Baseball, Billy Goats, and Meat

A couple of weeks ago, I learned that I wouldn't be babysitting during the day anymore. The kids I was watching are now going to daycare/preschool to get the four-year-old ready for kindergarten. So that was a little change for us! The gave us two weeks' notice, which we really appreciated, and the last day, they paid me and didn't bring the kids over (on purpose). I thought that was a nice gesture.

So I had a day with just me and Robbie last Friday. Erin's class was doing a reader's theater at school that day, so we got to go to that. After dropping her off at school, Robbie and I killed time before going back for the rousing rendition of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff".

We went to the Wal-Mart in Maryvale to buy Ziplocks and managed to spend plenty of time looking through the store. Good thing that one still has fish to look at.

After that, it was off to the library for the remainder of our time! But alas, the library's hours have been cut ala recession and they weren't open yet. I didn't want to go to the park because Robbie had flip-flops on (not too park-friendly). Then it occurred to me that we were right by the Marvale baseball park where the Brewers have spring training! Robbie? Baseball? Perfect! Off we went to watch batting practice. We walked along the outside fence, peeking in through the air holes in the batter's eye and through the gaps in the fence.

Robbie was pretty happy to see "baseball guys" in their uniforms and doing their thing! Finally a ball rolled over near us, and this guy picked it up and handed it to Robbie with the instructions to not break any windows. He was pretty happy! "Official Major Leage Baseball" it says beneath the grass stain.

After that, we went to sit in the grass behind the outfield and wait for something to come over the fence. It wasn't too long before one sailed out and Robbie got to run after it and field it. Two baseballs! He had a good day.

We picked up a Five-Dolla Footlong and went to Erin's school. The kids were cute, reading their parts from behind their goat and troll masks. Robbie liked seeing Erin in her classroom, and she was happy waving back to him. We ate lunch, and Erin's old kindergarten teacher came over and visited with Robbie for a little bit about his ASU shirt. He replied with "Go Devils" and produced the pitchfork for her. She's a cool teacher, and I hope she's still around when Robbie is in kindergarten!

Rob's step-dad sells meat, so we always buy in bulk from him. We used some of our tax return money to buy lots of meat from him, and he came over to deliver it to us later that afternoon. Robbie got to see his Papa Dan, and we had a nice little visit. And a fridge full of meat. (See why we needed the Ziplocks? To divide & freeze insane amounts of ground beef)

It was a good day. Baseball, billy goats, and meat. OH, and Rob shampooed our living room carpet that night. It was MUCH-needed!