Roasted Peanuts

As Collin's baseball season comes to an end, I thought it would be fun to celebrate the season with a focus on a book that Auntie Karen sent recently.

Roasted Peanuts by Tim Egan is a great friendship story.  Two boys play baseball together, and while one is a great athlete, the other can not hit or catch the ball but he can throw really far.  They try out for the local team and only the great athlete makes it, but it turns out that the other boy is also very important to the team and to the success of his friend.

I saw a fun idea on Almost Unschoolers and thought it would work well for Collin and Reagan.  Using window crayons, I made a word search with words from Roasted Peanuts on our sliding glass door.  On the other door, I listed the words to be found.

I also made my own printable word search with additional words using Puzzlemaker at Discovery Education.

We will definitely do this again; it's a great way to keep learning all summer long.

Just Life Around Here

 Reagan and Katelyn have been playing together more than ever lately.  Kate seems to enjoy following Reagan around and participating in whatever her big sister is doing.

 Here Reagan is teaching Kate a few dance moves and Kate follows them exactly from the hands behind the back to the crouch down on the floor.  Too cute.

 Katelyn and Logan saw each other for the first time since Christmas (I forgot to post this before; this was during the time that Collin and Reagan were in Florida).  They are three days apart, Logan being older.  They were very cute together.

 We have had a few days of nice weather.  When we do have them, we try to get outside.  We are supposed to have a nice week!!!

 Last week, Reagan helped with every step of dinner making.  She did a great job.  I LOVED that she tore all of the parsley leaves for me - not one of my favorite tasks.

Orange Leaf frozen yogurt is all the rage around here right now.  The girls and I went for the first time last weekend.  

 Collin decided to play baseball this year.  I was surprised seeing as when he played tee ball, he wrote, "I hate baseball" in window crayon on the sliding glass door and swore he would never play the sport again.  He had a change of heart, and last Sunday was opening day.  While it looked sunny, we were all pretty cold!  If you look closely (clicking on the picture enlarges it), you may notice that Collin has a fat upper lip.  He took a ball to the mouth playing catch with Tom on Saturday.  It is all healed now.

 Tyler's braces came off on Monday.  He was very happy to say goodbye to them!

Kate loves to read.  She sits on the floor and goes on and on; it's adorable.  I love that she is reading to Kelly in this picture.

Collin and Reagan drew tigers (their school mascot) for a contest.  One tiger drawing from each grade will be selected, and there will be one overall school winner.

I made these cookies and they were gone in two days.  No one missed the artificial colors from M&M candies.

Another tennis article.  The last week or so has been filled with very strong opponents and a few losses.

Reagan at her swimming lesson today.  Sunday at 3:45 has not been the best time for us; we have missed quite a few lessons, but she swam well today and had fun.

 She is just the sweetest little girl ever.  Right now, she is obsessed with "flowers" and insists on collecting them on our walks.

Collin doesn't like his freckles, but I love them.  He is such a handsome boy.  You can see that his lip is much better now, just a little dry skin.

How is it the end of April already?

Opening Day

Yesterday was opening day for baseball.  The sun was shining and we spent a good portion of the day at the baseball fields.

 C is playing for the Pirates.  He is very happy to be a pirate; ARGH matey!  He had a great first game.
 

T is playing for the Diamondbacks.  This is his last year of little league; I cannot even believe how old he is now.

Here is one of my favorite pictures of him catching (he did a great job!):

 
He pitched in this game too, but it was SO COLD and WINDY by the time he pitched that I just could not walk around the field to get good pictures.  My father was there taking pictures, so I decided I would just wait to get his pictures!

R was a great spectator and cheerleader all day long.  She is looking forward to next year when she will be old enough to play!  I love this picture of Kelly trying to get a lick of R's ice cream cone!  (Kelly was a great spectator too, of course!)

We are very excited for baseball season!   Play ball boys!

*My friend, Susana, has a great blog where she has been adding a song of the day to go along with her blog post.  I love this idea and wanted to do it today but the song I wanted, Centerfield by John Fogerty, had copyright issues on the playlist site.  Grrr...  Anyway, just pretend you can hear the music...  Oh, put me in, coach - I’m ready to play today; Put me in, coach - I’m ready to play today; Look at me, I can be centerfield. 

I really like this verse (pretend to turn the music up really loud now):   
Got a beat-up glove, a homemade bat, and brand-new pair of shoes;
You know I think it’s time to give this game a ride.
Just to hit the ball and touch ’em all - a moment in the sun;
(pop) it’s gone and you can tell that one goodbye!

Are you singing?  I hope so.  Oh, put me in, coach....