Building A Life: Let's Go Cardinals!

For our date in May, my date with Millie was to attend a sporting event. Well, when you live in St. Louis, that pretty much means that you go to a Cardinals game! Which was fine by us! I found some tickets for a Wednesday day game, took the day off of work, and picked the girls up early from school. We dropped Merrill off at home and headed downtown. Our first stop was Gus' Pretzels but the line was ridiculous so we bailed on that and headed to Llywelyn's in Soulard for lunch. Millie very much enjoyed her grilled cheese and once we finished eating we had a short wait for the the trolley to the game. Millie was pretty excited for the trolley ride and wanted to be the first one aboard.

When we got to the game, we immediately ran into a short line of people waiting to get their picture taken with Fredbird. Millie gave Fredbird a high five a couple of years ago was really happy to relive the experience. After that we found our seats and watched a little bit of the game. It was a great day for the game but it was a little hot, so we opted to walk around a little bit. I wanted to get the girls each a hat for t-ball so we went to find a place to pick one out. Millie started to bug for me for everything but a hat...a t-shirt, a baseball, a jersey... I think she was just not too impressed with the hat selection. I ended up getting her a t-shirt and we saw a hat at a pagoda that she really liked - so she ended getting both. As you can see in the pictures she really like them and we had a wardrobe change - she even wore them the next day to school.

After that, we went back and watched some more of the game. Millie was really interested in the people, sights and sounds. She is really starting to begin to understand the game and get interested in the rules. She also realized that there was ice cream to be had and started to bug me for some ice cream. I gave in on that one too - it was really pretty hot and I couldn't deny it would hit the spot so Millie got to also have some Ben & Jerry's.

The last thing Millie really wanted to do was to get to the 7th inning stretch for Take me out to the ballgame. It was a little disappointing - they had a children's choir who did a nice job but they were kind of quiet and no one was singing very much. I am not sure she would have known it was even happening if I hadn't told her but she got to sing it. Hopefully the next game will be a little more spirited.

We watched the Cards bat again and then headed out a little early. We lucked out as the trolley was just pulling away and hopped on and we on our way home. I asked Millie what her favorite part was and she said "Watching the game - you thought I was going to say ice cream...". We got the final score on the way home and found out that the Cards pulled out the win! We got home with daylight to spare and Millie wanted to play some baseball. I think T-ball is going to be a lot of fun!

It was a great day and a great time. Millie got to be spoiled a little bit (ok maybe a lot) but it doesn't happen too often and it really was a nice and rewarding day. I have always loved going to baseball games and really enjoyed sharing that with Millie who is now at an age where she can appreciate it a little bit. Hopefully she will remember when her dad took her to a Cardinals game with just the two of us. I am looking forward to repeating the experience with Merrill someday and with Millie many more times in the future! The next game will be in Detroit for the whole family which I am super excited about - our last Tigers game was when Millie was 9 months old!!