Who Is Number Eighty-Nine?

Somebody's going to hand your kid a trading card on Friday night, and it won't have a name on it. Just a number. Eighty-nine. On the back there's a code. Scan it, and you find out he was a Batavia receiver back in the early nineteen-eighties who never really left, and who's been standing on a Bulldog sideline most Friday nights for thirty years. That's the whole thing. No name on the card. Guess before the person next to you does.

This is Batavia This Week, the edition for families with kids.

So let's start with Friday, September eleventh, because your kids are going to hear about it whether you bring them or not. Batavia Bulldogs Football hosts Lake Park at Bulldog Stadium out at the high school. Sophomores play at four thirty in the afternoon, varsity kicks off at seven. It's Difference Maker Night, and everybody who walks through the gate gets one of those mystery cards, handed out by students. It's card three of a ten-card set, and right now it's the only card that exists. They're expecting somewhere between two and four thousand people, so if you want your kid to actually have one in their hand, come early. Tickets go through GoFan. If you can't get there, it's on HUDL or BATV.

One parent-to-parent note. The four thirty sophomore game is the gentler option with little ones. Same stadium, same gates, smaller crowd, and you can be home before the bedtime meltdown.

The rest of this week is beginnings. Quiet ones, mostly.

Tuesday is the first day of school at Batavia Covenant Preschool on Main Street, with Wednesday right behind it. It's a play-based program for ages two through five, four class levels, and they're welcoming back returning families and new ones together. If you've got a toddler and you've been wondering what the four-year-old day actually looks like in this town, this is the kind of program that's easy to drive past and never notice. Picture day is Saturday morning, outdoors around the church building with photographer Beth Koch, so if your child's enrolled, that's your reminder.

Friday morning at eleven, before all the football, there's a Homeschool Social at Slick City Action Park in North Aurora, over on Towne Center Drive. Indoor slides, air courts, and a room full of families on the same schedule you are. If you're homeschooling in Batavia and haven't found your people yet, a weekday morning with everyone else's kids running off energy is a pretty good place to start. Same place also has Family Fun Day on Wednesday at one in the afternoon and again on Sunday, if Friday doesn't work.

Saturday morning is the good one. Get to the Batavia Farmers Market on North River Street by eight, because Water Street Studios has the Kids Tent set up with a family art activity. It's free. Your kid makes something, you talk to an actual artist, and you still get your tomatoes.

Then at ten, walk over to Batavia City Hall for the America 250 Mural Unveiling. Water Street Studios is behind this one too. It's a permanent public artwork by Marty Gniech, celebrating two hundred fifty years of American life, and there'll be live performances, a chance to meet the artist, family activities and pop-ups. Also free. This is the kind of thing your kids will walk past for the next twenty years, and they'll remember being there the morning it was uncovered. Market first, mural second. That's your Saturday.

Sunday morning, Sunday School starts up again at Immanuel Lutheran Church on Hart Road, nine thirty in the morning, one hour each week. Registration is open now. It's a small thing to put on the calendar, but a new year of it starting is worth knowing about.

And then, Sunday, don't cook. Batavia Moose Lodge Number Six Eighty-Two does Pizza Sunday on the second Sunday of the month, September through April, and it's on this week. Dine in or take-and-bake and throw it in your own oven. There's also a three in the afternoon serving on Wednesday. Here's the part I like. The proceeds fund the lodge's Mooseheart kids' Christmas activities. So a pizza your family didn't have to make turns into Christmas for kids who need it. That's a fair trade.

That's the week. School starts, art gets unveiled, and a mystery man in a Bulldog jersey finally gets named on a Friday night in September. Come early, get the card, scan it, and try to guess first.

The full list of everything happening in town is at bataviail.co. This has been Batavia This Week.