I am a baseball mom

Our baseball season is briefly ending this weekend with a road trip to a state tournament.

My oldest son, 9yrs, plays for a local travel baseball team.

They started practicing in January, tournaments started in March and about to wrap things up for a couple of months.

This is what my foyer area has looked like for the last 4 months.

I'm seriously hoping to fix this before we start up fall ball.  ;)

Gotta little project hoping to help in the garage.

We don't travel far, but it usually means a whole day.

With 3 younger siblings along for the ride.

We bring LOTS of stuff.

One area park just outside our city, has NO shade.

So I got a cool giant sports umbrella from Sam's.

My rolling cart is awesome. It fits loads of snacks and toys for the younger spectators.

Z man usually pitches or plays right field.

We go through batting gloves like water.

But this boy LOVES his baseball.

Never tires of it.

Has played 30 games so far this year, about to play at least 4 more, and is still not ready to be done.

This awesome pop up tent has been great for the other kiddos.

We got it back when the oldest 2 were babies and we took a trip to the beach.

It rolls up into a flat circle.

Makes for great shade or protection from early season cool breezes.

And a place for tired ones to curl up for a while.

We bring lots of food always.

I love a yummy ball park hotdog, but we are at the park too much to be eating those all the time.

I got these cool containers from Old Navy.

They not only hold each kids lunch but folds out to eat from as well.

Z isn't the only ball player we have in the house.

This was Micah's second and last year in t-ball.

So being a 4 year baseball mom veteran I have a few tips that I've learned thus far and what works for me.  ;) 

Here are some of my fav related products:

IRON OUT~it works miracles on red clay and white baseball pants.

I just figured out to use it well.  You can't go by the directions on the container.

It is very toxic, so work carefully.  I pour a ton into a small plastic clean wastecan and some hot water to cover the pants.  Soak over night.  Wash in washing machine.  Voila, white pants.

You can get it at Walmart in the plumbing section.

ROLLING CART~I got mine from Staples.  It holds our sidewalk chalk, picnic blankets, pop up tent. cooler bags, etc.

SPORT-BRELLA~Got ours at Sam's.  Makes for nice shade over a picnic blanket for the little ones.

Frogg Togg Chilly pad~a must have for when you play ball in the deep south when spring brings 90F++ heat for like 20 days plus straight.  Really helpful when Z played 3 games this past Sunday in 97F heat.

Zachary has trouble with his heels and foot pain in his cleats.

One thing we do to try to help is he takes them off immediately after/between games and put these on.

As far as my strategy for keeping the siblings happy during our long tournament days, I bring lots of stuff.

Crafty stuff.  Like copy paper and crayons, stickers.  I've gotten wooden snakes and wood markers from Oriental Trading before.  Or clothespin dolls.

I really try to change it up.

Small toys.  Like squinkies or mini Lala Loopsey dolls.

Sometimes colored rice and petshop animals.

Or playdough or sidewalk chalk.

I avoid bubbles.  I found out the hard way during an all-star tournament last summer that folks tend to get upset when the bubbles float across the batters box.  :)

Snacks.  Here I am careful because I have boredom snackers.  So I bring a lot of healthy stuff so I have no problem handing over snacks when they get the frequent munchies.  ;)

Here are our staples:  grapes (kept super cold in the cooler are quite refreshing), sweet peppers, unsalted cashews, string cheese, ham n cheese tortilla wraps,popcorn, homemade granola bars and homemade salsa and chips.

I do bring a couple of treats for reward for patient good behavior.  ;)