End of the season
Last night's baseball game was the end of William's season. (Baseball season here is short, squeezed between soccer at both ends and dealing with summer vacation plans.) William's team completely mauled their opponents, maxing out at 5 runs in all of their innings and shutting the other guys down; final score was something like 20-3. It got so I (as first base coach) was embarrassed to send the kids for doubles; though I mostly did anyway, because we're trying to teach our kids about hustle and running hard out of the box.

The kids have all improved dramatically over the season, throwing, catching, and hitting much better than they did before. The biggest contrast between our team and the opponents this time -- and what pleased me most about the game -- is that our kids all remained alert and focused throughout the game, remembering to play their positions and cover the appropriate bag and not drifting off. Last year, our last game was kind of like the other team this year -- some kids remained focused, but several just were tired of baseball and spaced out, building sandcastles in the infield dirt or sitting down in the outfield. I'm glad that our kids managed to pick up so much while still finding it fun.

(Undoubtedly it helped that they were at the business end of the drubbing, but still, I think they were into it.)

Earlier in the afternoon, I took off from the office and met up with the kids - also with some friends' kids -- for a matinee of Kung Fu Panda. It went over very well with William and his buddy Nicholas, who were heard guffawing uproariously at the butt jokes and were engrossed by the fight scenes; it also went over well with our Matthew, who was nervous at a few spots (a tiny voice whispered, "Daddy, can we go now?" a couple of times) but made it through and roared out into the parking lot shouting "HYAH! WAH!" while kicking and punching the air into submission. Our friend Matthew, slightly older than our M, did sort of drift out of the theatre a few times, but overall did well and had fun with it.