Last Fall Ball Game....

After a sleepover with the girls, Riley had his last Fall Ball Game ~ had fun this season, but glad it's over!  I give it a week or so and we will all be ready for Spring Season!

And now we are a Tenderfoot

Tonight was the first Court of Honor since he moved up to Boy Scouts.  

He received his First Aid, Swimming and one other one that I can't seem to call up Merit Badges.

He earned his Pioneer Trails patch from summer camp.

And, he received Tenderfoot Rank...

He was also chosen by the two Eagles in our troop as *Most Achieved* and was awarded the troop pin.  He gets to write his name on it and bring it back to the next CoH and it is passed on to the next high achiever!  What a fun troop thing to do!  He was most excited about this.

Dangerous Electricity by Riley

We went on a field trip to First Electric and I learned that electricity is very dangerous.  The reason you stay away from power lines is because they are very high voltage.  Due to the high voltage, power lines could electrocute you and send electricity to the ground.  Electricity travels so fast that if you were to wrap a power line around the earth twice and put a light bulb on one end and a switch on the other side and put them next to each other then flip the switch your light bulb is already on.  This is a reminder if you touch a power line it could result in severe injury or even death.

Crack that bat!

Today was a good day where baseball is concerned!  

Riley got two hits in!  Both times up to bat, he made contact!  First ball, pop fly straight to the pitcher.... second, ground ball towards third base, but due to the work of the other team, it beat him to first. That's OK though! One thing at a time... we are making contact - I would rather him get out on first than be struck out and never get to base.

He was also placed infield during a couple of innings and did pretty good there.  He was on second base.  The only time I really got stressed was when he and 3rd base had a runner in a pickle!  There was a little back and forth, then he ended up missing the ball and the runner got third.  A little stressful for momma!!

All in all, he did great today!

Baseball is life

Riley started Fall Ball today.  He is playing on a team that has quite a few boys younger than he is, so he has a bit of an advantage.  He knows they can lead off the bases at this age.  He also knows that on a third strike, if the catcher drops the ball, if you can beat the ball to first base, it's fair ball!  He was pretty excited about starting back up.  Coach says all the boys are going to play as many positions as he can get them into.  Ry is very excited about that - he has only played outfield!  Fallball is a quick season, but good for that extra practice to carry them on through the year.

Here's how Samantha feels about Fall Ball (well, baseball in general):

Thanks to Nene for picking up this shirt for her!

Toltec Mounds by Riley

While on a field trip I learned about the plum Bayou Indians that lived in Scott, AR.
How made weapons is they took river cane and cut it into three small peaces and then they took coals and put them in it to make a path for the darts. They make homes by using nature they took logs and put holes in them to make the rock fit so they can cut down trees to make there homes. When Indians had big feasts Indian tribes would come from every where and bring food for the feasts. I thought it was cool to learn about the plum Bayou Indians.

2nd Annual Cardboard Boat Race - Girl Scout style!!

We headed to Lake DeGray for the Girl Scout's Second Annual Cardboard Boat Race... this year Riley was able to participate in it as well... lucky for him, one of the scouts dad stepped in to race with him!

Concentrating hard...

Riley in his boat

tying the balloons on HOT AIR

More concentration

a few of my favorite tweens...

Ry's boat

HOT AIR sinking fast

FIRST PLACE in the odd boats

even though they dumped before I ever got out of the water from pushing them off! 

Boy Scouts Family Camp Day

Every summer, Troop #542 has a family camp weekend at Heber Springs.  We were going to go for the full weekend this year, but Samantha and Riley were going to be recognized at church on Sunday for Promotion Sunday, kiddos going into the 1st & 6th grade… and, since they were the only ones, I thought it may be nice for them to attend!

Anyways, we still took off and went up to the lake on that Saturday and hung out with the Troop.  We reserve 2-3 campsites and a pavilion for lunch on Saturdays.  The campsites are not far from the swim beach, so kiddos are all over the place up there during this time.

We started off at the swim beach, but I headed to the pavilion when lunch preparations started & ended up staying there for the rest of the day.  It was pretty warm out, so I was glad to get ready to head home when we did!

Braces - again!

Riley had an orthodontist appointment this morning and all of his baby teeth are gone & we are waiting on the 12 year molars to come in!  He still has a bit of a protrusion, so he is going to need a full set of braces.  Can we say $cha-ching$!  The good thing is- it is not an emergency- so, he wants to see Ry again in 6 months and if we haven't gone forward with it at that point, we will talk.

We headed to the theater to watch Alpha & Omega.  There was an issue with the movie, so we watch Diary of Wimpy Kid... kinda a cute, boy movie!

He had a Scout meeting tonight, for book signing.  He accomplished SO MUCH while they were at Scout Camp last week! He is only a few small items away from being able to work towards his Star Scout!

Busy weekend....

Whew... we were busy this weekend!

Saturday morning, Sam had her second swim meet - she did better this time and actually got a time to work with - no DQ!!! Now we have something to work towards - a better time! I worked the first part of the meet, and was able to see her swim...up close!

We had lunch out and then went to the dreaded WalMart store for Father's Day gifts.. Roger got an alarm clock - because he needed one! His is on the last leg, and mine fell at one point and the snooze doesn't work...we needed a new one!

Got Samantha all packed for her week at camp - I think she is pretty excited about going!

Ry got home late Saturday afternoon - filthy, tired and full of excitement from camp.  I am fb friends with one of the troop leaders - that took pictures - I just have to tag myself in all of them - but there is about 500 total...dreading that task - but, there were some good ones of Ry in there!

Went to Olive Garden with Gramma Sherrie, Rob and the 3 boys to celebrate Gramma's birthday... then it was home and bed!

Missed church on Sunday morning so we could head out to camp for Sam... Her BFF's mom went with us, because we were meeting her BFF halfway to pick her up from her dad - they had been at Father/Daughter camp over the weekend.  What a L-O-N-G drive!!  With a couple of stops, 4 hours!  We were there for 2 hours getting them checked in and then another 4 hours on the way home (because there were 2 cars and DQ was calling our name, so we had to stop and sit and visit!).

After such a long day, I am outta here!  Gotta do it all again on Friday!

Camping trip 2011 - Thursday

Well, time for us to load up and go home today... the kiddos and I anyways!  Riley has his final ballgame tonight, so we are headed home to go to the game.  For the most part, the morning was non-eventful.  Chelle and I stayed at the camper and packed up things getting us ready to go - the rest of them headed back down to the cold hole again.  (pictures to follow again). We got things up and ready to go, then she crashed on the couch and I headed out to the docked boat with my bible.  

Feeling pretty good about where I am in my reading ahead with the study.  Now I am trying to formulate emails in my head without losing them - something I cannot do on my phone - save an email draft!

We packed the kiddos up some lunch and then loaded them up and we headed out - Ry slept most of the way home (which was a good thing), but the girls played DS games.  We were home long enough to jump through the shower and get ready to head to the ball game - mom and Em came over and went with us.

They lost their final game - 10-6 - however, Riley made two of those 6 runs! It was HOT and I was glad it was over!!  They placed 3rd in their age division! Go WHITE SOX!!

Camping Trip 2011 - Wednesday

While Chelle was home for school, she picked up Franklin - our cousin (15).  He was eager to get going this morning, so I didn't have so much quiet time, but that's ok as well - it was great to visit with him!

When the guys got back from pulling in more empty jugs, we filled up on breakfast casserole and headed out in the barge for some more jumping and swim time ... oh, and some tubing!

We didn't get to play for long - we had to get ready to head back to town.  Riley's ball team participated in Field of Dreams at Dickey Stephens Ball Park - they got to go out on the field with the players at the beginning, during the National Anthem- to the position they normally play!

We only stayed at the game thru the first half, we only went because he was able to go out there!  Leaving, we noticed that the UP Steam Engine was in town.  We noticed it, and decided to backtrack and go see it.

Sunset over the river & Pinnacle Mountain

OK, and when we were getting ready to leave, the camp host came up and Rog said something to him about the bones.  Rog told him we were leaving, but Ralphie (friend who was with us) would be there and he knew where they were and all.  Camp host came back and picked him up, Ralphie took him to where they found the bones and two park rangers met them up there.  Ralphie took their camera (*you had to wade thru the water to get to the place) and he took several pictures - even one with his flip-flop, to compare size.  They took him back to camp and said they were going to get those developed.  A while later, two County Sheriff's came and picked Ralphie up and he took them up there where they found it and they picked it up to send to the lab.  They told him it looked like a coon leg bone.  Rog and Ralphie said no way - even Chelle, who saw the pictures- didn't think it was coon.  It will be interesting to see if anything comes from it!