Circle Day!

The kids wanted to have a circle day...at first I couldn't imagine what circle day would mean. They told me we need all circle things to eat, circle crafts and play with balloons! So I thought sounds great to me. 

So we had a wonderful circle day today! We had biscuits, grapes and cherries for breakfast. 

Next we decorated a table cloth for the days festivities. First we drew circles on one end and then we dipped cups, glue sticks and paint brushes in paint to decorate the other end. The kids had a blast!

We had pizza, cheese balls, mini pepperonis and watermelon cut in circles for lunch. Jakob is actually excited about the day. He was at football camp this morning so had to miss the morning fun!

After lunch we realized it was a beautiful day so we enjoyed some time playing outside. Then we came in the make our special circle dessert-huge circle sugar cookies! 

The best part was decorating the cookies.

They turned out great...

For supper they wanted meatballs with spaghetti. We also made melon balls, fried squash and cucumbers. What a "well-rounded" supper!

The best way to end circle day is by eating our cookies and a game of don't drop the balloons! 

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!  What a busy, busy weekend. On top of all that busyness was a ton of fun. I hope you all had a wonderful & safe holiday weekend.

On Thursday morning my sister arrived at our house to start the festivities.  I brought back her little cowboys on Monday for the week and we had so much fun.

After lunch we ventured out to the pool to do a little 4th of July crafting. 

Give Kal a paintbrush and he is happy for hours!

Our little canvas' turned out adorable.  We ended up hanging them on the pool house for the upcoming party.  Thanks for the craft idea Andrea!

 After crafts we went inside for a festive mani/pani session.  Jacey loves her aunt Kelley!

Then we started working on some of our sweet treats for the 4th party.

On Friday, we threw a great party!  I love all the families being together. 

After swimming and a delicious dinner the kids started fireworks.  Between poppers and the big stuff we made sure we got some group pictures.  I just love our festive clan! 

The little cowboys

Cousins

Bryon and Brody

Now onto the firecrackers...

 

To say they enjoyed it would be an understatement.

On Saturday morning we all got up and headed to Jakob's all-star baseball tournament.  It was so much fun to watch him!   

The little kids were beat and it was hot so between games we snuck in a nice long nap and another swim.

Jakob's last game didn't start until after 9pm.  It was nice and cool after a hot day.  The little kids ran and played and I had a blast watching Jakob pitch two innings.  It was so exhilarating to watch him.  He is a great athlete and I couldn't be more proud.

I hope your July fourth holiday was memorable as well.

Happy Birthday America!

All-Stars Baseball

About 3 weeks ago the big decision in our family was should or should we not let Jakob try out for All Stars. He tried out two years ago and unfortunately did not make the team. So we found out this year they would be picking kids for the team just based on their game statistics instead of a short tryout session. So after hours of discussion we decided why not? If he didn't get picked it wasn't meant to be. 

Well we got the call and he made the team. Now we had to worry about: will the coaches let him play or will he just be in the outfield or on the bench? The practices went great for Jakob. In the first practice he hit a home-run. He was hitting every practice and pitching well. We knew after the first practice we had made the right decision because he loved the coach, was learning a lot and loved the boys on his team. 

Our first tournament was in Plainview.

Our first team to play was Plainview-12. Jakob was the second pitcher of the game. We couldn't believe they chose him out of seven pitchers.

He didn't do as well as normal but after the game he said he was so nervous. I can only imagine. We ended up losing the game but it was still fun. Our next game was against Pampa and boys were down 12-3 and we thought it was over. But they made a huge come back and the final score was 14-16. We really did just run out if innings. Think the boys could have won for sure. After the game we were told they could advance to the state tournament July 5 in Pampa. So I just thought baseball was done for the summer. 

We all stayed at a hotel after the game and the team had a blast swimming together. It is amazing how well the boys knew each other after only being around each other for two weeks. Wish adults were like kids! 

I am super proud and always knew my kids are All Stars!

Summer Wrap-Up

I am feeling very behind on blogging so instead of quitting I  going to do a quick recap of summer so far. We have been out of school for three weeks now and time has just flown by. 

1) Every Tuesday Samuel and Jacey are going to gymnastics at Amarillo College. They always have a great time. 

2) We have spent many hours swimming in the pool. Samuel is quite the little fish and can dive and flip off the board like a pro. He has even learned to swim the length of the pool in one breath. 

3) We have only been to discovery center once but I am sure we will make it back several more times this summer. 

4)Science Experiments-we have been doing a science experiment almost daily. We started after going to the Claude Library Story Hour. We have actually made it into Claude for several experiments due to basketball camp. 

5) Birthday parties 

     We have had several fun birthday parties to go to this summer. Plus we have two coming up with week.

First, we celebrated Brody's first birthday. We had a fun airplane party at their house.

After the party we all enjoyed a night a wonderland together.

Wonderland is always fun for our kids. So many rides and never long lines to wait in. Plus Jakob and his friends can run around by themselves. Our next birthday was Peter's 6th birthday, he had a fun farm party at his house. 

I still cannot believe that it is already June 21. Hopefully summer will start going a little slower but I doubt it will. 

Basketball Camp

I always thought summer was suppose to be less busy than the school year but this summer has not been so far! We have been going back and forth to basketball camp for two weeks now. Samuel and Jakob went last week. Samuel had so much fun! 

So far basketball is Samuel's favorite sport. He learned a lot and had fun playing. Googles don't allow them to look down at the ball!

Jakob went in the afternoons and I think he dominated at the camp. They only have 7 boys who attended but Jakob won every competition and was the team captain all three days. He was the only 7th grader and the other boys were 8th and 9th graders. So I know basketball will be his strongest sport. He didn't let me walk him in so no photos! I can't believe how quickly time has gone!

This week Jacey is going to camp and she is also loving it. She is also a great ball player. She is a confident left or right hand player which will really help her. 

I will blog about the many other events that are keeping our summer busy! I am glad my kids are having a great summer. 

We finally win!

Jakob's baseball team hasn't won a game in the past 16 games and last night they beat the only undefeated team in our league! I am so happy for them. There team has always been good but tend to lose each game by one or two runs. I am confident now that they have broken their losing streak they will continue to win! They are a great team they just need a little confidence. This is the article from their coach:

The only bad part is before the game I made a bet with Jakob. I told him if they won he could continue to grow out his hair and if they lost he had to cut it Friday. I guess I will have a long haired boy for a couple weeks or until I can win a different bet! This was Jakob's very last game on the Claude field. He will move to bigger baseball field next year. 

I missed this exciting win because I was at another exciting game. Jacey's team had a double header at White Deer. They won the first game 12-2 so it was called over after the second inning due to the mercy rule. Jacey was walked both times she was up to bat in this game. She played center field during the first game. 

Our girls played just as well during the second game and won 18-12! Jacey got to play second base during this game and made a couple of great stops. I am so proud of her for playing. She is really enjoying the season. 

I will use a saying my family uses "winner winner chicken dinner!"

Track and Field

Last day of school!!! We are so ready for summer and what a great way to end the school year-track and field day! For the first time they started the day with a color run. The kids loved it. This was Samuel's first year to participate and Jakob's last year at track and field so it was another bittersweet day. 

Jakob appeared on the news for the color run! They wanted to interview him but he chose not to so they used a shot of him running and getting dye thrown on him.

After the color run the field events started. Jakob won the 200 and 50 yard dash. He placed 2nd in the 100. He didn't do too well at hula hoop. 

Jacey did great at softball throw and hula hoop. She placed second in the 50 and 100 yard dash. 

Samuel also did well at the events. He is probably my most competitive which is scary because Jakob is extreme. He won the 50, 100 and 200. He was very frustrated because he couldn't hula hoop the longest.

 The day was ended by playing in the sprinklers.  It is safe the say the kids had a blast and were worn out by noon. 

Now we get to head to our end of school swim party!