2016 - Many Baseball First

2016 was a great year of baseball for my boys!  There were many exciting first experiences related to baseball.  It started with our first trip to Spring Training in Scottsdale, Arizona to see our favourite baseball team, the San Francisco Giants.  They were pretty happy about getting many autographs from current and ex-players like Brandon Belt, Will Clark, Javier Lopez, Sergio Romo, Cory Gearrin, and Matt Cain as well as watching a few games.

Buster Posey

Brandon Belt autograph.

Will Clark autograph.

We also ran the Giants race in Scottsdale and got 2 medals after the race for the first time!  We loved the additional medal called the "Three Bagger" that had all 3 World Series Pendant on it (2010, 2012, 2014) for running the Giants race in San Francisco and San Jose in 2015.

Another first was my boys playing baseball in Canada.  They have played for many years in California.  While on their Canadian teams, they had their first baseball parade on 41st Avenue.

My older son had his first job as an umpire and his team won first place in their division.



My younger son also pitched for the first time and got his first MVP medal during a tournament game.

 

Experiencing Books

My children love books!  One of the good things that we do to keep their passion with reading is to have them meet different authors and hear their insights about their writing.  All of the authors that we have met, encourage the children to keep reading and writing.

Just recently, my boys met each others favourite authors.  My older son is quite a fan of Rick Riordan since been introduced to his writing through the Percy Jackson series in Grade 4.  Since then, he has read quite a few more of Riordan's books and learn more about mythology.  During the evening with Rick Riordan, my younger son got a signed copy of Magnus Chase and is now quite a fan!

 My younger son is quite a vivacious reader and we also met his favourite author, James Dashner, of the Maze Runner series.  The books are a bit mature for him but he reads a few years above his grade level and a lot of those books have serious themes.   The evening with James Dashner was more of a question and answer interview.  My boys had an opportunity to meet him up close and got his newest book, The Fever Code, personally signed.  I also learned that he had another series for slightly younger readers call The 13th Reality so that made a great Christmas present this year!  Both my boys have already finish reading the book and would like the rest of the series!