing through the elements. I had a Beavertail and it was ok...I think the frites (fries) were a better choice. Ottawa really loves its fried food. With a more British influence than French, the food was good, but not out of this world. However, our hotel suite was fantastic with tons of space and a really nice heated pool and hot tub. I love when kids are allowed to go in the hot tub!

The Melansons were a lot of fun, and I hope they enjoyed the trip as much as we did. We had Noah in our car for quite a bit of the ride, and that seemed to work out well. Going to Ottawa took a little longer due to the snow and traffic at the end of the trip. A couple of the sights we saw going up were a giant max security prison in NY (Clinton) and lots of steel windmills in northern NY. Coming home we got a peek of some beautiful lakes and we saw the Lake Placid ski jump. Man, is that high up!

The "Sens" won the game against the Rangers, and our seats were really good despite being high up. Everyone was thrilled to see a shoot-out, and we even got to see two former "Whales" shoot. (Kryder and Miller). Ottawa won the game, so we were all happy. Nobody even seemed all that stresses when we got off the bus a couple of stops early and were stuck in the middle of nowhere with all the kids and not enough outerwear! Fortunately, another bus came by from the game and picked us up. That added to the adventurous week!

Quinn, now more than ever, is living and breathing hockey. He had a great game when we returned against Avon. He played D and had the assist to "Kenzie" with literally one second left to tie the game. I hope he does as well in the tournament next weekend.

Preparing for the Blizzard 2/8/13

It's Thursday evening and we are loading up on batteries and bottled water for Nemo, the upcoming blizzard. Hopefully we don't really get the two feet of snow they are predicting. I can't imagine how much snow there will be in Saratoga and Ottawa when we head up north in a few days. Coach Matt is working feverishly to change the hockey game times in the hopes that maybe somebody will be brave enough to show up. No word yet on the state tournament schedule, but we will hear soon. I hope we can skate down the river in Ottawa. Our hockey also looks really nice. Quinn helped us picked it out online. It's called the "Mento" and the rooms are all suites. Hope it's nice!

Quinn is having a great hockey season. The other day I asked if he would play hockey year round, and he said "Mom, I even love going to practice...even if we get yelled at and do sprints the whole time!" So much for my idea of changing sports over the seasons. I know he is still really excited for baseball, thank goodness. But lacrosse may be going bye-bye.

Quinn's favorite activity is still floor hockey, and my knees are getting pretty tired of it. I know it makes him happy, but I sometimes wish he could diversify a little bit with his free time. Mei hasn't been over to play as much lately, and I think it's because she wants to do some different things. However, I don't think I could ever get Quinn to make "shrinky-dinks" or other sorts of arts and crafts. I think even if they grow apart as day-to-day friends, they will still do very well when we take them on vacation.

He is doing well with his CCD lessons. Unfortunately he's missed a few, so I have been home-schooling him. I actually think he is getting more out of the lesson that way. I just want him to get a chance to be with his group.

He is getting so tall and grown up! Today I made him go into Dunkin Donuts to pick out his own donut. And Matt and I have been leaving him to sneak off for a quick breakfast at Avon Country Deli. Quinn is so strong, he can carry in a 40 pound bag of pellets for me.

In other family news, Kate is due to have a baby in April. Diane and Mindy are planning a shower for next week, so that will be fun.

Our friends the Anastasios are due to have Emily any day now, and I'm worried that she'll decide to arrive during the blizzard. I'm sure Kathryn has an emergency plan in place.

2012 Christmas

I am typing this on my new Google Chromebook from Santa, and I really love the keyboard. As I type in the living room, Quinn, Nicholas and Mei are sprinting past me playing "Extreme Marco Polo," a game that I don't quite understand. They close their eyes as long as they can, until they are about to wipe out or crash into something. This is day 5 of an 11 day vacation, and even though there is a mountain of games and new gifts from Santa behind me, the kids would rather run around the house! And unfortunately, our ice rink so far this year has been a bust. Thank goodness Quinn's hockey tournament begins tomorrow.

We have been pretty much eating when we are awake for the last 48 hours. Christmas eve including two feasts: one at Chris' house and one at the Marinellis, which was a really nice surprise. Christmas morning began with a 7 a.m. wake up call from Quinn and an alarm that hadn't been set properly to get up before he did! Fortunately, everything was ready...Santa had a chance to sneak in and visit, and Quinn loved his personalized hockey bag, even though it wasn't wrapped. Matt got two coach's whistles to go with his fancy coaching certificate! After the mad tear-open, we went over to Sean the Elf's for the first time for the Heagney opening and brunch. Quinn was a whirling dervish of a Santa's helper, constantly spinning and dancing around and falling on the hardwood floor. The cousins are getting really creative with their wrapping and gifts...next year, I know how to put those hockey tape roll remnants to good use! We had delicious eggs benedict, then were able to go home and rest up a little for Christmas dinner.

Apples to Apples was really fun. We have moved on to the adult version, and although Quinn doesn't get all the nuances, he had some really good luck with his cards (his French Maid card for "Down and Dirty" was hilarious and a winner!) All in all, it was a really nice and relaxing Christmas for us. We are so blessed to have a healthy family, and my prayers continue for the families in Newtown who lost their little angels this month.

Biking season is almost over

October 27, 2012

The photo above is from ride or walk to school day at Latimer Lane Elementary. Despite the rain, Quinn and I made it to his school, then I turned around and pedaled back breathlessly to get to Tariffville School. It was definitely worth the aggravation. I hope they do it again in the spring. Next time I will make sure to check my tires, they were pretty soft!

Quinn is moving right along in second grade. I can't believe we're already closing in on Halloween. Quinn will be an all-black phantom with glowing eyes. Not sure how the pictures will come out. There's a hurricane approaching ironically on the same date as Snowtober last year, but I think we will still be trick or treatingd two days later. Matt will be away, but I think we will be able to manage.

As a great soccer season for Quinn is winding down, (he had more goals and assists than anyone on his team by far) we are jumping back into Mite A hockey. Matt is a coach, (one of four or five, who can keep track!) but I was very happy to turn over the manager's position to another Mom. I'm remembering how much work it is. It should be a great year...just hope Quinn can live up to Dad's hockey expectations! And we already learned that we won't need to mortgage the house for goalie camp!

The Giants are in the World Series and are winning 2-0 as of now. Should be an exciting next few days...I guess the loss of sleep for all of us is worth it. No NHL, so we might as well enjoy baseball and football for as long as we can.

I wish I could remember some of the cute things Quinn is saying right now. I love the talk of second graders. One thing he told me yesterday is that he really likes to read a book at school and really gets in to it, but then at home...not so much. I guess that's understandable. I'm just glad he's getting to that "can't put a book down" stage. Right now he's reading the Ready Freddy series.

It's Friday at 3:11 pm: time to go say hi to Chris next door and meet the bus!