Summer has begun!

Brett getting his medal for coming in second place in the league.
Brett watching the other team get the big trophy instead of listening to the coaches.

Baseball ended on a sad note for Brett. After having a mostly winning season and not losing one game in the tournament his team ended up losing the championship game and coming in second. It was SOOO hard to watch the last games. The other team had to beat us twice since we had never lost and they did beat us one game after another. The first game we gave to them with many errors and few hits. The second game was actually a good game and we ended up losing in the last inning by one run. I even cried a little bit with Brett - what do you expect, I'm a mom!! Brett is sad to be too old to play in this league next year and is still trying to decide if he's just going to play school ball or go out for the Babe Ruth league. He's got time to decide. It would be nice to do school ball because they don't travel as much as Babe Ruth, but we'll leave that up to Brett. I'll watch him wherever he plays!

Erin has had two weeks of voice lessons and is not lacking in the confidence department. She sang a Celtic Woman song in the school talent show on the last day of school and did a great job. Then yesterday her voice teacher, who also teaches piano, had a recital at an assisted living facility and she sang "Castle on a Cloud." She was more nervous singing in front of a few old people that she didn't know than in front of the whole school. When I figure out how to post videos on this blog I will post one of her performances.

Kehli starts summer school on Monday. Her Spanish teacher was hoping that summer school would be in Spanish since she's in the Dual Language program, but it is only offered in English. So it was up to Kehli if she wanted to go still. When she found out that she gets to ride the bus and eat breakfast & lunch there she decided to go. It will be good for her.

Bubba is excited to start swim lessons. Now that she is 6 she can move from the kiddie pool to the big pool, which is warm. Evan continues to keep us on our toes - not letting us sit for longer than 2-3 minutes at a time. He loves to run and is pretty fast. I'm sure the carpet will be worn down by the time we move out because he runs up and down the hallway constantly.

Yesterday we finally broke ground for the new house. Mark was like a little kid at Christmas - with a smile as big as his face. I took Brett, Erin & Bubba to see the excavators and they had fun trying to figure out where their new rooms will be. It will be a fun process to watch and hopefully everyone won't get tired of seeing pictures and hearing details. It's been such a long time in the making for us! It still seems unreal.

The Most Exciting Ending...

Brett's team is now in the City Tournament. So far we've only played two games with the third tonight. We're still in the winner's bracket, but play the other leagues #1 team tonight. It should be a great game - hopefully our pitchers are on.

Saturday's game was SOOOOO exciting. It started at 9:00 and was the hottest day of the year so far - 98 degrees. We played the #3 team (Meuller's) in our own league who had beaten us twice in regular season play; we had only won one game against them. It was a close game the whole time and we got to the last inning. We're up 4-3 and are in the outfield. Meuller's loads the bases with their pick-up batter at the plate. The coaches have our outfielders (Brett was playing right field) go way out in anticipation of a big hit. The kid hits the ball to right field but way in front of Brett and towards the right field foul line. Everyone thinks there is no way Brett will catch the ball so the kids on base take off hoping to score at least two runs. Well, Brett runs and dives to catch the ball. Then he stood up and threw a perfect throw to first base for a double play - ending the game. I could hardly contain myself!!! They gave him the game ball and carried him off the field. He was proud because they've only given out a game ball one other time this season. Even the umpires and other teams coaches told Brett how impressed they were. Of course this was the first game that I didn't have my camera because Mark was on a motorcycle ride with his buddies and wanted it to take pictures. Hopefully some of the other moms were more on top of things and got some pictures. If so I'll post them another time.

We are getting closer and closer to starting to build our home. We signed on the lot last week so it is officially ours now. All of the bids are in and we turned in everything to the bank a couple of weeks ago. Ryan, our lender, said it should come back from the underwriter this week. Mark applied for our septic permit last week and was told it should also be signed off this week. Then the official building permits and we can start!! I still can't believe that it is actually happening. We've been planning for so long!

This is the last full week of school for the kids and I can't wait. I love having them home for the summer. It's not easy, but so much fun. We can't wait to go swimming and participate in the library's summer reading program!