On his way to the North Pole

            Below you’ll find the list of items needed to occupy my children for an entire weekend at the ball park for another of Adam’s fast pitch tournaments.

1. Coloring books, colored pencils (crayons would have melted in the 90 degree heat)
2. Ball glove, bat, ball
3.  Giant bag the size of a mini cooper filled with sand toys
4. My Kindle fire…I had downloaded Toy Story 1  
5. Headphones (so I didn’t have to listen to Toy Story)
6. Cooler full of juice boxes, fruit, and applesauce
7. Bag full of crackers/snacks for Presley
8. Bathing suits and swimmies for the hotel pool
9. A small assortment of “guys” that Ben plays with…usually Batman and Superman

This list isn’t including the back pack full of Ben’s clothes, extra underwear, pull-ups, and special blanket along with my suitcase full of Presley’s clothes, diapers, wipes, formula, bottles, sippy cups, and a few of my clothes that filled whatever small space I had left.  Saturday at the ball park was filled mostly with Ben playing on the play equipment that was at the park, Presley riding around in a stroller, and then a couple of short naps for both kids…a break for me! Sunday, consisted of Ben playing with some of the kids who are also involved with the team. I set up my kindle for them to watch so the mothers could have a break, but they argued over who had the better seat, who got to wear the headphones, and anything else that irritated their little tired selves at that moment. Needless to say, the kindle was put away. The bag of sand toys sat untouched for most of the tournament and the bat and ball glove were played with minimally throughout the weekend. You would have thought I would have gone crazy, however they became creative….very creative. For much of the afternoon, the 3 kids that were playing with and entertaining each other ran around with their blankets playing superhero games. Running and jumping off of benches, bleachers, whatever they could find, pretending to fly. The other source of entertainment for the kids was a stick and an empty water bottle. Each child found one of each, and ran around hitting the bottles with sticks, a sort of 3 year old golf game! Nobody fought, nobody argued, they all laughed, the entire time.

            I think it’s important for us to remember that kids are creative by nature and will find ways to entertain themselves, especially at these young ages. They haven’t yet been so tainted with video games, tv, or computer that they have lost their imaginations. They’re able to truly believe that they are super man and they are flying to the North Pole to talk to Santa, and it is a lot of fun to watch! Next time we spend our money buying kids the latest technology; remember that they usually have just as much fun with a stick and an empty water bottle, if not more fun!



Cowboy Superman, age 3.