Crazy / Holy Weekend

This is the time of year where we usually get a break from our busy sports schedule and can enjoy a relatively quiet weekend.  Not us! This weekend, while relatively sports free was just as busy and exciting.

We started off the weekend Friday night celebrating Cole's 12th Birthday.   He invited  some friends over for a night of doing what kids his age do best. Playing Video Games, Card games and eating.  Lots of eating.  The boys had a lot of fun and got an early education on what late night poker playing is like.

Saturday, we were treated to Jordan's Piano Recital.   She was AMAZING.  Not only did she play both her pieces beautifully but she had completely memorized each.  

Here she is performing one of her pieces.

Saturday Night, we were  back to Baseball.  Cole was so excited because he knew this was going to pitch.  He doesn't get many opportunities so he was determined to prove to the coaches he's ready.  He did great.  Check out this diving stop on the final play of the inning.

Final line - 0 runs on 1 hit, 1 BB, 1 K and 2 assists.

Sunday: Not only was it  Mother's day, it was also Noah's First Communion.  It was really a special day for him.   He looked very handsome in his jacket & tie (no fighting!) and did a great job.   We are so proud of him.   Here he is looking very angelic, although there still a little devil in those eyes.

We ended our day, celebrating Mother's Day at Aspen's for a wonderfully filling brunch with the family and cousins. 

In what was yet another long, event filled weekend in our lives and we could not be happier.

Atlanta Hawks Co-Captains - April 15, 2012

I received a call late last week from my local Atlanta Hawks rep.  As a way of saying thanks to the affiliates, teams that partnered with the Hawks for uniforms, he invited me and Noah out to the game Sunday Night.

All he said was bring the Jerseys & about an hour before game time, they would call out our names, we show or wear the jersey and wave to the crowd.     

Well it turns out that it was also Youth Sports Day.  As we they announce the different programs, we are wearing our jerseys and they announced Shaw Park etc.. Unfortunately there were about 16 people in the stands at the time.  Then they stopped us at center court, told us to turn around for some pictures.  All of a sudden, Dominique Wilkins, some cheerleaders and all the mascots from the Atlanta teams show up (Homer the Brave, Freddie, the Falcon, Atlanta, Silverbacks, Harry the Hawk, Skyhawk, Atlanta Beat etc), for a photo op.

I thought it was a cool experience and Noah had a blast.

We thought that was it and started to head up to our seats.  As we were standing in line for our food, one of the guys we just met, asks us if we can help him out of a jam.  Some of the folks they were waiting on, did not show up and he asked us if we wanted to be co-captains for the game.  We had no idea what that meant but we say "sure".   Noah is starting to freak a little bit & kept saying "What does that mean?  What do I have to do?
Anyway, back down we go and the jerseys go back on.  We head back out to Center Court for the pre-game rules, shaking hands with the refs, Joe Johnson, Josh Smith and one Freakishly tall Toronto Raptor. 

Noah is by the Toronto Raptor's butt

Getting his #2 Jersey signed by #2 Joe Johnson

It was an awesome Once in a Lifetime Experience and hopefully one that Noah will not forget. 

Spring Sports 2012

The basketball season is finally wrapping up and we quickly moving full swing into the Spring Sports.

Cole's basketball team is currently 11-0 and looking to close out the season undefeated.  It was his first time playing on an organized team and he has had a lot of fun without any pressure or expectations.

Noah & Jordan's teams were not as successful but they played hard and had a great time.   Noah was the leading scorer on his Bulldog team avg about 8 points a game for a team that averaged 20 points total.
Jordan learned so much and we are really excited about next years team.

Soccer 2012
Jordan has re-united with the Rock-Stars for spring soccer and they look to have a very formidable team. We are really looking forward to the season.

Baseball 2012
I know it's only February but Baseball season has already started.  Welcome to the world of Travel Baseball.

The boys Tournament season started last week. Noah with the 8U Shock, Cole with the 11U Jacket's.
It was Noah's first experience facing Kid Pitching.  He was so excited. He singled in his 1st AB and more importantly he made his 1st ever pitching debut.

 He struck out the side and was all smiles the rest of the day.

Both boys teams went 1-1 in pool play and unfortunately we never made it to the playoffs due to the heavy rain storms.  It was a great start to what will be an extremely long season through July

More photos here
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003243361274

Disney 2012

Christmas and New Years went by so quickly because the kids were so excited about our trip to Disney this year.

It did not disappoint.

It was probably the best trip we've ever had.   I've been training since August for the Half Marathon and am happy to say not only did I finish but the entire experience surpassed expectations.  It was a blast.

We were fortunate to have the entire family along with us and the kids had so much fun.  They hit all 4 parks multiple times and rode all of their favorites with their cousins.  It was awesome to see how much fun they had the entire week.

Ludwig Von Drake

At The Wilderness Lodge

Musical Weekend

In between basketball games, we managed to squeeze in some musical performances.

Cole performed Thursday Night in his 1st ever 6th grade band performance.   He plays trumpet and did a great job.

Here are 2 songs they performed.

 

On Saturday, Jordan performed at her annual Xmas Piano recital.

The Nutcracker

We are used to seeing Jordan excel as an athlete when playing Soccer & Basketball but today we got to see her in a completely different light.  You know that she has been taking ballet for years well, a few weeks back she decided she wanted to audition for the Nutcracker and she was lucky enough to be selected as an Angel.

After weeks of practice, performance week was finally here. Unfortunately, even parents can't see the shows without a $25 ticket. So we decided to wait for the final performance to see her on the big stage.

She was amazing!

All of the girls were equally impressive. They were all smiles and no one missed a beat.  Even our boys thought the show was cool. A little long, but still cool.

They were so proud to see her up on the big stage.  

SPC Angels

After playing co-ed last season and seeing how good Jordan was at Basketball, we decided to move her to an all-girls team this season.  I think we made the right choice.   She is gaining confidence in her ability and does not have to be worried about getting bounced around by some of the more physical boys.


The Angels have started off a little slow losing our 1st game 13-11.

 Yesterday they lost 10-8 (Jordan scored 4) but it was a hard fought game.   The girls are playing hard and have made improvements in just 1 week.  I'm confident we will see great things out of them in the weeks to come.

Baseball Fall Finale

I think I mentioned this before but Cole has left Rec ball and moved onto a Travel team.   They look like they will be a strong AA team and with the right additions, may be able to a jump to the AAA level by end of the Spring.

The fall season officially came to end for Cole last week.  His team ended up in 5th place in the Fall Finale Tournament.  It was an Open tournament so all levels of teams were playing.   The Jacket's played well in pool play but ran into a AAA/Major team which beat us pretty badly.

On the bright side, Cole got an opportunity to Pitch.   While he loves Catching and playing 2B he did want at least 1 opportunity to try his hand at this level.  I'm proud to report that he did really well.   He faced 4 batters.  the first reached on an error, the next singled and he retired the next 2 on grounders.    He came off the field smiling and that's tough to do when your team losses big.   Overall, it was a big adjustment but the team is starting to gel and Cole is the starting 2B and getting a lot of playing time at Catcher.

He gets 2 weeks off of baseball before the Winter workouts begin.   In the interim, he started basketball so we really don't get much down time. 

Noah's Thanksgiving Celebration Program

Jordan's 3rd Grade Program

Lacrosse Season

Noah played in his last Lacrosse game of the season.  He has had an absolute blast and is already talking about giving up Baseball and playing Lacrosse full time.   Fortunately we have time to decide before both start up again in the spring.


Sunday was the team's last game.   The boys have improved so much over the course of the season and it all came together against Pope.

The Trojans jumped out to an early 8-2 lead.   Here is Noah scoring the a goal early in the game.
Noah Goal    (You may have to click it twice to get it normal size)
Pope came storming back to tie the game at 8-8 late in the 4th quarter.

With 2 minutes to go in the game, here is how it ended.
Game Winning Goal

We are so proud of the team which finished 5 wins against 3 losses.
Noah played great all season long and this last game was huge  for him. 2 Goals, 3 assists.
He ended the season with 3 goals and 13 assists.

The Natural - We had no idea whether or not...

The Natural - We had no idea whether or not Noah would like Lacrosse but apparently the kid is a natural. 5 assists in 2 games and loving every minute of it. View or comment on Steve Schwartz's post »

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Google + wtf

So I don't Facebook but I do blog (occasionally).   So I decided to tryout Google +.
No idea why but will give it a shot....  Google +

Disney Cruise!

We just got back from the Disney Dream and in a word, it was AWESOME.

The ship was amazing and we had an incredible time.   I can't say enough about how fun it was.  The ship, the food, the service, everything was 5-star.   The only negatives with the trip was that the weather was a bit overcast when we hit the Bahamas and Castaway Cay and 3 days was way too short.

Fall Sports

Fall Sports are underway and our schedule is CRAZY

Jordan is playing Soccer and has practices/games 3x a week.
She has Piano and Dance and also was selected to be in the Nutcracker for the Holiday season.  Add in that thing called school and she is fully booked.


Noah decided to pass on Fall Baseball and Soccer to try his hand at Lacrosse.

Cole is playing Travel Ball and was picked up by the Shaw Park Jackets.   The Fall / Winter schedule will be light and they will only play a few tournaments before moving inside for some winter conditioning.  He is really looking forward to the season.

I will post picks whenever possible.

Summertime Blues...or Blacks..

Who knew that less than 2 miles from the house is this awesome little farm.
Laura took the kids Blackberry picking today and they had a blast.

2011 10U Cougars - It's over

After 6 weeks of travel ball, it finally ended.  
The State tournament was held at Ft. Oglethorpe, GA (right on the GA / Tennessee border).  It was a great experience and the boys played a lot of baseball.  Unfortunately, it ended a few games short of a championship.

Of the 24 teams, our Sandy Plains Cougars finished 5th in the State.   It was a fun experience and hopefully Cole will look back on this as a really enjoyable time.

After working his tail off, he earned the leadoff spot in the lineup and the starting Second base job.
He really grew as a player both offensively and defensively. 

His final stats:

Name	PA	AB	H	RUNS	RBI	SB	BA	OB%
Schwartz	59	49	20	21	5	12	.408	.508

Priceless!

$150 for Tickets
$40 for Parking
$100 for Food
$50 for Souveniers


Spending a day with your family at Yankee Stadium (And a Yankees Win!)..........................Priceless