The Golden Birthday

My little girl is 15.

Fifteen years old on the 15th. The Golden Birthday.

When I think of fifteen years it sounds like such a long time ago; yet it has passed by in the blink of an eye.

My mom will appreciate this picture and memento from fifteen years ago. She (and my sister) were in GA visiting her sister when Joe called with the news that we were heading to the hospital. They hurriedly packed their bags and got to the airport with fingers crossed they could get on a flight to NM with stand-by tickets. While in the air my aunt received this note from the co-pilot and nonchalantly walked it back to my mom. She didn't say anything to my mom except, "Read this."

And then somewhere in the skies between GA and NM my mom found out that she became a grandma. (I'm sure the timing was a bit of a surprise since it had been less than 2 hrs since Joe called to say we were going to the hospital!)

The print is fading, but I think if you click on it you should be able to read it. One thing that has always stood out to me is statement "All is well."

I certainly did not feel that "all is well" at that time; but I can now certainly say that "all is well" indeed. 

Our local water park hosts a few special needs swim nights over the summer. It is after-hours and only for families with disabilities. One of their dates usually falls around the time of Kayla's birthday and for the past couple of years we've tried to incorporate this into her birthday party - but the weather has canceled (darn summer thunderstorms!) it each time. Thankfully, this year, on her golden birthday, it was golden. She finally had her "water park birthday party."

This year before blowing out her candles, Kayla put her hands together (as if in prayer) and said, "I wish my grandfather is in heaven." I don't recall her ever making a wish (we've never really done the 'make a wish before you blow out your candles" thing before) before, much less saying it out loud. The nature of her wish caught me off guard as well (and July 12th was 6 years since my dad passed away). I think my dad's way of saying he's still around is through Kayla.

 She finished a great birthday weekend at the Charleston RiverDogs baseball game (please ignore the fact that they are a NY Yankee affiliate - I have to every time we attend a game!) where the theme of "15" continued with her seat number! This was completely unplanned as we didn't have our seats until we got to the ticket booth and didn't look at our tickets until walking to our section.

This picture cracks me up. She doesn't usually get her head in the right position on these cutout boards, and she often has her hands up by her head so her fingers are sticking out ... but this ... actually looks hysterically realistic!

I'd say she had a pretty great 15th birthday!

Sweet Caroline and the Red Sox

It goes without saying that I'm a Red Sox fan. Unfortunately for me, the local minor league team here in Charleston (the RiverDogs) are a Yankee affiliate. We have gone to several games though and the kids enjoy it. A few of those games the RiverDogs have played the Greenville Drive. The Drive happen to be a minor league affiliate of the Red Sox. So it's cool to go to a Boston/New York rivalry game - minor league style.

Greenville is only 3 hrs away so this summer we went to see a game in their stadium - which is built after Fenway Park - Pesky's Pole and the Green Monster to boot!

A tradition at Fenway Park is the singing of the (unofficially official) anthem of the Red Sox: Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond. It's played at every game. They do the same at the Greenville Drive games, too. It's not quite like being at Fenway Park, but for living in SC it's as close as I'll get.

Kayla got into the song - and as you can see by the video - she makes a friend wherever she goes!

Sometimes You Meet Someone

In the summer of 2012 Kayla was invited to participate in the Charleston RiverDogs' HOPE Week.

The RiverDogs is the local minor league baseball team - a Class A Affiliate of the NY Yankees. HOPE Week (Helping Others Persevere & Excel) is a Yankee organization week-long community program that all of their affiliates participate in.

Being a Boston Red Sox fan I had to totally look past the whole Yankee-connection in letting Kayla participate!

She was the guest of honor at the Lowcountry Children's Museum where several players came to hang out for a few hours.

During her time at the museum Kayla connected with (now former) pitcher Dan Mahoney. When she was done with an activity she wanted to make sure he was following her to the next exhibit! They spent a fair amount of time together at the museum and he was a good sport at going along with what she wanted to do.

Getting pitching tips from Dan before she threw out the first pitch for the game that night.

A couple of months later we were at another game for Military Night and the kids both got to throw out a 'first pitch' ball. During the game Kayla kept looking for Dan and saying, "That my friend! He's my buddy!" After the game he came out of the locker room to meet with us for several minutes.

Before long the season ended and Dan headed home for the off-season; and to prepare for his wedding a few months later. He kept in touch with us via Facebook and I was floored when I received a message from him and his soon-to-be-wife letting me know of their plans.

In lieu of giving out wedding favors for their guests they were going to be making a donation to an organization and asked for our input on organizations that we support. I can't even tell you how touched I was by that gesture.

They used this picture of Kayla and Dan (I have to admit I cringed, cringed, when the RiverDogs gave Kayla this HOPE Week shirt at the game. Cringed that I was putting clothing on my daughter with a Yankee logo! Ha!)

They had this letter explaining their reasons for not having wedding favors and what they were doing instead. (Ultimately the donation ended up going to Research Down Syndrome when Joe ran in the Disney Half Marathon).

Sometimes you meet someone ...and you don't know how you'll make an impact on them, or how they will make an impact on you.

Thank you Dan and Laura!


 

Hanging With The Minor League

The RiverDogs are a Class A Affiliate baseball team here in Charleston. One of their games last month was "Kids Night" and Kayla and Lucas had the opportunity to run out on the field with a starting player during the introductions. I thought they would have fun doing something like that so I had to put aside my feelings that this team is an affiliate for that New York baseball team. And no, I wouldn't be referring to the Mets! I wish I would have had the kids wearing their Red Sox hats!

The player Lucas ran out with was Dante Bichette, Jr. His father played for the Red Sox, so that was pretty cool! Kayla ran out with Cito Culver.