All Baseball, All the Time

in case you haven't noticed, we are in the midst of baseball season around here.  roman is lucky enough to play on 3 different teams.  his rec team, the phillies, play during the week.  the rec travel team, the waves, play in tournaments on the weekends.  and, if he isn't busy with those two teams, he sometimes plays with another travel team called miner league.  like i said, all baseball, all the time!

so, if you are gonna be watching big brother play, you might as well look cute doing it, right?

this is the waves (travel) team.  they were invited to play down in garden city, ga.  this was their first tournament, so we really didn't know what to expect.  other than the fact that they would be silly.  duh.

the little sisters have to find things to do to bide the time. 

i love this video.  he misses the catch and doesn't get the runner out at home, but try, try again and you will get your man!

here's a nice triple

and a walk-off to win!

and, even though they didn't know what to expect, they won all of their games and the entire tournament.  yeah, baby!

he even got the game ball!

now, back to the rec team, the phillies.  all of these games are played in or near our neighborhood, which is super nice.  and for this game, poppop came to watch!

 

this was an awesome hit that flew over the left fielder's head and of course, my speedy boy made it home!

this is a different game, but, it cracks me up.  listen until the end when roman's teammate yells "that is multiple runs!"  haha...love it. 

 

cousin chase plays on the phillies too and i love watching them play together.  

game balls for the colella boys!

the 5 amadas - 2016

so, one day, i was talking to roman about how dikembe mutombo used to block shots and then shake his finger at his opponent and say "not in my house".  so, i look over at him in the dugout, and he does this to me.  crazy boy. 

we are starting quite the collection of game balls, so roman and i decided to make a jar for all of them.  isn't it cool? 

the waves got invited back to garden city.  this time, there were more teams and we weren't sure if we would have the same outcome, but the boys were up for the challenge. 

i tell you what...these boys keep us laughing.  they are so fun to watch and they love to have fun!

again, the little sisters, finding something to do. 

gianna decided that the cowbell was her bat.

 

here is a nice solid hit.

one of the best parts of the tournaments is the boys hanging out together, waiting for the next game. 

home run, baby!

this one is a close call at second, but i love how he calls himself safe. 

never satisfied with just one base.

he scoops it to second to make the final out, and they are champs again!

under the lights, these boys take another round of hardware.

we can't believe it...they won the whole thing again!

wow, that's a big trophy!

chase got the game ball this time! 

i couldn't be more proud of this boy.  he works so hard for what he wants.  if he isn't at the field playing, he's in the yard practicing.  this is where all the hard work happens. 

i saw a quote on pinterest and i really love it.  

"you earn your trophy at practice, you just pick them up at tournaments"

Easter 2016

Easter came up on us pretty quick this year and I can't say I was totally prepared.  As in, I had not bought eggs or dye.  Whoops.  Well, the bunny came anyway, even though I wasn't ready! 

Don't you love this expression? It's her "can we get this show on the road?" look. 

Oh boy...the bunny came! 

Going through their loot.

The bunny is so smart, bringing books for Roman.  He's flying through all of them these days.  

Bunny bubbles for G!

They even got to hunt for eggs all around the house. 

And then church with these ridiculously cute kids. 

Where did these tall skinny kids come from?

We ended up coloring eggs after a much deserved nap for everyone.  I guess I'm learning that it's ok to procrastinate a little. 

Just livin' life

so, looky who learned how to tie her shoes! and she didn't even own a pair with shoelaces.  so, off we went to target to find some cute ones.  polka dots for the win!

and...in the same week, she learned how to snap.  to be honest...she might have learned this first.  but, they both happened so quickly, i can't remember. 

 

now, she says..."what should i learn next...whistling or winking?"  my vote is for laundry. 

we have a drive-in movie theater about 40 minutes from us and we have never been.  so when we were invited by gianna's friend, lucy, to go check it out...we jumped.  they had a blast, and it was a fun experience.  i'm sure we will go again!

i love catching them together like this.  somedays they are thick as thieves and i like to capture those moments when i can.

sometimes gianna wants to be in the bathroom when i am getting ready and she likes to sit right behind me, which can end up with me stepping on her accidentally.  so, on this day...we improvised. 

i told gracie that i loved her cherry sunglasses and so gianna had to grab hers too and of course, made some silly faces!  these girls share the same birthday and will be in pre-k together this upcoming year.  so fun!

we celebrated st. patrick's day with green pancakes for dinner.  and then i sent the kids upstairs so i could make them a special treat.  they came back down to these homemade shamrock shakes and they were a hit!  gianna wouldn't even look at me for the picture and roman's was already half gone!  i love doing fun stuff like that sometimes.  so fun.  

 

Basketball 2016

before we get too far into baseball season, i wanted to post some videos of roman's basketball season.  his team was really good and i had a lot of fun watching them play.  you will notice that all of these are videos and not pictures.  basketball is really hard to capture on a picture.  they are always moving!  so, most of the time, i would record as much as i could and then the boys would review the "game tape" later at home.  roman even got chosen to be on the all-star team, so you will see his jersey change colors in the last videos to red/white instead of the normal season's black/grey.  they didn't win the whole thing, but they sure did hang tough with some really great players.  i'm so proud of him.   i know it was fun for roman to look back on all of these highlights, so i hope you enjoy them too!

My Girl

with all of the sports practices, scrimmages and games that are on the schedule every week, i end up spending a lot of time alone with gianna.  me and my girl.  no complaints, here.  but i do miss the boys!  

one day we went to the park and enjoyed the nice weather. 

swings are her absolute favorite!

one sunday afternoon, we spend a while playing games.  she loves games like connect 4 and memory. 

and more recently, as our living room was torn apart and no tv hanging on the wall, she found herself a basket and got in it.  "momma, look at me!" 

i love my girl and all of our time together!

What Could Be Better?

baseball season is officially here and we are living at the fields.  which is not that bad, considering they are in our neighborhood.  they had a jamboree last week and when the boys got done their scrimmage, they were able to enjoy some kona ice.  

holly said, "baseball and snow cones, what could be better?" 

roman said, "winning 6-4"

that boy is a colella, through and through...all about the win!

gianna got to enjoy some kona ice while the boys were on the field. 

what flavor do you think she had? 

oh, these two...

Too Cool for School

roman goes to a pretty cool school.  since i'm not catholic, and did not attend a private school (and i'm really old), i'm not sure which one of those things is more relevant, but i don't remember having these types of things happening when i was a kid. lucky duck!

they have catholic schools week, which is kind of like spirit week, where each day is a new and fun theme.  they get to dress in their favorite superhero or disney costume or shirt.  here, roman is hiding his shirt, but he chose captain america. 

this day was crazy hair day, he chose a red mohawk.

and almost always during valentine's week, they have a snow day where we have to pump the white stuff in, unlike our cool neighbors from the north that get to see it fall from the sky...not a green tube!

sneaky sneaky...

they had a dance-off and 2nd grade did the sid shuffle...

 

roman also is receiving his first reconciliation/penance and so we headed to the church one night with all of his classmates.  he got all spiffy and it really was a nice night.  he got to confess his sins to msgr. cellini and he was not nervous at all.  he did really great, we are so proud of him!

 

and of course, little sister had to get in the picture with him. aren't they too sweet?