The Barefoot Kitchen Witch

Pawsox Game and Fireworks

When I was in Junior High, there was a math teacher, Mrs. Smith, who was tiny and smart and tough.  She had a steely voice, steel-gray hair, and a no-nonsense, no fooling around attitude, tempered with a sense of humor that she allowed to peek out from behind her stern facade every now and then.  During class, when we'd work on problems out loud and she'd call on us for answers, if someone gave a very wrong answer, she'd kind of roll her eyes and tilt her head back a bit, like she was reeling from the awful wrongness of that student's attempted answer.  And she'd say, in that grim, steely voice "Ah, you're way out in Pawtucket!"  I went to school in the southern part of Rhode Island, and Pawtucket lies northeast of Providence, far, far from us.  (Relatively speaking.  It's Rhode Island, after all, and nothing is really THAT far from anything else.)  But that was her way of telling you just how VERY wrong you were.  So far off that you were way out in Pawtucket. 

And that's where the family and I were the other day.  Way out in Pawtucket.

On Thursday we went to a Pawtucket Red Sox game with friends of ours, their son (Alex's best friend since they were about a year old or something) and another little boy.  We went for free, courtesy of "family four-packs" of tickets given away by Dave's Marketplace.

It was one of two special nights that included early start times and post-game fireworks.  We went last year, so we HAD to go this year.

The cool thing (to me) was that Clay Buchholz was scheduled to pitch.  Woo hoo!  Go Sox!

Even cooler - we won!

And cooler still, we had pretty good seats.  We were kind of behind/to the side of the press box, so we were behind home plate, off to the first base side a bit.  I had (because my husband and our friends are kind) a great seat - the press box didn't obscure my view of the field at all, so I could take pictures.  We were way up in the nosebleed seats, but still, it was a great view of the game.

The other thing to note - we've had so much rain (I know I've mentioned that before) lately, that up until a couple hours before game time, we weren't even sure if there would be a game at all.  Amazingly, just before we headed to Pawtucket, the sun came out and the sky cleared, and we actually had good weather for the game.

There was still always the threat of rain - I kept taking pictures of the sky as the evening went on, just to track the cloudy status.  But though the sky became overcast, the rain never fell, and the evening rolled along as planned.  Yay!

Anyway, the kids had a great time - three little boys all around the 7-year mark, giddy and goofy and feeding off each others' wild energy...plus one five-year-old girl who can hold her own with the boys - except when the fireworks start. 

Julia cried through the whole fireworks display last year.  This year she cried and was calling "Mommy!  Mommy!" at the start (on Bill's lap - I got to take pictures pretty much uninterrupted this year) and he said she stopped crying after a bit but kept her hands firmly in place over her ears.  Then, once the show was done and we were starting to leave, she saw me and started crying again.  Because I hadn't been witness to it the first time, I guess, and she needed to let me know how unhappy she'd been.

Anyway, a fun time was had by all, and during the ride home Julia fell asleep almost before we were out of the parking lot at McCoy Stadium.  The boys, all three of them buckled in in the very back seat, were overtired and wired during the ride home.  They became more and more giggly during the ride, and Alex fell asleep pretty much as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Pictures are here.

Pictures from Opening Day of T-Ball Season

 

Saturday, the 18th, was the Opening Day of T-Ball, complete with Opening Ceremony, team photos, and a game.  Here are Alex and Julia before the start of it all.

This next series of shots, taken right before the game, after the kids had practiced throwing and catching and were returning to the dugout.  My kids, running in, together....

 

(You can find Julia easily - she has the pink and light blue glove)

 

 

Julia looks so tiny with her giant pink helmet...

 

Alex played third...

 

And they both had hotdogs after the game.  Usually it's hotdogs and slushies, but the slushi machine was broken, so they had to settle for lemonade.

 

 

This should be a great season!

A lot more T-Ball pictures can be seen on my flickr page.

Fireworks, Farmers' Market, and the Fourth

 

Wednesday night our family and another family (my son's best friend and his parents) went to watch the Pawtucket Red Sox play the Syracuse Chiefs (we lost 6-5) at McCoy Stadium. 

And there were fireworks after the game.  It's a four night event that runs, I think, the 2nd through the 5th.  It was sold out on Wednesday, and we had free tickets, as that night's fireworks display was sponsored by Dave's Marketplace, and each store had 300 tickets to give away.  Woo hoo! 

They were general seating/bleachers tickets, and we should have gotten there earlier than we did - we ended up walking all over the place looking for 7 seats together or 3 and 4 together...no luck.  So we ended up sitting on the bleachers out near right field.  And that was probably for the best, as the kids could get down and run around a bit and work off some of their excess energy.

After the game, we actually ended up sitting/standing right out on the field, near first base, all thanks to the fact that my son's friend's mom has MS and somehow it worked out that we could sit down there with all the Dave's Marketplace employees and their families, along with a couple other people with physical issues. 

The lights went out at ten, and the fireworks, accompanied by several assorted patriotic songs, began.

And right about then, Julia started crying in terror.  Bill held her for a while as I snapped a bunch of pictures, but eventually I couldn't bear the "MOMMMMMYYYYYYYYY" sobs any more so I put the camera away and took Julia from Bill.  We watched (or, in Julia's case, peeked at in between sobs) the rest of the display - it lasted about twenty minutes, and then began the long trek back to the back of beyond where our car was parked.  Julia was asleep minutes after Bill buckled her into her car seat.  And she didn't sob the ENTIRE time, either.  Gradually she slowed down - I'm sure part of it was because it was so late and she must have been wiped out.  Periodically, in between my mantra of "it's okay, it's okay, it's okay" in Julia's ear, she would peek up at the bursts of light and color and just watch.  At one point I asked, in a soothing, whispery voice, "What's your favorite color of the fireworks?"  She whispered "pink" and then hollered "I WANNA GO HOOOOMMMME!" 

Alex and his friend, however, were enthralled.  I wish I'd still had my camera handy at one point - both boys were just standing there, mouths open, staring up at the sky.  Their faces were lit by the different bursts of color, and their eyes were just wide.  It would have been a gorgeous shot.  But my duties lay elsewhere.  Actually, my duty was clinging to me like a hungry boa constrictor. 

But overall it was a great night (even if it took an eternity to get out of the parking lot afterwards).  And the next day Julia seemed (now that the loud noise was over) much more impressed with the fireworks.

I've left a few more pictures of the fireworks at the end of this post, after the jump, in case you're interested.

Today, the fourth, is rather cloudy and cooler than it has been.  There was rain last night, and something like a 70% chance of showers and thunderstorms today.  We've already seen our fireworks, so we're all set there. 

This morning I went to the Farmers' Market all by myself, which was kind of nice.  There weren't very many farms there today, probably because of the weather.  But I bought two dozen eggs and ten honey sticks from Bill, the Honey Stick Man, and I also asked about his goats and whether he sells the meat.  I may pursue that once these kids are big enough...or I might see about buying some goat's milk and make some cheese.  Not sure yet, but it's in the back of my mind.

I bought a couple loaves of bread from Palmieri Bakery - one multigrain, and one seeded pumpernickel.  Yum.

I bought, let's see, 6 pints of strawberries, two pints of little potatoes - one of red fingerlings and one of little yellow boiling potatoes - and two lavender plants and a creeping rosemary.  The herbs are going in the front garden along the stepping stones.  The strawberries will become jam, if all goes according to my plans this weekend, and the potatoes - I don't know yet, but I have them and will not doubt become inspired at some point.

I talked to Jack, the lobster guy, about possibly getting a bunch of lobsters later this month when Bill's family is here to visit.  He gave me his card and said if I want 10 or more to just give him a head's up and he'll save them for me.  Cool.

And I went over to Ledge Ends Farm and they had BEAUTIFUL raspberries - I bought a pint - and about a quarter of them are gone already, scavenged by my berry-loving son.  I also bought a bunch of garlic scapes, which I've never had before but I've seen plenty of other food bloggers using them and I thought I should give them a try.  Anything garlic related is fine by me.  I'll probably use them on grilled pizzas tonight.

And speaking of tonight...I also bought a couple gallons of milk to make mozzarella with (this will be my 3rd batch) and a half gallon of milk to make into ricotta.  I'll use both on grilled pizzas tonight, along with the garlic scapes...and some basil and some local tomatoes.  I also bought 8 cloves of garlic that I plan to roast (if I'm going to be heating up the kitchen making mozzarella, I may as well cook other stuff too at the same time.  Cook all my birds with one stove, so to speak.  (Huh?)  Oh, yeah, and I have to make the pizza dough.

So anyway, that is the plan for today, for me.  Julia will help, or not, depending on her mood.  And a bit later, Bill and Alex will go to dig quahogs, and Bill's planning to make chowder tonight, too.  So we should have a wonderful, fresh, locally produced FEAST.

What are your plans?

Oh, and don't forget - more fireworks pictures after the jump.

I Have a Son

Yesterday I took the kids out to lunch and then shopping for new shoes for their fat little feet.  Okay, not fat.  Just, you know, always growing bigger, for some reason.  Why is that? 

Anyway, after finally finding sneakers that were acceptable and fit right, we headed to one more store before the promised trip to the carousel in the food court.  (The carousel was my bribe for good behavior.)

We went in to this last store, and I waited while the sales clerk finished ringing up another customer.  Then I spoke.  "Um, my son is playing T-ball...and he needs a cup."

Ah, yes.  The boy's first plastic penile protective device.  They don't have a space for that in his baby book for some reason - just the walking and talking and teeth. 

Anyway, we got the kind that's like little white boxer shorts with a pocket for the cup - no straps or anything to worry about.  And we went home.

Later on, I was with him when he changed into his clothes for T-ball practice.  I told him to put on this new pair of "baseball underwear."  I'd already put the cup in the little pocket in front.  He looked at me with a slightly skeptical look on his face, then pulled on the shorts. 

He was both amused by and fascinated with the new bulge.  He knocked on it with his knuckles and looked up at me with that sweet almost-six-years-old face and said with a newfound look of manly pride:  "It looks like I have a really big, hard pee-pee!"

And so it begins.

First Day of T-Ball Practice

Alex had his first T-Ball practice this afternoon.  Bill helped him get his gear together, and the two of them headed to the field while I stayed home with Julia and made dinner.  It's cold and windy today, and we just didn't think Julia would be all that thrilled to sit on the bleachers for 45 minutes.

Anyway, I took a few pictures of Alex before he and Bill took off....

And then I thought it would be fun to try to get him to do the Papelbon stare.

I told him to look mean, and glare up at me just below the brim of his cap.

This was the look he gave me.

I told him to keep the mean eyes, but to lose the snarl.

We ended up laughing at each other as we made mean faces, and I had to look away so he could get his face under control.

You can see the little smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.  He fought it pretty well.

Then it was time to go...

      

(Sure, NOW he's serious.)

And off they went.

They got back around an hour later, and Alex had had a great time.  They learned to run the bases, practiced catching ground balls, and teamed up in twos to play catch. 

They have team pictures in a couple of weeks, and his first game is the weekend after that. 

It kind of blows my mind that I have a son old enough to participate in organized sports. 

But at the same time - it's so cool.

P.S.  There was another shot I took of Alex that I decided to play around with a bit.  You can see it below.

Coffee and a Ball Game

This morning, approximately 6:30, we were thus assembled:  Bill, with coffee in his travel mug.  Julia, clutching her pink elephant.  Alex, and me, with coffee cup in hand as well. 

And we are all watching the Sox play Oakland in Japan.

Interesting trying to explain to Alex that this game was actually taking place at night, far, far away.

And Julia knows who Big Papi is.

We're trying to raise 'em right.

I'll be back later.  We're ahead in the 10th, and now Oakland's up, Pap is pitching.  I need to watch.

Spring Training

The family that plays together...

We signed Alex up for T-ball this year - play starts in May.  He needed a glove, so we went shopping for that this morning.  His is the black and gray one on the bottome right.  And if you look to the left of that, you'll see a very pink and purple glove, smaller.  And you would be right in guessing that we got that for Julia - initially so she wouldn't feel left out.

Funny thing.  Bill was showing Alex how you keep your index finger out of the glove...and when we gave Julia her glove to try on at the store, her tiny little index finger was poking out too. 

And Bill figured he needed a glove, because he hasn't had a glove since he was twelve, and this way he can play catch with Alex and really show him how to catch with the glove, etc.  His glove is the one above Julia's.  And then I was feeling left out (never mind Julia - what about ME??) and so I got one as well, since my old glove upstairs is also a relic from when I was around 12 or so, too.  Mine's pink and black... both serious and girly at the same time, I suppose.

They're pretty supple as-is, but they still need some breaking in.

We also got Alex a batting tee so he can get used to that as well. 

 

Meanwhile, Julia was waiting her turn...

To be continued....