Fall Ball

Well, the girls have only been done with their fall ball season for two weeks now, and I already miss watching them play.  It is kinda nice actually being home a night or two during the week, but we've sorta gotten used to living at the ball park.  Here's Barrett's Junior Division team at the tournament the weekend before last.  

Barrett is playing for the Stapley 7th grade team now, but I just have to say that the competition is nothing like fall ball.  All the girls who are playing fall ball are there to compete and it is so much more fun to watch.  Even though the fall league has a pretty big age span (13 before the end of 2011 to 16 year olds, which means 7th graders - juniors in high school), both our starting pitchers were 7th graders.  And they are both great pitchers, both fun girls, both good friends with Barrett.

Barrett with Hallie & Jen (her two best buds on the team and both our pitchers)

Barrett at 2nd base

Hallie up to bat

Jen on the mound

And here's Afton with her Majors Division team on the last night of the fall ball season.  I didn't get many pics of her team since all the games were night games, but I was there, cheering them on.  Their team was so good - I think they only lost 2 or 3 games all season long.  It was great seeing Afton finally get her "wheels" back after her broken foot earlier this year.  It seems like she was running flat footed for a few months post-recovery, and not nearly as fast as normal. But I think she's back.  And back fast, just the way we like it.  Afton's best buds on the team were Syd Bauer (front row, second from left) & Riley Colvin (back row, far right).  

It will only be a couple of months before next season starts up, so we'll have to keep hitting the cages and playing some catch over the winter to stay in ball shape.  We're looking forward to it already!

Our Softball Girls

Well...I'm not sure when the next time we'll be seeing this again.

Sisters.

Matching jerseys.

Tearin' it up together.

What a great time we had this spring out at Quail Run park watching our Diablas light it up. Gotta love those flame socks!

The girls' coaches were outstanding. Coach Lawrence, Coach Chris & Coach Dean really worked with the girls all season.

Emma, Bailey & Afton

And even though the Diablas season is over...

We'll still get to see a little more of this...

because..

Afton made the 9-10 year old All-Star team!

You go, Afton!

Can't wait to watch you play at the Regional Tournament coming up in a couple weeks.

So Proud of You!

We are so proud of our número UNO daughter! We attended her final Hale Elementary awards ceremony today where she was honored a couple of times for her great academic achievements and her participation in the Respect program. They finished the assembly with the 6th grade science camp movie (whew, it's done) and now all the awesome 6th graders are off to Skateland for the day. So fun!! Barrett is a terrific girl and I can hardly believe she's on her way to junior high. I know she's gonna love it!

A Hard Day

Yesterday morning after getting all the troops off to school, I headed out for my run. I love Tuesdays, by the way. I love being home, love working around my house, love getting errands done, love getting "caught up" and being with the kiddos. And I love that I can work out at 8:00 am when those kiddos are all safely in class instead of working out at the crack of no dawn (yes, it is still so dark and cold in those wee hours before everyone wakes). I like Fridays and Saturdays for that same reason too, but the weekend always seems to bring so much busyness along with it. So I'm pretty sure that Tuesdays are my favorite days.

Anyway....I ran hard and felt better than I have in weeks. It's nice to finally feel like my lungs are coming back. I still had to use my inhaler when I was done, but I finally feel like I can breath again. After cooling down, I came upstairs with my big glass of ice water in my favorite red cup, ready to head to the shower. As I walked by Barrett's room - conveniently located right at the top of the stairs - I noted that her door was mostly closed, which seemed a little unusual. As I opened it, I smiled knowingly at an un-made bed, assuming that was the reason for her closed door. So I decided that it was a good day to change the sheets and began stripping the bed. And then I saw it.

I'm in her room everyday for one reason or another, and I've seen her magnet board a million times, but still - as I looked at her board - really looked at it - I was overcome with a big wave of gratitude. And love. Truly, I felt blessed to be the mama of our sweet and fun-loving Barrett Ally, who is blossoming into a young woman, trying so hard to choose the right and be a good friend and make good choices. This is her board:

Of all the great young women handouts, inspiring quotes, and other things pinned up on her board my favorite attachment was undoubtedly the well-worn temple recommend, which she uses often. Most weeks, actually. Sure, she makes daily mistakes (just like we all do) and sometimes makes me crazy with her night-owl thing and then dragging so much the next morning. And sometimes I worry that I'm too hard on her or expect too much from her as our oldest child. We moms rely on our older ones so much - how would we ever survive without them? But I hope she knows how crazy I am about her and that I love her to infinity and beyond...and back. She's such a good girl. Truly, I am blessed to be her mom.

But a couldn't finish this post yesterday - as much as I wanted to. I was conflicted in my emotions and gratitude about being such a lucky mom as I tried to reconcile those feelings with how another wonderful mother in my ward must be feeling. One of my dear friends - my visiting teacher, the piano teacher of my kids, the choir director that I am blessed to work with in my calling - tragically lost her oldest son yesterday morning. I can't even imagine her grief. My friend had just gotten the news not long before I showed up for Afton's piano lesson. As I pulled up to drop Afty off, there were a few cars in front of her house and a sign on the door that we couldn't make out, but soon saw that it said, "No piano lessons today." Just then, her next door neighbor - our relief society president and a good friend of mine also - came running out to intercept me. She gave me the sad news and we cried together as we talked about what we might do to help. I was heartbroken for my friend and for the wife and and two little sons that her son left behind.

Oh my goodness, what a hard day. Just a couple of months ago during one of our monthly visits, this good mom broke down in tears as she told me about the struggles her son was facing and what a trial they were going through in their family. We cried together that day and I have prayed for her countless times in the months since then. I have thought about that sweet visit often as I see her. Even on Saturday, after my parenting class that I taught, she and I visited briefly and I again thought of our visit a couple months back. Then today, when I got into work, I listened to a voice mail message from her that she had left for me yesterday morning (before she learned of her son's death) asking me if I could bring some soup for our RS meeting next week.

I am grateful for the knowledge I have of a loving Redeemer who atoned for our sins and our grief. I am grateful to know that his mercy will have to be enough in this difficult time as he bridges the gap between our capacities and deeds and what is ultimately required to return to Him. Keep this sweet family in your prayers.

Walk Like an Egyptian

One thing I love about our kids' school is that they truly immerse the kids in learning. The teachers have designed curriculum to help the children really embrace their projects and create a memorable learning experience. This year, Barrett's sixth grade class is studying world history in social studies. The module they just finished up was Egyptian history. We've been eating, sleeping and breathing Egypt for about two weeks now, and I have to say I'm a little happy we're moving on. My kitchen counter has finally re-surfaced after being buried for a week under a paint cloth, glue gun, sticks, paint, clay, all sorts of adhesives, jewels, ribbon, scissors and all things crafty.

Here's Barrett's completed pyramid from the outside. After it was all finished, we sprayed a final layer of spray adhesive and then sprinkled sand (courtesy of our neighborhood park) all over the outside to give it an "authentic" feel.

Barrett did a great job on her weapon room. She has hand crafted axes, a shield, a knife, ropes & nooses, and sticks. Even though the room was pretty simple, this was actually my favorite room in the pyramid. I must be related to Michael :) Her "Treasury" room was filled with jewels and mirrors and a gold plated hand crafted mini-chair. So cute.

Other rooms in her pyramid housed the death trap room with the pit of snakes and torches, as well as her food chamber where hand crafted clay baskets were filled with beans, oats and other delights.

In the king's chamber, a ladder is the only way to reach the gold sarcophagus and chest of treasures. Barrett made the sarcophagus in her art class at school. Inside, is an awesome wrapped mummy.

Barrett's friends, Tea and Riley at their Egyptian festival. All of the kids had to select an Egyptian God or Goddess for the festival and then dress up like that figure and deliver a short speech. It was a hoot to see all the kids in their outfits. I was actually pretty impressed.

Barrett's friend, Scott Nelson, showing off his killer pyramid and costume.

I helped out in Barrett's class the day they made their Egyptian death masks. We made a mold of each of the students' faces using these plaster strips and water. It was actually a lot of fun and pretty cool to see how their molds turned out.

After we got the plaster molded to their faces, they had to sit for about 15 minutes until the plaster hardened. They were all pretty great sports about the whole thing.

Here is Barrett's finished death mask, hanging on the wall at her Egyptian fair.

This whole Egyptian immersion was definitely a family affair. I sewed Barrett's costume for her using a pattern my mom had from years ago. I pulled the skirt fabric out of my stash that I've been planning to use for new Christmas nativity costumes. This was supposed to be a wise man's tunic, but I made it into a wrap around skirt instead that will double as a sheath type thing that we will use this year in our nativity. And I seriously scored on her gold fabric as I wandered the clearance aisle at JoAnn after Halloween. 60% off. Nice.

Both Barrett and her friend, Katy Anderson, were dressed as the Goddess Maat (since they are in different home room classes, they both got to dress up as the same Goddess.) There's a whole story to the feather that Maat wore on her head. Ask Barrett to give you her speech and you'll learn what it's all about.

We were proud of Barrett and enjoyed her whole Egyptian immersion experience and fair. She did a great job and earned an "A."

The Island Flower

My awesome 11-year old is becoming quite the crafty girl these days. Although we've been making flower clips together for a couple of years, lately she's had a renewed desire to create. She's been sewing Yo Yo's, making adorable headbands, and super cute flower clips. This weekend she made a couple of irresistible headbands for our little cousin, Sienna, who came and stayed with us the week before last. We can't wait to mail them back to Virginia!

I'm modeling one of today's creations. I love it. The pink is so me. Lately, I've been loving hot pink. This flower totally reminds me of Hawaii and makes me reminisce to exactly one year ago when Ryan and I were in Hawaii with our good friends, Jayson & Kara Ellingson. Yep, a year ago Ryan managed to get out of the last few days of Camp Geronimo Scout Camp (here's there again now but there's no prospect of a last minute Hawaii getaway this year) and we flew over to Kauai for a week of pure bliss. It was totally last minute - we got invited about two weeks before the trip due to Jayson's parents backing out (Jayson's bro and wife and her sister and hubby went too). It was supposed to be a family trip with the four couples, but we were thrilled when they asked us to join them. Man, that was an incredible trip to say the least. The condo we stayed in was brand new, absolutely gorgeous four bedroom, four bath on Poipu Beach in Kauai. We were swinging from the tarzan rope, snorkeling, hiking, boating, eating, tanning, kayaking, shopping, and spending amazing time with each other and with our friends.

Last week, we went to Rocky Point with the Ellingsons (and of course had another great trip). They are such terrific friends and so easy to be with. It's a bonus that our kids and their kids love hanging out together too and are all in the same grades (except for Easton). Their number four is due next month. Anyway, in the McDonald's parking lot in Gila Bend on the way home, Jayson & Ryan started talking about last year's killer Hawaii adventure and are already scheming another trip for all of us for 2011 or 2012. Jayson still has another week in that condo banked up for some business trade. I'll need to bank up some serious favors with the grandmas again so we can leave our kiddos. Someday, when the kids are old enough to appreciate it and old enough to participate in all the activities, Ryan and I would love to take them with us on a family trip to the Islands. What a great time that would be!

Funny how blogging works. It triggers all kinds of thoughts, just like writing in your journal. I never intended to write about Hawaii tonight, but the cute tropical flower clip set my wheels in motion. So in keeping with that thought, here are a few pics from last year's Hawaii trip. Ryan's only been gone since yesterday morning and I already miss him so much!

At the luau in Kauai

The Browns & The Ellingsons on our way to the beach for some snorkeling and picnicking.

Kissing by the 100 foot waterfall. We both got in (it was cold and felt like hail coming down), but so much fun!

Ryan and the guys posing under the falls.

We loved the underwater camera. It was awesome going snorkeling with that and taking some cool video of the sea life (and of our cute husbands).

Ryan, me, Kara & Jayson on our boat trip up the Na Pali coast. The one unfortunate part of our trip was that Kara got incredibly sea sick on the way back. Sooooo sea sick it was insane. Thankfully, she recovered that night and enjoyed the rest of the trip.

I can't wait to go back!

Wax Museum

Somebody, somewhere, figured out an ingenious way to make history "come alive" for our 5th graders. A wax museum! So fun and such a great way to engage these bright eleven year olds in their study of American History. The culminating project for the Hale Elementary fifth graders was to choose a famous American in history (and there could be no duplicating among all the fifth grade classes), write a report, make a poster and include a timeline, and then....THEN, the best part, was that each student got to become their famous American for a day.

Barrett chose Sandra Day O'Connor, the first female justice of the US Supreme Court. Doesn't she look fabulous? Thanks to Beth for letting us borrow the Judge Judy robe from Halloween long ago, and thanks to Ashley for offering up your wig. Unfortunately, Barrett tried on the old lady wig and declared, "This is not Sandra Day O'Connor hair."

So we were back to ground zero on the hair. What to do, what to do....

Well, let me tell you, getting Barrett's hair do to look like that took some serious effort. We started at 5:45 am (we had to be done by 6:30), curling, ratting, spraying, smoothing, powdering, styling, pinning, and more powdering. She was pleased with the end result, though, and really looked terrific. Add some pearl earrings, a little hot pink lipstick and mascara, and voila! Court in session!

At their wax museum, each student had a blue "button" cut out of construction paper taped to the floor in front of the them. The museum patrons (aka parents and fellow students) who toured the spectacular Famous American museum in the Hale cafeteria could step on the make-shift button and listen to each "wax" figure deliver a 30 second speech about their life. Yes, I may be a smidge biased, but I think Barrett’s speech was among the best of them all. She was very prepared, spoke loud and clear, and delivered a great speech (over and over and over…)

Some of my other favorites were Benjamin Franklin (her friend, Adam), Jackie Kennedy (her friend, Emily Woods), Elvis, Babe Ruth, Albert Einstein, Wyatt Earp, Dolly Parton, Helen Keller, Paul Revere, Calamity Jane (her friend, Riley), and Ginger Rogers.

What a great idea to engage our kids and get them thinking outside the box. I loved it.

Panthers 2010

I have mixed emotions about ball season coming to an end. Mostly, I'm a little bummed that the girls didn't make it to the finals in the tournament, but they played hard. They lost their last game Tuesday night 9-8 in the bottom of the fourth. They led the whole game until the last batter got a 3-run homer. As in every lost game, the Panthers missed a couple of key opportunities to score, left a few too many stranded on base. Overall, it was a good game.

But, if I'm really honest with myself, I'd admit that part of me is glad that it's over. May Madness has been all that and a bag of chips this year. Seriously, every single stinkin night we've been gone with games or recitals or programs or school projects or church functions or appointments or something. All good stuff, just too much of it. It will be nice to breathe.

Hello, Summer Vacation! I wanted to share a few pics from the season, so we'll always remember. I loved that Barrett and Afton played on the same team this year (and their good friends Riley and Karynn.) It made going to the games all the more fun to watch.

Here's the Panther brood after last Saturday's second tournament win. Lots of smiles, happy to be moving on in the tourney.

Here's our little jock, Afton. She's got some wheels and some energy and a love of the game. We're hoping for good things from you, Miss Afty Cakes.

Riley had a good season, too. She really progressed in her pitching throughout the season and had a blast playing on the same team with our girls.

You go, Barrett. I love that serious look. You've been the MVP of the team this year with your good pitching, strong defense and consistent strong hitting. The coach has had you batting clean up all season and we are so proud of you! I am glad that you've had a blast this season.

Love this pic. Afton on deck. Ready to hit.

Most of the season, Afton played first base (and did really great). She played short a couple games too. I was the team mom and official scorekeeper at most of the games, and I can tell you that we had quite a few 1-3 (when Barrett was pitching) or 6-3 (when Barrett was at short) ground out combos in the scorebook. Our fellow team parents (and good friends) joked that it was the "Brown Show" whenever that happened. At Tuesday night's game, in the bottom of the second, Barrett was playing short stop and got hit three grounders in a row. She fielded them all cleanly and all three were sat down after strong throws to Afton at first. Three up, three down. (Too bad the fourth inning didn't bring the same results.)

Well...before I get too sentimental about the season ending, I just got an email from the Mountain View Softball Little League letting us know that fall ball signups are coming in August for the Sept-Oct season. Looks like we'll be playing again soon enough! Not sure what Afton will want to do, though. She's been begging to play soccer (ugh!), but I'm hoping that she'll be just as thrilled with softball. I've never loved soccer and I'm not sure why, but I have no desire to be a soccer mom. I think team mom and scorekeeper suits me much better. Hehehe. Not that it's about me. I get it. But still...ball is in our genes.

Until then, we'll be playing some catch, taking some BP at the retention basin (if we can stand the heat), and enjoying lots and lots of time by the pool this summer. Our first vaca of the year is coming up in a 11 days. But who's counting?

Hmmm....I'm dreaming of:

mangos on a stick,
vanilla popsicles on the beach,
reading under the cabana,
laying out poolside,
waterslides,
beautiful condo,
Miami Ice (virgin of course),
fajitas at Ramon's,
new sunglasses,
jewelry shopping on the sand,
a nice tan,
.....
and the list goes on.