Birthdays, Burgers and Buddies

It was time for Ella's Birthday week, we headed out to the "big field" for a dinner out.  There were plenty of burgers but we could have used a few more cheese curds.  She had a softball game scheduled but it was rained out, but there was still other games to be played and laughs to have.  She spent a lot of fielding time on third base.  The weather is still unseasonably cool and while it sprinkled early in the week, there were flurries in the air on the weekend.  We spent some time on a JDRF walk and raised a good amount of money for our team "sweet soles."  Next year we are going to have more people, more funding and better t-shirts....there are some very creative people in the area.  Didn't see the total raised for T1D but saw one guy alone had raised over $12K...so we are setting new goals!  Ella was able to walk it with some of her friends which was a great show of support. It also made an enjoyable weekend for her as she spent the night at a sleep over and then rounded it off with some family birthday celebrating.

A Mother of a Week (or two)!!

Temperatures have hit the low 80s and summer is here, although we are no less busy. We try to get outside and sweaty as often as possible but we are not so uncouth as to not enjoy the fine arts too.  Ella had her art work selected for a district wide art show and we were able to sneak into the overflowing crowd for the showing.  It was a very cool piece made with plenty and great to hear the pride in her voice when she talked about make it.  Add to that her Jazz concert.  She is in the 'regular' band too, but it is easy to see that she really enjoys the jazz band and sees it as a step (or half step) up!  It was great to watch her play a solo that she wrote for the jazz piece.  Grace had a friend stay overnight too for that girl's first sleep over.  It was fun in that she lives a few blocks away and we had lost her number so Amy and Grace just walked down to the house and introduced themselves and then brought the girl back to our place...it was a little like the Pyed Piper and a great image of the three of them strolling down the sun-filled street with sleep over gear in hand.  Soccer has started for Grace, Merrick and Sophia, but no games yet only practices for a couple more weeks.  Ella's softball team has taken a different approach and after only two practices was ready for opening weekend.  Friday night we packed in hot dogs to celebrate the great sounds of summer and the opening pitch was hurled.  Ella took a ball to the leg but shook it off enough to take her base.  She also had a couple of balls hit to her, so she was getting plenty of action.  Not only did she start Saturday's game, but played the whole game.  She is a fielding animal and nothing gets by her.  While she was hitting the batting cages on Friday we did head over to the river to watch the spawning Sturgeon.  Always impressive to watch fish both ancient and old.  There were several sturgeon and most greater than 4-5 feet long.  For every sturgeon we saw there was likely 45 carp right behind them sucking up the eggs in the strong current.  Soon it will be time for bowfishing so we will get out an give the sturgeon a little help.  Sunday of course was Mother's day and Amy was awoke to breakfast in bed from all the kids.  It was great to watch them surround her with food and gifts.  The had made her cards with letters inside that were really touching.  We then hit the bakery for some additional doughnuts before a little backyard Kubb.  Fittingly the series ended in a tie.  We hit the green house later in the day to fill in some of the flower beds and Ella decided she should walk to a neighboring store to get supplies for a koolaid stand and raise money for juvenile diabetes.  After three pitchers of cool aid I think she netted a real nice contribution.....of course it is a good sign when the ice-cream truck stops at your kool-aid stands.  It had all the the makings of a Norman Rockwell painting.