'Round here...Busy, Busy, Busy!

*our school year is winding down - only 2 more weeks to go.

*summer production of "The Princess Bride"..... underway - Last year (and I can't believe I never posted about it), Dani worked all year long on a script of "Puss in Boots" and wanted the homeschool group to perform it.  You have no idea how much I thought that would NOT happen ;)  But we jumped in and did it and it was a wonderful, wonderful experience - raising over $900 in donations which went to a local crisis pregnancy center and to CRS for Haiti.

This year Dani and I came up with a name for her group.  After going through many possibilities - and me really wanting a JPII reference - Dani came up with "Lolek's Storytellers"!  For those that may not know, Lolek was John Paul II's childhood nickname and he also was very much into acting in his youth.  He even wrote "The Jeweler's Shop" which was made into a movie - EWTN has shown this recently.

The Princess Bride is going to be so fun, and we're all very excited!

Here are some shots of last year's performance:

The cast and crew of Puss in Boots - 2010

Dani presenting Cindy, the director of The Hope Center, with the donated funds and a picture. Cindy also came to see the play and is looking forward to this year's production of The Princess Bride. 

*On Father's Day (of all days), Dani and I leave for L.A.!!  Well, Alhambra to be exact.  We're going to a Mother / Daughter retreat at the Carmelite convent where my sister is a novice - on the verge of a 2nd year novice.  The retreat is Monday - Thurs. and then we'll have a "family visit" from Thurs. - Sunday.  For the family visit, my parents and brother and his family will fly out on Thursday - so we'll all be together!!  WE ARE ALL SO VERY EXCITED!!  I can't imagine how ecstatic my sister must be!  I haven't seen her in almost 2 yrs. - whereas I used to see her several times a week.  It will be different, but beautiful!

*Softball.  Rec-ball came to an end in May.  Dani, Therese and Sophia all played (T & S on the same team).  We didn't put the boys in anything, though we did throw around the idea of putting all 3 of them in baseball or flag football.  I wasn't that excited to be pulled in any more directions.  Looking back though, I wish we would've put them in baseball.  It would've worked.  I think it's important that boys do *something* as a team sport.  Anyway, I digress...
When this season was coming to a close, I must admit I was going to miss watching Dani play.  She was the starting pitcher and has come such a long way since the fall (when she began taking lessons) - just so fun to watch!  Then an opportunity landed in our laps...
Paul was at a local sporting goods store and was talking with the owner.  Through their discussion, he told Paul how he is the coach for a travel ball team and that they were looking for a pitcher.  We were invited to a practice the following night to check out the team, while the head coach worked with Dani and checked her out :)
So now she's on the team - the Panthers - and is having the time of her life!  They've had two tournaments so far coming in 2nd place both times.  Our Saturdays are all-day softball tournaments and our week packed with practices, but it is so worth it - not only to watch Dani and the girls play (they are very good!), but to see Dani doing something with which she has a passion.

 Rec ball team at their team party - Blue Lightning.  Not a stellar season, but it was fun!

 Dani pitching for the Panthers

That's my girl!!

 Panthers on 3 - 1, 2, 3....

 Panthers!

~Second Place~






And this is what little ones do at the end of a long day of softball....

So glad I have my Melaluca products to get her white uniform clean :)

*Trying to work out tennis lessons for Therese and Sophia.  A friend of mine offered to have them come to her house once a week so she can instruct them with her daughter and another friend.  These are some of my girls' best friends :)

*Therese takes horse-riding lessons and won a week of summer horse camp for raising the most money for charity.  That's at the end of this month.

 Way to go, Therese!  

Taking home 1 First Place and 2 Third Place ribbons from the horse show

 Bobbing for apples...

 ... much easier without the helmet ~

Next year we'll add Sophia too :)

*Hopefully we'll be able to squeeze in some pool time ;)

*My garden re-seeded itself!  Yippee!!  I was procrastinating the planting of tomatoes, peppers and cukes, when Paul informed me that it looked as though there were tomato plants in the (box) garden.  I walked to the garden and lo and behold, most everything reseeded - with the exception of peppers, I think.  My basil is everywhere!!  What sorts of things grow in your garden?

*Birthday month is upon our household (plus Father's Day).  I don't know how I'm going to be able to make it all work with how busy we are - God's grace and Publix bakery, I suppose!

What is it with Blogger and posting videos?  Some post and some don't!   :(  Bummer.   

Spring Softball Season

Dani's softball season is now over - she played 16U (under). Our park doesn't have a 14U because there aren't enough girls to make up teams for both age brackets, so they combine 14U & 16U.  I don't like that at all but unfortunately there isn't anything we can do about it. Luckily she was on a team filled with nice girls and nice, encouraging coaches.

This team, The Redbirds, finished the regular season with only one loss putting them in 2nd place.  The first place team lost one game as well, but since they lost against another team and beat us they took first.  Does that make sense?

But The Redbirds took First Place in 2 tournaments!  They were such a fun team to watch!  Never a dull moment!

Way to go Dani Girl!

Congratulations on a great season!

Garden, Pitching Mound, & Deck Addition

Yes, Paul has been a busy boy.  And he will continue to be for a good while :)  It's all good though.  He really does love all these home projects!

About a month ago, Paul made a raised garden bed.  We've got tomatoes, cukes, [green, red, sweet banana] peppers, cilantro, spearmint, stevia, and one watermelon (which I'll have to move... I forgot from childhood just how much they spread out).  We have a couple bean plants which I don't think made/will make it. I'd also like to plant some lettuce, but can't seem to find any.  I think it's too late to start them from seed.  What do you think?

actually, the garden is so much bigger than this in just over one week!

After re-reading the directions on the cucumbers I found out that they were supposed to be 6-9' apart, not inches - which I did. LOL - Oh well, we'll see how they do ;)

now there are teeny weeny little tomatoes :)

Paul also made a couple of 50 gal. rain barrels - made of heavy food-grade plastic.  He bought them for $20 a piece and then bought a spigot and other supplies at the hardware store.  He also bought a pump which will hook up to the spigot and will pump a sprinkler!  It's quite awesome.  Not bad considering that Home Depot wants over $100 for the ones which they sell. 

Pitching Mound

Still a work in progress, this pitching area is perfect for not only pitching, but also for hitting practice.  Paul bought the high impact net on eBay and attached it to the 4 pine trees.

I should take some updated pictures - because now, there is some astro turf on the mound with a pitching rubber (a friend of ours is the baseball athletic director [that's my title, not sure the correct one!!  LOL] of a nearby college and he gave Paul some more netting - yet to be put on top to prevent balls from going over - and this astro turf).  It's nice to have friends in high places :)

Okay, here's an updated picture:

Dani has been working so hard at pitching, and this is the perfect place for her to do her drills.  At her last game on Saturday she pitched an inning and she did AWESOME!!  I was so proud of her that it brought tears of joy to my eyes - because she's worked so hard and really proved herself!  She was so happy (that she got a chance to pitch after all the hard work) and confident after that game.  It was great!

Deck Addition

Here are the supports for the posts which will be going up (sometime) soon.  We've been in our house for 4 years now and Paul (and helpers) put an addition on the deck about a year after we were here.  So our back deck has one part which is screened in and then a step down onto the original addition (this is where the grill is).  But we've never had steps!  So one of Paul's projects was to add steps this year (yay!).  You know it just can't be that simple though, right?  We brain-stormed and came up with taking the deck all the way to the end of the house ending up with very few steps versus many steps. We're even considering using  composite material for the top of the railing ledge and black aluminum posts.

On top of all these projects there has been lots of yard work; putting mulch/pinestraw down, planting, pulling weeds, and rearranging some things.

Hope y'all have had fun playing in the dirt!