Opening Day

     Elijah officially started Spring Baseball this weekend and it kicked off with an Opening Day parade.  Now, I am new to Spring ball and I had been warned by many people who go back for this every year, that it is: competitive, more expensive than Fall ball, so much time, late games, and interesting.  The last person who told me "interesting" said it with a "you have no idea how crazy this is, but I'm being positive" kind of look.  Because I've been to zero practices, I knew very, very, very little about what to expect for the day.
     The first surprise came with the morning parade. It consisted of each team walking onto a football field holding their team banner.  That's it. Some teams were creative and wore cub ears or donned on pirate eye-patches to match their team name, but Elijah is a Yankee this year, much to everyone's chagrin, and they just walked. No fanfare.
     I feel so bad that I told my girls they would be on cars and throwing candy.  Oops. But, and this makes up for it, I also did not know that there would be an all-day carnival going on complete with kettle corn, cotton candy, sno cones, jumpies, carnival games, hair coloring, silent-auctions, and rock climbing.  Not to mention an exhibition game that was only two innings (30 minutes) instead of a full game (1:20) that we came prepared to watch.  When I say we came prepared, I mean Lydia and Lanie brought a big bag of markers, coloring books, drinks and more snacks.
     I feel silly that I knew so little.  It's unlike me not to ask a billion questions, but so it goes.  After a windy, chilly morning parade, the day ended up beautifully and I got to see Elijah play first base for the first time.   Happily, all three Ward kids left the park with colored sno cone teeth and colored hair.   After this weekend, I think we are all inducted into the crazy that is Pearland Little League, and are all now baseball ready.