Things That Make You Wonder...

This is from the form I had to sign in order for Tyler to buy a ticket to the homecoming dance. Makes me wonder what the back stories are for some of these...but I probably don't really want to know!

The Birthday Boy

Farewell for Now

I was fortunate enough to catch one of our hummingbirds make her flower rounds this morning. The activity around our feeder and flowers has decreased over the past week. Any day now this last little one will head south for the winter, too. Safe travels, little hummingbird. We'll see you in April.

Marching Along

Tyler has now played in 4 halftime shows and he is doing great! Every week he improves, and the band as a whole improves. I love watching him! I can't believe he is able to do all those moves while playing his trumpet, memorize new music & routines in just a couple days, and thinks all that hard work is a lot of fun! I am so proud of him.

Here are a few pictures from the past couple games.

The harvest moon was beautiful last night.

Every Tuesday they learn a new song and marching routine to add to that Friday's half time performance. They learn the routine and memorize the music in 3 days. That amazes me. This week's new song (These Boots Are Made for Walkin') was really good. Here is a video of it.

Today's Pic

Butterfly Visitors

My lantana has been a happening place for butterflies lately. The silver spotted skippers are the most prolific. I counted 15 at one time the other day.

Silver spotted skipper

Black swallowtail

Common checkered skipper

 

Pearl crescent

 



Peck's skipper

I've only seen two monarchs this summer, and one of them I know was a male. So...no eggs or caterpillars this summer. One of the metroparks said this year the monarchs have been very scarce around here. Their absence is partially due to their decline but also to a change of some sort to their usual migration patterns. Last year we had several, so I'm holding out hope that they'll be back in better numbers next summer.

This wasn't on my lantana but this guy has decided he likes our doorway. Every night for the past several nights he's made a very large web across the door of our sliding glass doors. (I can't shut the screen because a plant has vined its way up that...which is another post for another day.) As long as he stays outside, I don't think I should squish him, but I do wish he'd find some place else to hang out. I'm so afraid I'm going to stick my face in his web. He is rather large and is red and white striped. I
think it is an orbweaver of some type.

The Sunflower Field

Last year my friend told me about a field of sunflowers about an hour away from us. It's privately owned but planted and maintained for the community to enjoy. And that's exactly what I did! I wasn't able to check it out last year but I went yesterday while we were off, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Panoramic cell phone pic

 

 



Caught a little bee flying between the flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wrapping Up the Softball Season

The 2015-2016 12U softball season officially ended for Danielle with the tournament on July 31. I had some pictures from the last few games that I saved to post but never got around to it, so I'm doing that now.

Danielle subbed for a 14u team coached by one of her old coaches.

She slid under & around the tag - it was beautiful - but the ump called her out. Maybe the dirt was in his eyes?



Reviewing the day with her biggest fan.

This picture is kind of amusing to me. For whatever reason, the coach decided to switch things up this inning and moved Danielle from centerfield to 2nd. In this picture she's watching a long ball fly out to centerfield, where the girl missed it and allowed 3 runs to score. It was ugly.

Another successful slap.

It was really foggy for our morning games during this tournament.

Danielle had a really great season. This was her first season hitting left handed, yet she finished with one of the highest batting averages on the team. She played in 60 games and only sat a total of 4 innings! She made lots of great defensive plays. We really liked the coaches and we enjoyed most of the girls. Considering all those things, it was very difficult to decide to find another team for next year. Danielle would like to play softball in college, so she decided she needed to find another team that would help her develop even more as a player; A team where more of the girls were looking at softball as something they wanted to do long term versus something to do on a weekend in the summer when there wasn't anything else going on. She was the only player on the team that didn't return, and only one of 4 new players on the team she joined. It's kind of an uncomfortable decision to have to make, but hopefully it will pay off for her in the long run. She is a hard worker and a good player, so I'm sure she will make the most of her opportunities.