Nate's First Baseball Game

Ben took off the first week of August, and instead of going somewhere exciting with Mr. Crankypants McWakefulBritches, we decided to do some fun things around Madison.  The girls had earned free kids tickets to the Mallards game through the library summer reading program, so we decided to go to a game one evening.  The Mallards are a summer college league, and the game we chose to go to was kind of an all-star game, with the best kids from each team competing.  It is always fun to watch the Mallards play, and this game was no exception.  We saw about six stolen bases, including two separate instances where home was stolen.  Add in a few home runs and a couple wild throws, and it made for some exciting baseball.  We figured that the stands right behind home plate were full of scouts, since they were all single men with radar guns and clipboards.

The girls' favorite part of the game was getting to see all the team mascots.  I have no idea what some of these mascots were supposed to be, but the girls didn't mind; they seemed to really like the dog and the beaver.  As we were walking around the stadium, we came across an area where all the mascots were hanging out.  After overcoming their shyness, the girls enjoyed going up to each one and giving them a high five.

While they did really enjoy chasing after the different mascots, their real favorite part was probably getting to eat cotton candy.

Nathaniel was curious about the hot dogs, but he didn't get to try one.  Still no teeth!

We sat on the third base side behind the foul ball net.  It was fun to sit so close to the field!  Because the game was in the late afternoon, we were looking right into the sun, so it's a good thing we'd brought sun glasses and hats.  Ben bought himself a Mallards hat so that I could wear his Cardinals hat, wasn't that sweet?  Megan was giving us some attitude that day, whining about all kinds of different things, so this is the best group shot I got.  Oh well.

Nathaniel was a happy baby most of the time, though! 

We ended up leaving right after the 7th inning stretch so that everyone could get to bed at a reasonable time.  Amelia was NOT pleased to leave before the game was over.  Like mother, like daughter, right?  She wanted to stay until the end to see if the Mallards won - she had no idea that the Mallards weren't actually playing...