This summer I signed Wes up for VIP Special Needs T-Ball. It’s just six games (no practices) and it’s for kids ages 5-22. For $15, including a t-shirt, trophy, and time for Wes to run around and hit balls, I thought it’d be worth it. It’s Wesley’s first experience with an “organized” sport.

The best part is all the volunteers. The teams are completely made up of kids with special needs–some physical, some mental. I just love that so many people are interested in spending an hour helping people who need help to participate in something like t-ball. As soon as we arrived some buddies grabbed Wes and took him over for batting practice. Wes was all smiles. He had a blast.

Someone’s mitt caught Wesley’s eye, and the family played catch with him a little bit. That was nice. The mitt was huge.

Meanwhile, Carissa sat on a blanket and nibbled chocolate chip cookies that she insisted on bringing from home and holding (the bag was open and cookies were being nibbled before we even left the garage).

And she took some pictures of herself, the sky, and many blurry things.

Elizabeth hung out.

Wes is on the Yankees team. His coach’s name is Bridger, and he’s great. He even confided in Wes that they’re going to name their next son Wesley. The games are split by age, so Wes is on the younger team.

Wes gave his buddies (and his dad) a terrific workout by running all over the field and letting them chase him. He had a fantastic time until about 40 minutes in, when he was clearly pooped and just sat on the field. But overall he enjoyed t-ball. In this picture Wes is on the right in the navy blue shirt, standing next to his coach Bridger, who I think is trying to tell him not to run away while they wait for the next kid to hit the ball.

This is a video of Wesley’s first turn at-bat. This is what the whole game went like. Hurray for volunteers! Hurray for programs for kids with special needs!

The girls.

My backseat.

Six months and solid food!

Splash park.

Watching their babysitter mow our lawn. Very exciting!

Sleepyhead at dinnertime.

Temptation.

Carissa’s been watching “The Incredibles.” The other day she and I were superheros, with a towel around her neck and a blanket around mine.

Even superheros need ice cream treats in the summertime.

Carissa was groovin’ on the piano, Wes has hittin’ the breadcrumbs, and I was shakin’ my stuff with the plastic maracas. The xylophone was for Dad, but he was sleeping (if he could sleep).

The day before Easter we colored eggs as a family. Wes is 5 and Carissa is 2, but this is the first time we’ve done this. We’ll be doing it every year now, because they loved it so much.

On Easter morning the two older kids had an Easter basket with a chocolate bunny (not processed in a facility with nuts; that was hard to find), a couple Easter eggs filled with their favorite things (like M&Ms), bubbles, and a wind-up Easter toy.

Then, before church, we took Wes and Carissa outside to find Easter eggs. This was their favorite thing.

Afterward they pulled out their eggs (Wes lined his up in a neat row) and ate and ate and ate. While baby Elizabeth (nearly 5 months old) watched. It was a lovely, fun, sugar-filled day.

…Our attempt at such.

This is sort of actually what I was aiming for–except all of them doing it at the same time together. And smiling.