February

 February is a short but busy month with holidays, birthdays, vacation, sports and fun.

Chip and wine pairing class

Dad's at the Bourbon, BBQ and Beer festival

Moms at a Daytime Rave

Avery (11 years, 6 months) - After a winter weather delay, Avery had her final Sound of Music performance. She also wrapped up her basketball season. She and dad continued their tradition of seeing Harry Potter with the Atlanta Symphony, catching Deathly Hallows part 2 this year.

GT Baseball opening day

Parker (14 years, 3 months) - Parker celebrated the end of wrestling season with the annual banquet where the team all received t shirts to commemorate their championship season and Parker got a plaque to celebrate his wins. He started spring practice for baseball and is running track at school. 

Proud of his catch - still fishing when he can

Carter (15 years, 9 months) - Carter wrapped up wrestling season earning a Varsity letter, Mat Mentor award and recognized for the state All-Academic team. Carter ended up as the state alternate coming out of sectionals but he went to cheer on the team for the weekend supporting 3 of his teammates as State Champions. He started baseball season and is focusing on finishing the school year strong.

Volunteering at a Blaze wheelchair basketball practice

Siblings - We celebrated mom's birthday and family Valentine's day at Amore e Amore with a festive dinner.

Winter Break in Savannah

For Avery's Winter Break she wanted to go see the Savannah Bananas play so the girls headed to Savannah for a full weekend of Banana Ball. Avery has been a fan of Banana Ball for a while but her interest has really grown over the past year so she was thrilled to get to go to the first games of the season.

First and most recent Banana Ball game

We fit in some Savannah fun around the baseball games including a trolly tour, pirate museum, ghost tour, shopping and good food.

Waving Girl statue

Avery's dinner choice.... Melting Pot

Ghost Tour

Pirate Museum

Forsyth Park

It was "pre-season" for the league (they called it Secret Peel weekend), so we were able to go to 3 games and see all 6 teams play. Up first were the Firefighters v. Loco Beach Coconuts. The Coconuts are one of two new teams this year and have a Hawaiian/Beach theme. We were able to score Banana Ball Backstage tickets to all three games which gave us access to pre-game player meet and greet, early access to pick seats and some fun extras along the way.

Posters for the players to sign

First Firefighter we met - Chief

Avery's favorite Coconut - Dalton Mauldin

Dancing Umpire

Chief tried to photo-bomb the background

Loco Beach coach

Signing the fan wall in right field

Avery picked front row seats right behind home plate

Banana Ball founder - Jesse Cole

Game 2 was Party Animals versus Indianapolis Clowns. The Clowns are the other new team and they were created with the Negro Baseball Hall of Fame to review the former Clowns team. The original team started in the 40s as part of the Negro league and continued until 1989 playing a "Harlem Globetrotters" type of baseball which made them a perfect fit for Banana Ball. There was a lot of care taken with preserving the history of the team and their pre-game introductions and entertainment crew were incredibly moving to watch. 

Avery's favorite mascot - Pharty

Hanging out in the dugout

Avery insisted we sit in the same seats again

Our last game was Savannah Bananas vs. Texas Tailgaters. Avery was very excited to see her favorite players, all named Jackson. We finally had time to check out the Banana's dugout. And we moved seats across the aisle (to Avery's dismay) but it was a great end to a fun filled weekend! And thankfully for Avery she has several more Banana Ball games in her plans for the year.

Avery got to radio in a shoutout request to the in-game audio team

She declined to try the unicycle

Avery's boots were a huge hit with the Tailgaters cheer squad

Princess Potassium

Checking out the Banana's dugout