Hangin' out with Friends

We hung out last night with the Kritikos family. The boys had a great time swimming and having fun. John and Sam stayed over the night so I am sure they were up till a late hour playing wii, that means they will both be exhausted today when they come home. The count down to going back to school is on, only 2 more weeks. School Uniforms are all sorted, supplies for Sam are all bought and put away. This summer break has gone so fast, I think its because Sam's baseball lasted for so long. The boys are not happy campers at the thought of wearing this uniform, I like it because I am used to it, the kids all look smart going to school. Lets see how long it lasts before the county changes it back again.

Blog Make Over.....

Ok, so you all know how I like change and get bored with stuff really easily, eg Sunglasses, Shoes, Bags, phones..........!!!! I decided to change my blog. After weeks of searching through other peoples blogs I decided to change the look of mine, and now I am totally undecided whether to change altogether to mac. I have a mac book and the blog facilities are way better than this blogspot stuff..... I have had this style blog for the day now and must admit I quite like it, and iweb is being way to complicated for me.... I will keep this and see how it goes.

Sunday Night Sleepover.....

Cooper, Sams friend came to stay over today, when he first came in to our house Misty his mom told us that Cooper isnt too good with dogs, he took a while to warm up to Maggie but once he did and he realised she was as soft as a brush he was lovin' her, look at him giving her some meat left over from dinner. Maggie is so good with kids, we should of called her NANA. We also had a huge storm tonight, Cooper was a bit nervous he doesn't like storms, so we closed all the shutters in the house and watched Benchwarmers, we turned the sound up so loud it was like being in the movies, he didn't even realise a pretty big storm was rolling through..... I love having the kids friends over to stay their topic of conversation is baseball baseball baseball, its so funny to listen to them. Cooper was on Sam's all star team and he was the teams big hitter and 3rd baseman.

Hangin at the pool....

Finally, the rains have stopped, for the time being anyway, and we are back at the pool, we went along with Stefano tonight Sams friend. They had good fun, wrestling and throwing a ball in the pool, we were the only ones there so they could splash and make as much noise as they liked. We stayed till about 9pm, when the mosquitos were coming out. Sam always gets eaten alive so we came home. Only 3 more weeks till they go back to school, where has the time gone......

Its 3pm......

Its 3pm, you can almost set your watch by it, the storms have been arriving in Orlando around about 3pm everyday. When we are set to go the pool we cant. These pictures are at 3pm today and its dark and the thunder is so loud you can feel the power off it shake the house, lightening is strong and the winds are blowing. The top picture is the water coming out of the drain pipe its raining so hard. Maggie isnt happy she is running around the house panting, she hates these storms. This is a long one its lasted about 25 minutes I hope we dont see anymore Catfish...... ewww

56 Years

Happy 56th Wedding Anniversary mum and dad, 56 years that is such a long time....... Congratulations we love you both....xxx

RIP Sammy the Siamese Fighting Fish......

So after weeks of hanging on and hanging on...... Sammy the Siamese Fighting Fish went to the big pond in the sky......!!!!
After 4 years of being in our family he played a big part in the lives of the Birchalls, every morning he used to jump out of his bowl to eat a pellet of food being dropped into him. He always swam around his bowl when you were around and always, Sammy was on the defensive and snarled at you when you looked at him, like he could take on you and all your friends. After all is said and done he was Sam's fish, and Sam is very upset tonight, although he doesn't look it in this photograph.

Raining FISH.......

We had massive storms in Celebration today, really torrential rains, John went out to get the mail and bumped into this bad boy, he must of washed up out of the drains.... he was ugly and was thrashing about, so we guided him back to the drain so he could get back to where he came from. None of us would touch it or pick it up so we had to get a lid off a box to help push him along.

Still smilin'....

The boys are still smilin'.... Sam had his friend Wyatt to stay over last night they were really good and went to bed at a reasonable hour. More than can be said from when Hector stayed and him and John stayed up till 5.15am playing wii.

Dream is over......

A tough tough game today we played Oviedo, they played really well, they hit every ball and didnt make too many errors. We are all really proud of the boys and they way they played throughout these tournament games, the President of CLL pointed out to us that these boys are the only team to of won a Sectional game for Celebration, that in itself is a wonderful achievement. Sam is happy that they achieved so much, but sad they wont get to go Freeport, a vacation with his team would be his idea of a great time. Next year we will come back stronger and wiser. GO CELEBRATION.....!!!!

A tough Loss...

We looked good in warm ups.......the master was at work......... but today we just couldn't pull it off. The kids were exhausted after not getting to bed before 1am and then having to be up again at 6am, it was a factor when it came to the game. The other team were fresh and ready to go, they had an early finish the night before, our boys were tired and went flat into the game, that was team we could of beaten. Sam made a couple of great catches in the outfield, he is taking after his brother for the center field dive...... We need Windermere to win today for all the teams to go into tomorrow equal....

Sectional Win.....

We played our first sectional game last night against Windermere who are one of the favourites to win the Sectional Tournament, our team played like true champs and smoked em......!!!!!
16-6, the coach of the other team came over to our boys and listed all the good teams that they had beaten this year and told our boys that nobody had ever hit off his team like we did EVER.... We are so proud of the boys. Also the 11 year old celebration team won tonight too and they have made the championship game which will be played tomorrow.

Poor John.......

Last night, after the 12yr old game was cancelled we decided to grab a pizza while we headed off home to watch the final episode of Hells Kitchen. We stopped at Papa Johns, and picked up a pizza with all different kinds of meat on it, Sam got just white cheese. I am glad Sam and I didn't eat the meat pizza, Keith said he felt crap all night, and John was not doing to good this morning, he had a dose of "Deli Belly"...... Consequently today he has just laid on the couch all day watching Starsky and Hutch and The Royale Family, a classic......

Well Done Rafa.....

Gotta put this on our Blog, well done to Rafa, I knew it was going to be his year at Wimbledon, he played fantastic and deserved the win. Rafa if you ever come across our blog, and are in Celebration, give me a call and I will give you a game.......LOL

Milkin' it.....

I know and I absolutely don't care, that we are milkin' this win........LOL We are so proud of the boys, we talk about the win all day every day. I thought you would like to see the winning hit and the winning run.... What a night, I must admit we are exhausted from a week of stressful baseball. We all slept in today till 11.30am and have had a really lazy day, we watched some Wimbledon and later we are off to friends for a cook out.....

Happy July 4th

Celebration Little League had an All Star turn out for the 4th July parade downtown. The All Stars got to walk at the front of the parade. The 9-10yr old DISTRICT 3 CHAMPIONS got to walk with their winners banner everyone gave them big cheers for their amazing achievement. Sam is looking forward to seeing the board lifted onto Stellwag field with their names on it.

We Are The Champions

Florida District 3 Champions

Oh my goodness, I have never experienced anything like tonight. 9-10yr olds are Florida District 3 Champions, they played an amazing game tonight. Each and every kid played their part in the victory, it was incredible. We held a 2-0 score all the way until the last inning and then St Cloud tied the game. We had to play an extra inning and every one was on the edge of their seat my heart was pounding out of my chest, it was very tense and so emotional. I sat on those bleachers and prayed so hard........ The good lord answered my prayers, we ended up winning 3-2. I will post a few more pictures from tonight here...... Dad I wish you could of been there it was like Istanbul, Champions League Final 2005, only a thousand times worse............!!!!!

Sams Interview at the end of the game

Stevie G;s interview after the game......Oh no sorry Sam's Interview after the game.........

The score board at the end of the game.......

Finalists 9-10yr Old All Stars

So, right here your looking at finalists...... the 9-10yr olds played a game and a half today to secure a place in the Finals tomorrow night. We had to play the end of a game that was cancelled last night, we had to win that, which we did....... We then had to play the Semi Finals right after, that always worries me, playing double headers is not good for the kids, it is a long time to keep your head in the game. The team we beat tonight were the no 1 team, so I am hopeful for tomorrow night, I am in my bedroom writing this blog to you and Sam is in the shower singing "we are the champions........" LOL