All the Small Things...

Character...

Chandler is a great kid.  We have always KNOWN he was a great kid, but when someone else points it out to you-- when an entire football league points it out to you-- it's pretty special.

 

At the end of the football season we heard from Chandler's coach that he had been nominated and subsequently chosen to receive the CODY BADALATO WESTLAKE BRAVES SCHOLARSHIP AWARD.  

 

Cody Badalato was 14 year old boy who, tragically, lost his life in 2008 to Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.  

 

This is the description of the award from Cody's Memorial Blog--

The Westlake Braves established a scholarship fund in Cody’s name. They awarded 2 Westlake Braves players $500 Savings Bonds. These players exemplified character, good sportsmanship, came to practice and games with a positive attitude, gave 100% whether they were a 12 play-player or not. They showed compassion for others, and were a privilege to coach. The awards were presented by Cody’s Coach, Dave Baldwin.

As Dan and I stood on that field watching our son being acknowledged for his character, we were never more proud.  

Chandler will NEVER do anything more important on that field- on any field.  

I can honestly say I couldn't have been more proud if he was up for a Heisman Trophy.

 

On a side note-- watching Cody's mom present Chandler with the award was HEARTBREAKING.  I admired her strength for being there so much.  How hard it must have been to walk on that field her son had played hundreds of games on.  How hard it must have been to hug my son knowing that she wasn't able to hug her own.  My heart ached for her...

Summer Day #12

 

With an over an hour until we had to pick Patrick up from soccer, I decided to take Chandler and Keiran to the Thousand Oaks Library duck pond park.  It's one of our favorites...

I have to say, Chandler is ONE GREAT KID!  He played nonstop with Keiran for about an hour and a half in the heat of summer and had a smile on his face the whole time.  I think he must have gone down the slides with Keiran over 100 times- no joke!  He loves our little K so much and that makes me love him even more.  Keiran is one lucky boy to have such an amazing big brother.

I love my sweet boys...

A Shirt For My Littlest Leprechaun...

 

Oh, this was a FUN one!  I rarely get to sew for my boys, so when I do, I LOVE it!

The story behind this shirt is that I saw something kind of like it in my favorite kids' high end catalog and it was fantastic, but really too expensive for a holiday shirt that he'll wear a couple of times.  So, I decided to make one.  

The problem was when I went to copy the idea a few days ago, the shirt had sold out and the image was no longer available!  GULP!  Okay, so I remembered the saying SHAM ROCK and I remembered it had a clover guitar, but that was it!  So, this is what I came up with and I like it... a lot. 

 Now if one of you girls have bought the shirt I'm talking about, DON'T send me a pic of what it's suppose to look like- or I'll hate this one!!!  :)  And if you don't heed my warning-  I'll remind you that you paid $40 for it plus shipping and I spent $7!  hee hee

Oh!  And BTW-- did you notice the leg/arm warmers Keiran is wearing from my last TUTORIAL ?  How ADORABLE do they look with that shirt?!?!?!?  I LOVE it!

Wanna make one?

Well, here are the directions:

 

  

  1. Start off with a plain polo shirt or T-shirt.  

2. Print out guitar and words onto card stock.  The font I used is called ALPINE.

3. Cut out letters and guitar.

4. Iron Wonder Under onto the BACK of the fabric scraps you are going to use.

5. Trace the letters and guitar onto the Wonder Under backing.  TRACE THE LETTERS BACKWARDS!!!

6. Cut out the letters and guitar.

7. Iron Stabilizer onto the inside front of the shirt.  This will make sewing A LOT easier, so don't skip this step!

8. Place letters and guitar where you want them to sit on the shirt.  Remove paper backing and iron letters onto shirt- letter by letter.  

9. Now grab your sewing machine!

10. Using a satin stitch (a stitch that makes a solid line of stitches), sew around the edges of all the letters.  The needle should be going through the shirt and into the letter and repeating- half the stitch on the letter and half off.

11. Now, I wanted the guitar to look distressed and frayed, so I simply sewed around the guitar quite sloppily- twice.  I also sewed a couple of random crazy stitches every now and again.

12. After sewing the guitar, I peeled up the edges of it and picked them apart and frayed them with a needle to give it a distressed look.  Be careful not to harm the stitches though!

13. In this picture I show the inside of the shirt.  You can see the two distinct styles of stitching I used.

14. After ALL the sewing is done, peel off the stabilizer.  

15. Lastly, iron on the metal studs.

Yeah!  It's done.

It took a little time, but was easy.

I hope you guys make one- I DARE you!!!

His Joy...

 

I don't know who was more excited about this day- Chandler or Dan!  

It was so fun watching him do his thing again and I must admit, I was a very proud mom.

He was drafted onto the team with the intention of being the 3rd catcher, but worked really hard and started the game and is now the main catcher!!!  I'm so thrilled for him.  He LOVES being a catcher.  It is VERY stressful to watch as a parent, but if it's what he wants, then I'm very happy for him.

GO ANGELS!!!

GO CHAN CHAN!!!
 
 

The Boy Was Excited...

Nobody enjoys a theme day at school like our Chan Chan.  Love this kid! 

Chandler Halloween 2009...

Game Day...

We always dress up in the kids' team colors for their games.  Here are C & S at Patrick's soccer game-  right after that we headed over to cheer on Chan Chan's team wearing our blue and orange!  I don't think all the blue and orange in all the world is going to make that team any better though, I must admit!  LOL

Arrow of Light...

What a great night for Chandler!  We were so proud of him.  He works really hard in scouting and loves it a lot and it was so fun to see him advancing up the ranks with all his buddies.  

Way to go Chan Chan!!!

Time Machine... Football Games

It's our very favorite sport to watch and the night games are the best!!!  Chandler had such fun and worked so hard.  We love the Braves!!!

As always, click on the image to see it enlarged...

Quote of the Day...

Driving in the car yesterday...

Me: "Chandler, are you excited to get back to baseball after such a long time being gone from it over Spring Break?"

Chandler: "Well not really Mom because we are on a serious losing streak.  We're in 5th place out of 7 teams."

From the back seat of the van we hear this---

Scarlet: "CHAN-DA-WER-  at least 2 teams stink worse than you".

Thank you, Captain Sensitivity.