Baseball Season is Here. . .

The boys played their first baseball games this past Saturday morning. Each boy played a game and Graydon had a double header. Team pictures were beforehand. We were at the diamonds from 9:40am until 2pm that day! I'm kind of grateful that Bella decided not to play this year. That would be three different ball schedules - which would mean that we'd be living at the diamonds all summer. We're already going to be there plenty between the boys.

Here is Curtis before his game.


Warming up beforehand.


Up to bat. Go Curtis!


Enjoying his post game snack.


Graydon's good at the "batter chatter". "Hey batter batter. Swing!"






Love these boys so much!


As if we didn't already spend enough of our Saturday at the field, we went back later that night for some extra hitting practice. The boys picked out new bats and we wanted to try them out. It was a beautiful night, so why not. :)

Mystery Dinner

We hosted the boys' church youth group this past Friday night for a Mystery Dinner. (S.W.A.T. is the name of their youth group. It stands for Service-Worship-Action-Teaching).


The menu consisted of 16 items and four courses. Each item had a strange name, so the kids never knew exactly what they were ordering. Examples include: "Nature's Tears" for water, "High Riser" for bread roll, "Freezing Girl Scout" for brownies and ice cream, "Cloudy with a Chance" for meatballs, etc. Forks, spoons, and napkin were also included on the menu. Here are the kids making their choices.




We had to keep the food choices a secret and the food prep area hidden so that they didn't have any clues about what the food could be. We also used different colored plates for each course to help keep track of what course each kid was on.


Curtis ended up with a brownie and ice cream only he hadn't ordered his spoon or a fork yet.


So he had to get creative.


There were some funny combinations.

After dinner, the kids made cards for members of our church who are on our prayer list. All twelve kids signed the cards and Andy will deliver them when he goes to visit each of those members.


And judging by all of the noise and laughter, it seems like all of the kids had a fun time.

Go, Go Jonah

The community choir that the boys are a part of had their little production last Sunday night.

Here's a little sample of the music. They learned quite a few songs and motions and many of the kids had several lines to learn as well. Curtis played the part of "Chris" who was a child visiting the Bible museum. He spoke a lot and even had a little duet.






Graydon played the part of Jonah. This photo is the part of the story when Jonah is sleeping in the ship while the storm is raging.




Drawing sticks to see who would have to walk the plank.


It was Jonah.


Graydon didn't have any speaking lines in his role, but with his facial expressions and actions, we knew exactly what was going on. After the play, Graydon received so many compliments about his role.








Everyone did such a great job!

Overview from the past few months. . .

I've been lazy over the past few months about getting pictures off of Andy's phone and uploading them to the blog. I think his hundreds of photos from Israel overwhelmed me and so I avoided it. I'm not tackling Israel here on the blog because I wouldn't be able to explain anything about the pictures, but I finally sorted through the various family photos that he took.

Here is Bella riding a hoverboard at the confirmation retreat in early March.


Curtis had some money burning a hole in his pocket, so Andy took him shopping at Target where he bought some Yu-gi-oh cards.


They also got some "coffee".


Eating out at Steak 'n Shake


Bella got a little bored over Spring Break so she decided to braid her hair.




Another Spring Break photo - guys time bowling.


Chinese Checkers is a favorite game these days. They played with Gaga when they were here for Andy's birthday and Bella's confirmation at the end of March.


Andy had pre-synod church meeting all morning on his birthday. One of the women made this cake with the Moravian seal on it. Her attention to detail was very impressive!


Gifts that Andy brought back from Israel for his parents.


This was Bella's first year that she was old enough to attend the spring rally with the older kids from church. She had so much fun and learned some new dances in her free time.


The boys are part of a community children's choir that performed at a community event in April.


Graydon has expressed an interest in learning to play an instrument. Mr. Dodd had a spare trumpet, so he's letting Graydon use it.


Graydon decided this year that he wanted to participate in our school's talent show. There wasn't as much interest this year as there was in the past, so they weren't able to do it, but this is a part of his try-out.


Baseball season has arrived and we are gearing up to spend most of our evenings at the diamonds. Here are the boys after practice one evening.










Here are a few random life shots from my phone. . .

Mabel in one of her new favorite places in the house. Once upon a time I told myself that I wouldn't let her on the furniture.






I got these beautiful flowers, card, and a big candy bar from the first graders that I work with. It was a great way to start a Monday!


Bella went old-school and decided to build a fort in her room.


Andy chaperoned Curtis's class field trip to the recycling center.


Bella spent many hours building this wind mill for her science project. There is a long string attached to the back with a cup on the end. When the fan blows, turning the windmill, it cranks the cup (filled with 40 pennies) up. She was so happy when it started working! I'm so proud of her hard work and perseverance with projects like this.


It's not unusual to find photos like this on my phone.


The Sunday morning fog made the front yard look dreamy.