Other Activities

Since Easter, Ben's continued to have soccer practice, played in two baseball games, and a soccer tournament and we attended a production of The Lion King.

 Last Tuesday we attended The Lion King Jr, with all kid performers.  It was very good.

 Ben's team is the White Sox and they've played in three games so far.  One rained out last week and we have one more this week tonight.  They have won 1 game and lost two.  Ben is playing kid pitch for the first time and he's been hit three times at bat.

 This is what all the little sisters do during the game.

Score!

Easter Weekend

 On the Saturday before Easter, Ben's soccer team played their final regular season game for the spring.  They were undefeated for the regular season.  This past weekend they went to the district tournament in Oxford where they were beaten in two games.  Mini Predators front row (l-r): Ben, Ryland, George, Danny, and Will.  Back row:  Brian, Aiden, Leland, Ryan, Ludwig, and Jailen.  In the back are a couple of the U14 Predators who jumped into the picture, Diermo and Melvin, beside Coach Michael.  The U14 Predators won the district championship and will compete for the state championship.

 Easter outfits.

 In the afternoon, we made homemade chocolate icecream while John hid the eggs.

 John hid 60 plastic eggs in our backyard.

Later in the afternoon, we played in the cul-de-sac.  Cole wanted to hunt eggs again so John, Annie, and I hid 80 or so plastic eggs around the cul-de-sac then Ben, Mollie Grace, Cole, and Jerri Ann (who lives down the street) hunted them.

 These are two pictures Mollie Grace drew on Easter.

Caught Up!

These are pictures from Ben's soccer game.  The season is nearly over and I haven't posted any pictures.  I really haven't taken very many.  I get too involved in the game and forget to take pictures. There are only two more games, tomorrow night and Saturday morning.  Most of the team played together in the fall and they have learned to work together very well.  They are called the Mini Predators.  The coach also has a U-14 team called the Predators.  Since they are younger (and smaller) they got designated "mini."  They won last night 11-1.  Ben scored the final point in the game.  Generally his job is to set up a couple of good scorers rather than scoring himself.  (Ben is #11 in blue.)

 Just threw the ball in.

Last Day

Tuesday was our last day of CC for this school year and Ben's final day of CC period.  Next year he is going to a local private Christian school.

 After working on their egg protectors for two weeks, it was time to test them.  We made our first drop from this play equipment.  The fall was softened by wood chip ground covering and no one's egg broke.

 The egg protectors needed to be put to a better test so I found a ladder and they dropped them onto the concrete.  This is Graham dropping the egg protector for the team Ben was on.

 Their egg was the only one that didn't break.  They were incredibly excited!

 In costume for the end of year program.  Ben recited a history sentence about Ronald Reagan.  Mollie Grace told about U.S. space missions.

Ben and four others were recognized as Memory Masters for this year.  Ben has studied very hard for the past month to learn all of the material from this year including reciting the entire timeline from creation to 9-11.  It took about one hour to test him on all the memory work.  He had to go through four different testings.  First with me, then with John, with a CC tutor, and then with the director.  For the last two tests, he could not make one mistake.

Kid Pitch

As soccer season is about to end, baseball games begin.  Ben played his first kid pitch baseball game Monday night.  He got hit with the ball both times at bat and made it to first.  On the first bat, he got out at home when his coach had him attempt to steal home after the pitcher over throwed the catcher on a wild pitch.  The next time at bat, he was on base at the third out.  He played out field and second base.  He got one out on second.  There were very few opportunities to make plays during the game.  It was mostly about the pitcher, catcher, and stealing bases.

Nine

Ben's birthday should have been before Palm Sunday.  He wanted a Dallas Cowboys cake.  My blue icing didn't turn out dark enough but he was happy with it anyway.  The package showed navy.  I can't imagine how much dye was required to make it navy.  I used a lot to get that shade of blue.

 Thank you to Annie for the Lego set she chose for him.

 Want to guess who this present is from?

 Ben asked Mollie Grace for a NASCAR diecast that he could repaint to create his own customized car.  This is his before picture.

He made his own #9 car to celebrate his 9th birthday.

Palm Sunday

At church on Sunday morning, the kids got to participate in the Palm Sunday service.  Even the littlest ones.

Zoo

We haven't been to the zoo since before Christmas.  We went at the end of March and were amazed by these elaborate Lego sculptures which are currently on display.

 The zookeeper was telling us that they thought that several of the female giraffes were pregnant but they weren't positive.  Well, just a few days later one of the giraffes delivered a baby right out in the middle of the exhibit!