Field/Fun Day

Our elementary kids had Field/Fun Day at school today!  I volunteered to help in the afternoon for the 3rd-5th grades.  As I was driving to the school, it was bright and sunny and beautiful all around me, but I saw a huge black cloud hanging right over the school.  When I got there and checked in with the other volunteers, the downpour started.  It rained for about half an hour, and a couple of the events were moved inside to the gym.  The kids got about an hour outside at the stations before it started to thunder.  

I got to run the tricycle race!  Sylvia's group was a fun one!

Some more 5th graders...

My favorite picture of the day...Caeden's friend Jacob.

This is Caeden's group, but you can't really see Caeden unless you look carefully behind Cale.  He didn't want his picture taken.

Watching the race...

Caeden got a big push from Cale.

During the race, the kids had to get off the tricycles and race with an egg on a spoon!

4-Square

When the thunder started, all outside activities were ended.  Some kids were disappointed they didn't get to dunk their teachers in the dunk tank!  

Each grade got to have about half an hour playing games in the gym.

Mr. Ludwig, the P.E. teacher made some really great mini golf stations.

These boys were dancing to a Ke$ha song on Just Dance 3.  Their teacher giggled and rushed over to get their picture.

Bean bag toss

Sylvia is in this big group of 5th grade girls doing Just Dance.

Even with the rain, it was a really fun Field/Fun Day!  

Hanging Around Home

What a lovely weekend we had!  Friday evening, we had the neighbors who live across the street from us over for spaghetti.  They've lived across from us for about 16 months and we've never had them over before, so it was nice to share a meal together.  

Saturday, we enjoyed Caeden's baseball game, then stopped by the store quickly and went to setup at church.  Sunday, we spent the whole day at church, minus running out to get lunch quickly.  It was my turn to provide snacks for The Conversation this week.  The Conversation is really making a lot of think and change and grow.  Many of us are realizing a paradigm shift needs to happen in our lives, and it's a beautiful thing!

Today, we were so happy to have an entire day at home!  Caeden had me hook up the vintage video game controller to the tiny tv in the guest room so he could play Galaga, Ms. PacMan, and some other fun old games.

I noticed my pink and purple irises are blooming by the garage.

Jeremy worked much of the day removing this post from the corner of our backyard.  The neighbor boys enjoyed their turn with the sledgehammer.

But in the end, Jeremy decided to burn it out.

This evening the Ramirez fam came over to hang out!  We always enjoy our time with them!  We had supper together. The boys played outside and also played some Clash of Clans on the iPad.  The girls went outside for a little bit, then decided to watch Frozen and quote every line and song.  We adults took a little walk around the village while chatting.  And Jeremy and Shannon ended up pulling out that post.  It's so nice to have friends to just enjoy hanging out without anything formal planned.  We eat together, walk around together, chat, and remove burning posts from our yard.  Ha!  I love our friendship.

Baseball Game #2

Caeden's first away game of the season was this afternoon.  

We arrived early and another game was finishing up on the field.  One of the moms asked to take a picture of the boys as they were waiting around, and these few agreed.  I'm not sure why Caeden wasn't smiling at the time she took the picture...

...or why he was fake flexing in this one...

They are a good group of boys, and all seem to get along pretty well.

One of the boys said he didn't want his picture taken, so I told him I was taking a picture of everyone around and he was in it.  Haha.

It sure was a perfectly gorgeous day; a good one for a baseball game.

Here is Caeden at bat.

He struck out his first at-bat, , and got out at first the second time, and caught out on a pop-fly his third time up.  He was pretty disappointed, but we are just so pleased that he isn't afraid to swing the bat this year (unlike last year).  We thought he did a great job.

He has been outfield most of the time.  He's doing great with hustling to the ball.  He did play a little second base today too, and did well there also.

This time he got a single!

running to third 

It was such a great game today.  The boys played well together, and lost 13-14.  

Caeden was not happy after the game was over.  Seems he still has some lessons to learn about losing, sportsmanship, and attitude.  It's a process...

1st Game

Caeden's first game of the baseball season was this evening.  They played at home, and it was a great game!  They even won, and were actually pretty surprised and excited about it!  It is basically the same group of boys that played together last year, and they are already playing better together and more confidently.  I think it should be a good season.

Here's Caeden at bat for the first time this season.  He got a single.

The 12U boys had a home game right after, and our buddy Reece plays on 12U so we stayed to watch part of it.  Caeden and his teammate Evan sat together for a bit of it.

I love how baseball allows us to get to know people in our community better.  I don't know what it is (maybe the fact that it's outside?), but it seems to be easier to do that than with some other sports the kids have played.  It's a good thing.

Bad News Beatles

Kyle stopped by to play with Caeden after school today, and while he was here, Dawn brought Addie for her piano lesson and Reece to play.  The boys had a great time playing Beatles RockBand.  

Reece sang a great Yellow Submarine, and Kyle dubbed them the "Bad News Beatles."

We were all entertained!

Big Hail!

Just a few days ago, I posted about the rare occurrence of hail in our yard.  Funny...today in our yard we had the biggest hail I've ever experienced!  Our weather radio was going off every few minutes with severe thunderstorm warnings.  They even named our tiny village and all the others surrounding.  I was watching out the window, wondering if the kids would make it home on the bus before the storm came through.  And all of a sudden, loud hail started falling!  

I saw the neighbor on his front porch holding his little dog, so I went to the back door to look out.

Then I went out on the front porch to watch.  

It broke little branches and leaves off the trees and made a bit of a mess in our yard.

It hailed for probably about 5 minutes or so, and was mostly quarter-size to pingpong ball-size!

I was barefoot at the time, and didn't go out in the yard to pick any up.  
But, some of my neighbors did, and posted this photos:

We didn't have any damage, but several of our neighbors submitted insurance claims for damage to their cars.  It was pretty wild.  The kids were all excited about it when they got off the bus and everything was covered with hail.  They were right behind it on the bus on their way home and didn't see a second of it while it was happening!

Jeremy's 39th birthday

Today is Jeremy's birthday!  He requested angel food cake--I think mostly because he knows it is a favorite for the kids.  He also requested that the kids sing happy birthday nicely and with harmony.  They did not.  They gave him a ridiculously awful rendition.  I think he was disappointed.

He decided to try to make his own lovely music...

...but he didn't seem to know exactly what to do with Sylvia's cello...

He received some pretty funny cards, including one with a twerking dog!

Thank you, Travis and Erin!

And, the day ended with some living room wrestling, of course.

I hope it was a happy day for my favorite man in the world!