Zach's 8th Grade Graduation

Zach has graduated from the 8th grade! He will be in high school in the fall!!! Where I come from (small towns!), the only graduation that you get is when you graduate from high school! Not here in Sioux City! We have been through Pre-School Graduation, 5th Grade Graduation, and now 8th Grade Graduation!

Since the graduation ceremony itself was in the morning, I had to take a couple hours off from work to be able to go, but I am glad that I didn't miss it. It was a very nice ceremony... almost just like the high school graduation ceremony! All the students had their names read off as they came down the aisle to their seats, the choir sang a song, and the Superintendent of the Sioux City School District, Larry Williams, gave a little speech. Awards were handed out and even retiring faculty members were honored during the ceremony. After the ceremony, parents were able to go down to the courtyards and find their son/daughter to take pictures, etc. I had to get back to work, so I left. After this ceremony, the eighth graders had lunch and then had a dance in the gym for the rest of the afternoon. We will probably take Zach out for supper, but we have to find a night when all of us are available! It may not be until we go on vacation next week!!! Anyway... Congratulations, Zach on your 8th Grade Graduation!!! We love you!

Memoral Weekend 2008

Wow! What a nice weekend! The weather was great!! CJ and I had to work on Saturday, but we still managed to go to a wedding on Saturday night. Our neighbor's son got married. It was a very nice outdoor wedding with the reception being immediately after. Brianna was having a lot of fun running around and dancing! She didn't really want to leave!

On Sunday, we stayed home and worked around the house and yard. CJ and Zach loaded more branches from the trees that were cut down in the backyard and hauled them off to the dump. We are also in the process of building a new deck on the side of the house, so after CJ and Zach ripped the old deck down, I spent the afternoon filling in all the cracks in the foundation. I wanted to get them filled in before we built the new deck in its place. After all this "hard work", we decided to grill some hamburgers and hot dogs for supper, then we started a bonfire in the backyard with some of the trees and parts of the deck still laying around! The neighbors had family over for a little get together, so we were all hanging out together in the backyards! Brianna wanted to go camping, but since I had to work for a little while on Monday, we didn't go anywhere. We did improvise, though, and put the tent up in the backyard and camped there!

On Monday, CJ and I got up early (due to sleeping on the ground!) and had some nice quiet time while the kids kept sleeping. Once they got up, we had some donuts for breakfast and Brianna went to work with me. I only had to work for a couple of hours and she was a really good helper! We were home before lunchtime, so we still had the whole day to enjoy. Brianna's friend, Madison, called to see if Brianna could come play with her. Brianna went over there for part of the afternoon, while CJ, Zach and I went to the mall. Zach wanted to look for a shirt for his 8th grade graduation the following day. We picked up Brianna on the way home, and ended up bringing Madison home with us. The two girls ran through the sprinkler in the backyard while Zach filled up water balloons and threw them at them! Madison went home at supper time and we had barbecued chicken strips for supper... something simple and easy! The kids had showers and went to bed without any complaining. I think the activity of the weekend was catching up to them... I know it had caught up with me!!! I was not looking forward to going to work in the morning! I am just glad that it will be a short work week and then we are on vacation! YEAH!!!

Latest Sports Update...

Zach has had three baseball games since the last posting, however I don't have lots of details since I missed some of them because Brianna had practice, or it was a late game on a school night, etc.

The Phillies played against the Devil Rays on May 20th. Zach pitched the first 6 innings of this game and did a really awesome job! The Devil Rays weren't able to get any runs in during this time, and the Phillies were up by 4-0. By the 7th inning, Zach was close to his "pitching quota", so they took him out and put him at 1st base and put another pitcher in. The Phillies went through two different pitchers in this inning because the Devil Rays were hitting off of them and the players in the outfield were making lots of errors. It was a very nerve-racking inning, but the Phillies were able to pull it off and they won 4-3!

Since this was a double-header night, the next game was immediately after. The Phillies played the Orioles. Zach played 1st base and center field for this game. I had to leave to go home and put Brianna to bed since it was a school night, but the Phillies won this game 7-1!

On Thursday, May 22nd, the Phillies had a rain make-up game from the beginning of the season. They played the Royals. The coaches let the younger kids start the game and play most of it, while the older kids just played the required two innings. It was a nice break for some of them and they didn't need to worry... the Phillies won this game also, 19-5!





After these three games, the Phillies' record stands at 8-1 for this season! Way to go!!!

Court of Awards

Brianna had her final Brownie meeting for this school year on Friday, May 16th. A "Court of Awards" ceremony was held in the evening for all the girls in 1st thru 5th grade for three schools in our neighborhood. It was a really nice ceremony, with each troop of girls performing a song or some type of skit up in front of all the friends and family in attendance. The older Brownie girls even got to "cross the bridge" to Girl Scouts during this ceremony. Punch and cookies were served afterwards at a little reception. Brianna got her star pin for completing her third year, she got a couple of badges that were earned, and she also got her Cookie Patch and all her prizes for selling over 300 boxes of cookies!! The only patch she is missing is for the trip her troop took to Sioux Falls the weekend before this ceremony. They went up to the Washington Pavillion and spent the night inside the Kirby Science Center! According to Brianna, "it was a blast"! She had a lot of fun running around that place all evening and sleeping among the exhibits! (I keep imagining the movie, "Night at the Museum"!!) The theme was dinosaurs, so she learned all about the different kinds of dinosaurs, saw a movie about them, and even brought home a wooden model of a dinosaur to put together. Hopefully they get their patch for this event soon! The current troop leader, Trishia, is moving to Jackson, Nebraska this summer. So she will be stepping down from her leader position and handing it over to another mom. The new mom/leader is a wonderful person so we are looking forward to a great year ahead!!!

A Soccer Game... Finally!

Brianna finally was able to play some soccer last Saturday! Zach had a baseball tournament going on at the same time, so we were running back and forth between his baseball games and Brainna's soccer game! It was a really nice day for ball games, though. I had a sunburn going on by the time Brianna's game was over and we still had another ball game to sit through!

Brianna's team won their game! She scored one goal during this game! She thought she scored another one, but the ball went in on the side of the goal and through the net instead of through the front! She has been playing really well!! She has one game left at the end of the month and then she will be done. Her team has two games left, but Brianna will miss the last one because we will be on vacation. She will also miss her first two softball games while we are gone...

City Baseball Tournament

The City Baseball Tournament was held May 15 - 18 at various fields throughout Sioux City. The Phillies (Zach's team) played one game on Thursday night, one game on Friday night, two games on Saturday, and then played two games on Sunday for the Championship! The Phillies are now the City Champs!!! They won all their games -- the scores were as follows: 12-2; 28-2; 42-3; 10-5; 7-1. They will be getting 1st place trophies for this tournament! Yay Phillies!!!! Great job, Zach!!!

Late Game Last Night...

Zach had a ball game last night at 8:15 PM... and it didn't even start on time. The other team was from Lawton-Bronson and they had a track meet going on over in Lawton, so they were late showing up to the baseball game. Since it was a school night, Brianna and I only stayed for the first two innings, then I took her home to get to bed. When we left, Zach was pitching and the Phillies (Zach's team) were up 2-1.

Zach and CJ got home about 11:00PM. I stayed up waiting for them so I could hear about the game. Zach pitched three innings (the only details I got were that he did "alright"). He struck out twice up to bat, and then walked the other times. He was disappointed because he didn't get a hit. The Phillies did beat Lawton-Bronson... 9-4. This makes their overall record 5-1.

There is a city-wide tournament starting Thursday night. Zach has a game Thursday night, Friday night, and two games on Saturday. Depending on how his team does, they may have a game or two on Sunday. I will let you know how it goes in future posts!!