Camp

Last week Danelle and the kids went to Girl Scout camp at Camp MountainDale.   Danelle worked the camp as a troop leader, so Kellen got to go since there is a special 'unit' for boys who are sons of the troop leaders.  They all had a really good time.  It was a day camp for the most part, though Kristin did get to spend the night on Thursday night.  One of the camp traditions is that they don't use their real names during the week; everyone chooses a nickname to use.  Danelle was Freckles, Kristin was Torpedo (also her softball nickname), and Kellen was Roadrunner.  It was fun for me to hear them describe their days and use the nicknames of the other camp participants.  Kristin made a good friend over the course of the week - her name is Gummy Bear. 

They played fun games, learned silly songs, made armpit fudge, and did a lot of hiking.  Kellen made a marshmallow shooter out of pvc pipe.  He also told me all about how his favorite part was playing in the 'river'.  The photo here is Kellen and his river.  ;-)  The photos were provided my Kellen's unit leader.  Danelle wasn't able to be Kristin's unit leader, and unfortunately Kristin's leader didn't take pictures during the week.  She still has some great memories though!

Is it Really Almost the End of June?! Really?!

Wow, where does the time go?  For April, May, and the first half of June, we had something going on almost every evening and weekend.  I coached Kellen's Tball team.  Actually, Danelle coached too.  She was one of our two 'bench bosses' that kept the boys in line while they were on the bench waiting for their turn at bat.  Then there was softball, which Danelle and I both coached.  And of course soccer for Kristin, which goes year round.  Softball and Tball wrapped up by mid June, so now we're just down to Kristin's soccer schedule.

Kellen had a great Tball season.  We started pitching to the boys mid season.  Kellen wasn't sure about it at first, so we made a deal that he could hit from the T until he turned 6.  After that, we pitched to him and he did a great job.  He swings left handed and it looks like he will have a smooth natural swing like Kristin does.  Kellen's favorite position was probably catcher (just like big sister).  He and his friends seemed to have a great time this season and it was very rewarding to coach.  The team surprised me with an autographed baseball signed by all the boys on the team.  I keep it on my desk at work. :-) 

Kristin is a pretty phenomenal softball player.  It was a lot of fun for Danelle and I to coach her and watch her play.  She was a great leader for her team in addition to being a great player.  She only struck out once all season, and that was because her silly coach (me) told her to 'swing at the next pitch no matter what.' And of course the pitcher went from throwing perfect strikes to throwing one in the dirt about 2' in front of home plate. Kristin was great in the field too.  On the last play of the game this season, Kristin was playing shortstop.  The batter made a pop fly and Kristin hustled to get under it, called for it, and then caught it.  Then she caught a base runner not tagging up and doubled off the base runner by hustling over to touch second base for the unassisted double play.  It was a fantastic way to end the season.

The kids finished strong academically as well.  We enjoyed going to Kellen's kindergarten graduation at the daycare kindergarten program.  Kellen went to public kindergarten in the afternoon and went to daycare kindergarten in the morning this school year.  He will certainly miss his daycare teachers and friends, but we are excited to now officially be done with daycare.  Kristin will be going in to 5th grade in the fall.  Can you believe it?  It will be her last year of elementary school, since the middle schools here start in 6th grade.  I think she is both excited and nervous about entering her last year of elementary school.

Catch Up

It has been too long, I know.  Let's see... Kellen turned 6 this month!  We had Kellen's birthday party at Bricks and Minifigs (lego store).  Kristin lost another molar.  Kristin tried out for Classic Soccer U11 and made the A team!  Kristin was picked to be a Mountain Guide at school by her teacher.  She had this as a personal goal and got picked because she is a responsible kid.  :)  Mountain Guides are 5th graders that help with getting younger kids to where they need to be, monitoring hallways and bus areas, etc.  She is pretty excited.  She even had to sign a contract. 

Kellen also learned to ride his bike without training wheels.  Well, "learned" is not the right word.  We took them off on Tuesday and headed up to the school to practice without the training wheels since we had a rare night home.  Aaron held on for a second to let Kellen get going and let go and he was off.  I figured that would happen as he has been riding for many months without the training wheels ever really touching the ground.  Now he wants to ride his bike all the time.  :)

Lot more happened between the last post and today, like lots of softball and tball games.

Today we had a softball game and a tball game of course.  It was raining this morning, so we weren't sure we would have either game.  It stopped raining about the time we got to Kristin's game for warm ups.  :)  Her whole game was dry.  Her team played Lincoln and won 18-10.  We had some good pitching in the girl pitch innings, Kristin had a great line drive, and all around it was a fun time.

Kellen had a tball game after lunch.   It started raining shortly before we left and never stopped... well not until later in the evening.  The boys and coaches wanted to play so we got 2 innings in instead of 3.  Kellen started hitting off coach pitch on Thursday this week (twice on Thursday) and he had another hit today.  Way to go Kellen!

Softball Game vs. Jets - 4/27

This afternoon we had a softball and t-ball game at basically the same time.  I was at Kristin's game. Kristin and her team all played really well.  Their bats were on fire!  Kristin hit every time except for the first kid pitch inning when she was walked.  They won 17-6!  Go Fire & Ice!!! 

Kristin batting in 1st inning - kid pitch - and our wonderful cheering bench

Catcher Kristin

Great scoop!

T Ball Game vs. the Mariners

Here are a few pictures from Kellen's game on Friday night.  We missed having coach Daddy there.  The boys had fun and are starting to hit more regularly off the coach pitch.

Kellen swinging at coach pitch

Coming in to home plate

Full Swing

We're into the full swing of Tball and Softball season for the kids.  Seams like there is someplace we need to be every evening.  Probably because it is true!  The kids are really enjoying their respective sports and Danelle and I are having a blast coaching as well.

Kristin is tearing it up this season at softball.  She has grown into the team leader in both skills and cheering on her teammates.  Kellen has been doing great at Tball as well.  His team has been doing well enough that we have already introduced coach-pitch.  Kellen isn't quite sure about that yet - "It's called Tee Ball, Dad!" But he's been a good sport about it.

They're both doing well in school, too.  Kristin is working on a project with salt-dough that she shaped into a topographic map of Oregon.  I haven't seen it yet so I'm excited for when she gets to bring it home.  Kellen has a new kindergarten teacher.  The previous teacher transfered out of the school.  Seems late in the year for such a move, but Danelle says that the new teacher is fantastic.  Danelle spends a lot of time at the school volunteering so its nice to have her finger on the pulse of things there.

Hopefully we'll be able to post some pictures from the activities this spring.  Of course, that would mean that Danelle or I would need a free hand during one of the games!

Weekend Recap

Well, the weekend had some sports games, but could have had more.  Saturday was chilly and it had rained Friday night, so Kristin's 2 tournament softball games (just pool play) got rained out.  What a bummer!  We were looking forward to that.  Kellen's t-ball team still had their game after team pictures. 

Sunday afternoon Kristin had a soccer game.  The games in the spring are at Liberty High School and it is so windy up there all the time.  So, it was quite chilly, but when the sun was out it wasn't so bad. 

The rest of the weekend we pretty much hung around the house and outside.  Aaron and I got caught up on some yard work too.  :)