A Busy Weekend

Danielle's team played in their first tournament this weekend. They ended up not playing as many games as they should have because it rained a lot and some of yesterday's games were cancelled. Today they lost their first bracket game, so they didn't get to play any additional games. The tournament was about 2 hours away, so the team stayed in a hotel Friday and Saturday nights. That was by far the best part for the girls - playing in the pool, eating meals together, just hanging out and being silly. Getting to play a little softball was a bonus.

Danielle played very well, especially today. She was the only person to hit a double today and batted in 2 people. Then she stole both third and home (at once) to score. She had some great fielding plays, too. It was a very good game for her. Sadly I missed it because I stayed home with Tyler. At her last at bat today she slipped on the base and twisted her ankle. She is tough, but this one brought her to tears. She's still hobbling around tonight. Hopefully she will feel better in the morning. She has 6 games this week (3 doubleheaders) and 2 days of softball camp. I know she will be disappointed if she's not able to play.

Infield huddle.
Danielle primarily plays second. Occasionally they will move her to the outfield when they need a strong fielder and fast runner, but no one else is as solid at 2nd as she is.



She is such a good fielder. She moves for everything and will do her best to make a play on anything.
This ball was too fast and too far over, but she made a good effort.

One of the fly balls she caught this weekend.

Tonight we dropped Tyler off at camp. The nice thing about Danielle's team not winning and playing more games was that she got to come home early enough to see Tyler off. He was nervous and excited. I think the excitement outweighed the nervousness, especially once we got there and got him settled into his room. The rooms are not air conditioned, and it was rather miserable in there. It's supposed to be almost 90 with thunderstorms every day. I think he's going to sweat a lot this week! They have full days, starting with breakfast around 7:30am, classes until 4:30, rec time, meal times, and evening activities, with lights out at 10:30pm. I'm glad he got to go, and I'm looking forward to hearing all about his week when we pick him up on Friday. I'm proud of him for trying new adventures.

Clara wanted Tyler to get up and play. He enjoyed his last morning of sleeping in for awhile.

All settled into his room. You can't tell he's actually sitting in a sauna! ;) He was glad he brought his big fan!

I think they will miss each other.

At the Park

I love nature's camouflage.

Singing for their lunch.

Remnants of an overnight shower.

Gray treefrog

Summer Busyness

This week is the second week of our summer vacation, and we have jumped right into the summer fun and busyness.

Danielle went to a basketball skills day camp for 3 days this week. She went with her good friend, and she had a great time. I think she was sorry it was only 3 days rather than a full week.

Tyler went to a day camp at our school this week. He took a music composition class that his band teacher taught. He was one of only four students in the class, and he really enjoyed it. He has so much going on this summer, I told him I was just going to take a picture of him leaving me every week. :) I used that picture to convert the music file he made into a video file so I could share it on here. He wrote this music this week. It's creatively entitled "A Random Song".

Danielle left for an out of town softball tournament around the same time Tyler left for camp today. He will be gone at another camp by the time she gets back, so he allowed her a quick hug and a picture.

Danielle has a softball tournament all day tomorrow and Sunday. This is her first one of the season. Hopefully she will have fun. They all went down early and played in the pool and went to dinner together, so I think they would consider the tournament a success so far. :) Coming home with a little hardware for the trophy shelf will make it that much sweeter.

Tyler leaves on Sunday for a week long over night camp geared towards gifted kids. He had to fill out an application which included an essay. I had to fill out an application. He had to have two teacher recommendations, and the school had to submit information documenting his test scores and any "giftedness" testing. They say it's difficult to get into this camp, and we were concerned because there was only one week he was available to attend, but he made it. He's pretty excited. They have 4 classes every day, in addition to rec time. He signed up to take band, JAVA programming, basic robotics, and a survivor class. They stay in a college dorm (which is not air conditioned) and attend the classes on campus. They are not allowed to have any electronics or outside communication. I know he is nervous but excited. I'm glad he's had a little experience spending several days away from home. That will make it a little easier for all of us. I hope he has a wonderful time. Tonight Tyler and I went shopping for a few last minute items and then enjoyed dinner out together before coming home to pack.

On Wednesday we caught and relocated the 7th chipmunk. We think that was the last one. It actually was easier than I expected. Within 3 days we had them all. I will say that while they are cute and sweet looking as they scurry around and poke their little heads out of their hole together, they become much uglier and rat like when they are trapped in a wire cage and not too happy about it. Thankfully none of them turned back to run up my leg when they were released. I am glad to be done with that deed.

This week we also fit in a couple softball practices and games, clearing out about 12 bags of "stuff" to donate to the local thrift shop, playing with friends both in person and online, picking strawberries with grandma, a pitching lesson, and lots of popsicles. (Poor Ron fit in a business trip to Chicago.) We also managed to sleep in a couple days, and stayed up late most nights. Ah...summertime...

More Strawberries!

My mom came to visit today and we went to pick strawberries. It was HOT. The berries are taking forever to ripen this year, so it took awhile to fill our buckets. It was even more difficult today than it was when the kids and I went last week. We were able to get enough to snack on for a few days, though, and my mom got enough for some strawberry shortcake. Despite the heat, we had a nice little outing and my mom got to try the strawberry slushies...which she agreed are amazing.

I took these after we picked strawberries the last time. I was trying to get a couple nice pictures to possibly enlarge and hang in the cafeteria at school. I think they look good enough to eat.

Stealing Home

Here is slo-mo video of Danielle stealing home at one of her games tonight. She is a great base runner - she's very quick and she's great at stealing and sliding. It's more fun when she just beats the ball, but safe is safe. :) They played a double header and won both games, 11-0 & 7-0.

Today's Pic

Today's Pic

And Then There Were 5

We got 2 chipmunks today. One was definitely a baby, and I think the second one was the adult. We're hoping to catch another 3 tomorrow. We're letting them go at the same spot, so hopefully they will find each other and be a happy little family somewhere else.

And, totally unrelated, this rock star hit a triple at her scrimmage today.

Chipmunk Update

Ron and I counted 7 chipmunks running around the patio the other morning. There are at least 6 babies and an adult. They are so cute, but I can almost see our patio sag a little more everyday. I got some cute video of them popping out of their hole, but I need to edit it before I post it. (It's too long.) They were very curious about the gopro.

 

 

We ordered a live trap from Amazon. It came on Thursday.

We put it out but didn't catch anything the first time. Some of the bait (apples in peanut butter) was gone but they weren't heavy enough to trigger the lid to close. Ron made some adjustments and we put it out again this afternoon. So far there haven't been any takers. They are most active in the morning, so we'll see if we have any visitors in the morning. I think they will wise up as their numbers decrease, and that 7th chipmunk may be pretty tough to trap. Clara did manage to nip one yesterday. He was able to scurry into his hole, so I don't know if he was mortally wounded. After that they were pretty quiet the rest of the day.

They are cute and I will be a little sad to see them go. Until then, I figured I might as well take advantage of the photo opportunities. If I sit quietly on the patio, they eventually come out.

 

 

Shoes

Doesn't everyone's shoe pile look like this??

Strawberries!

We made our annual outing to the strawberry patch today. The sun hasn't been shining much lately, which means the berries aren't ripening very quickly. Usually we fill the majority of 3 buckets, but it took us awhile to fill 2 buckets today. We still had a nice time: More berries went in Tyler's mouth than in his bucket, we enjoyed our strawberry slushies from the rocking chairs on the porch, and we enjoyed strawberry upside down cake for dessert tonight. We've been enjoying this summer tradition for 9 years now. I intend to keep it going as long as I possibly can.

At the Park

My Chipmunk Problem

The folks who installed our patio did a poor job and several of the bricks sunk within weeks of them finishing the job. They were out once to redo their handiwork, but didn't make things much better. Shortly after that a chipmunk discovered the uneven bricks made a nice hiding place. I'm sure the tunneling has only made the existing problems that much worse.

 

This is one of two babies. The momma makes an appearance at the end. It's time to find these cuties a new home. I think I've convinced Ron to buy a live trap so we can relocate them rather than kill them. They are so cute. It's too bad they are so destructive.

 

Football Weather?

We layered on the jeans, sweatshirts, jackets, and blankets...for a June 1 softball game. Crazy.