J. has been intrigued by the game of cricket for many, many years now. When I was working in London he came over and managed to scavenge an old cricket bat from the Portobello Road Antique market. At the time I was not entirely sure why he was buying an old, beat-up bat. But now it stands beside our bed and I feel a little safer on weeks like this one, when he is traveling out of town, and that bat is within arm’s reach.

(Note to any potential robbers and thieves – the bat is HEAVY and SOLID, and I’ve been doing the hundred push-up challenge, so keep it movin’. Nothing to see at our house.)

So, where were we? Oh yes. J. And crazy about cricket. So this past weekend he asked us if we would like to go to the Hollywood Ashes cricket match.

Crickets? Yes! I want to see crickets…

Who can say no to crickets? Plus there were some celebrities slated to be there. And it was free. So off we went.

(This is Addie’s non-stop “skip” caught on camera. For some reason she has been led to believe that she is a great “skipper” and proceeds to skip everywhere we go now. For the record, she is not really all that coordinated in the skipping department, but it is awfully cute.)

Imagine Em and Ad’s surprise when the “crickets” looked like this…

And this…

But they quickly discovered the bounce house that was set up, and pretty much just spent the rest of the afternoon jumping their little legs off.

The bit of match that I got to see was pretty interesting.  And it got MUCH more interesting once J. found a quick little fact/rule sheet so I knew what was actually going on.  Plus (and I didn’t take any photos of them!) they had pasties! Mmm….not nearly as good as my Aunty’s – but they were tasty.

And Daddy ended up buying a practice set (a new bat, ball, and wickets) and is now planning on teaching his little crickets how to play.