Book Group reports

Our Jr. Literature Group had a presentation night for all the dads. Aaron is portraying Linus from Hostage Lands. He told us the story of Rusticus, a Roman soldier who changed.

Deborah was Queen Tiy from The Golden Goblet. She told us how Ranifer saved her parents' tomb from being robbed.

Field trip to Hartwick Pines

While I'm updating my blog with May pictures, might as well put in these pictures from a field trip to Hartwick Pines.

Deb learned how to measure the board feet of a log.

Aaron and Stephen practice sleeping in a lumberman's bed (minus all the fleas and ticks).

We had two rangers talk to us about the different trees in the forest.

Stephen's birthday

Since Nathan's birthday is coming up very soon, I thought I had better post Stephen's birthday pictures. Especially since it took place in May. Birthday pancakes of course.

Star Wars cake, of course.

Kit Fitsu fighting off some droids.

And presents of course!

Graduations

We had three graduations this spring. The first was my niece's graduation from high school in Illinois.

Second was our friend Teri's graduation from college! Hurray!

And last was Nathan's best friend Josh's high school graduation.

Out with the Juniper bushes

Under the maple in the front, we have some juniper bushes which no one really liked but that were here when we moved in.

We wanted to take them out since they seemed impossible to weed once the grasses moved in.

It was harder than we thought. My dh finally had to come in with the tractor and drag out the main roots with a chain.

All clean now.

Newly planted with flowers and spread with mulch. Much better!

Baseball

We had a good baseball season up here. This year, we only had two boys playing. Aaron broke his leg and was in an ankle cast for most of the season. Stephen's season was in May and we have a few games that were pretty cold. Deb is under the purple blanket.

Stephen got to play 3rd base and outfield and had a good season. His team won 2 games which was a pleasant surprise since this was the first time in this age bracket for most of the boys.

We thought that Nathan wouldn't be able to play because there weren't enough boys in our township to make up a Junior League team. Then he found out that the neighboring town had an opening. He jumped at the chance and had a wonderful time.

His team was pretty good and came in second in the league. Nathan got some great plays in the outfield and at first base. He had a couple really great hits. Here's my best action picture ever of him stealing home. He was safe by the way.

Nathan's best game was his last one where he preformed a triple play. The batter hit a hard line drive and Nathan leaped up and caught it (out 1). Then he tagged the runner trying to return to first (out 2). Then his alert shortstop was on second calling for the ball. Nathan threw it to him and the shortstop got the runner trying to return to second base (out 3). It was beautiful to see.