Take me out to the ballgame. Take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and Crackerjacks. I don’t care if I ever get back…

My wife, Christine, and I recently purchased a new home and moved in last November in South Reno. It is our first home purchase in our lives. As is typical with new homeowners, my wife and I were excited to put some color on our walls in our new home. We have waited a long time to have a place to call our own. We’re both in our 30s now and that’s not such a bad thing, but we have had some time to think about what we want to do to style and decorate our home all while we were renting. With a depressed market in Reno, Nevada, it was the perfect opportunity for my wife and I to get into a new home at rock-bottom prices and interest rates. We were able to buy our home with what seems like pennies on the dollar compared to what we witnessed when we were living in the Washington, DC metro area.

Our son is currently two years-old, so he doesn’t really have a choice in the décor in his bedroom just yet. Being a fan of the sport of baseball, I chose, and my wife went along with it, a baseball theme for my son’s room. She was able to pick out the “Princess Ballerina” room décor for our four year-old daughter, so we were able to come to common ground with each other on design aesthetics. We found this great lamp shade at Pottery Barn kids and paired it with a lamp from Ikea, ordered a custom piggy bank with a baseball theme, found a great canvas print of Fenway Park at Target while we were living on the East Coast, and have picked up miscellaneous baseball-related items along the way.

That being said, my wife and I have been busy pinning things on Pinterest. We found this really great idea that someone pinned, a baseball wall for a boy’s room, and I wanted to try the to do that myself. In fact, the instructions appeared relatively easy to follow.

How I made the baseball wall for my son’s room

1. I started by painting a vintage looking white that is actually named, “Antique White” on the wall.
2. Next, I used my yardstick/level to trace out a half circle on the top left and the bottom right of the wall in pencil.
3.  I also perform the same technique in pencil to trace out the stitching of the baseball.
4. Once that was complete, I used the “Moose Mousse” color to paint the semicircle line.
5. Finally, I used “Boston Red Sox Red” to paint the red stitching.

All in all, it turned out really well. I eyeballed the stitching, so that’s why there is some bunching up in the lower portion of the left-hand side of the baseball wall. My son was so happy and surprised when he came home from daycare that now he refers to his room as the “baseball room”. I think I really made his day.

What you think? Does the baseball wall really tie the room together? My son seems to think so, and that’s all that matters when it’s all said and done.

Paint Colors

We used the Valspar Signature Gallon Interior Semi-Gloss Tintable Paint and Primer in One that can be found at Lowe’s.  It made it really easy to refer to the colors using the My Lowe’s card.  The program is great to track all of our paint colors because, as we all know, with kids, there is always a reason for paint touch-ups.  I don’t like to always keep cards in my wallet, so I use the Key Ring iPhone/iPad app on my phone to keep track of them all and the retail business will just scan the barcode that is displayed on my phone upon checking out.

Valspar Colors: Antique White, Boston Red Sox Red, and Moose Mousse

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Take me out to the ballgame… with Reno Aces Baseball!

At the time of this post, the Reno Aces baseball team have entered their second straight postseason in the Pacific Coast League of Triple A professional baseball. The Reno Aces are an affiliate team of the Arizona Diamondbacks (otherwise known as the D’backs).

For families in the Reno/Sparks, Truckee Meadows area, the Reno Aces provide a wonderful opportunity to attend, teach and explore the game of baseball. Previously, Reno was home to the Reno Chuckars, Reno Blackjacks, who are now the Tucson Toros, from 1947-2008), the Reno Padres and many an adult softball team played as an extracurricular activity. The sheer number of baseball fields in this region is amazing. There is even a huge sports complex in Wingfield Springs in Sparks called Golden Eagle Regional Park. The point is, baseball is in the blood of just about every inhabitant of the Truckee Meadows. Many citizens even follow the University of Nevada, Reno Wolf Pack baseball exploits.

Each year the Wolf Pack and Reno Aces play an exhibition game. This year the Wolf Pack won. That’s an indicator of how good the college level team is, here in Reno. We love our baseball.

Take me out with the crowd…

Fans are able to pick their Major League team of choice because we don’t have an MLB team here in Reno. Many stick to Bay Area teams in California and some even belong to the Red Sox Nation or are avid Cubs and Yankees fans. Even though we can’t attend every game in the majors of the team we follow, we still follow them for many reasons.

Now that we have our own professional Triple A team to root for here in Reno since 2009, we do so with a passion. I see just as many Reno Aces memorabilia from hats to shirts and beyond as I do Giants, Red Sox and Yankees gear, here in Reno. When we lived in Washington, DC, that wasn’t the case for the Nationals (we call them the “Nats”). Red Sox and just about all other team fans outnumbered the Nats fans and that is when the team they were a fan of wasn’t playing. I can’t say that is the case these days, because the Nationals finally found their groove and are doing well this year, but since 2006 (when we arrived for our brief stint in Washington, DC) that wasn’t the case.

Now, on to the main course of this post. The Reno Aces ballpark is eerily reminiscent of Nationals Stadium (a new ballpark dedicated for the 2008 season), but just on a smaller scale. With seats down the first and third baseline and two decks of seats, it is a much smaller stadium, yet it has all of the luxury of Nationals Stadium. The neon fixtures are also much the same as Nationals Stadium.

Regardless of the size, the experience remains the same and by many accounts, even my own, more intimate when you have a Triple A team to root for. Being much closer to the field and within earshot of the players, the fans can really make an impact at this ballpark.

Buy me some peanuts and Crackerjacks…

What is really great about this park is the play area for kids. Complete with a mini baseball diamond and climbing structure it is a place to take the young ones when they are done sitting and ready to get up to move around. On the day that I attended an afternoon Sunday game, they also had a bounce house for kids to romp around in. Even though the kids area could use more features, it was enough to take the kids over there for a couple of innings while they wanted to get up and move around. It’s definitely nothing like the Playstaion Pavilion when the ballpark first opened in Washington, DC.

Overall, the prices are better than most Major League games to buy tickets and about the same inside the park. They are a bit steep and it is advised that you make sure that you aren’t too hungry when you arrive or you might spend a little more than you’d like on a hot dog, beer/soda/water, or cotton candy. But that’s a part of the experience, right?

Parking around the park ranges from free (if you can find it) to $10, depending on the convenience you’re looking for in getting to the stadium. If you choose a free location, you might walk a block or two; it’s not that far.

I don’t care if I ever get back…

If you haven’t been to the ballpark, I highly recommend you do so. Not only to watch great baseball, but to build memories with your family. What could be better than that?

Oh yeah, be sure to bring a baseball glove, foul balls can come out of nowhere.

[Picture an old organ cranking up some music for the 7th inning stretch; won’t you join me?] Take me out to the ballgame… Buy me some peanuts and Crackerjacks… I don’t care if I ever get back… 1, 2, 3 strikes your out at the ol’ ball game! That song sure puts a smile on my face. How about you? We hope to see you out at a game in the future. Go Reno Aces!!!

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