ethan at the bat

Another baseball season under our belts.  Or under Ethan's belt I should say.

He played in a neighboring city league this summer and loved it.  Once again we were blessed with a great team with great coaches, players and parents.  

Some of my favorite shots from the season are below.

And he even had a little fan club during one game.

Grandma and Gideon drove all the way over here just to watch him play.

What a lucky guy!

camp adventures

Unexpectedly at the last minute I ended up helping at camp the week that Elliott was there.  He was happy that it was only for half the week and I totally acted like I didn't know him.  But I was able to get some fun pictures while I was there.

The Blob.

My kids' favorite part of camp.

The scene the next morning after the faculty hunt.

It was pouring, so all of the kids' shoes and socks were soaked and muddy and left outside.

Not sure we could fit anymore wet clothes or towels on this line!

Lots of games

Awesome worship times!

Ethan went to camp the next week.

I didn't stay so these are the only pictures I have.

He had lots of friends there, and they had a blast!

more drama

Ethan participated in two other dramas at church this spring.

The first one was a short production called "I am a Friend of God", where he played the role of "Johnathan".  He was the new kid in town and trying to fit in despite the hurtful words of a bully.  It was a fun way to send the message that we should "taste our words before we spit them out".

Drama friends.

I have a feeling we will be spending lots of time with these awesome kids in the future!

And the last performance of the spring was the Kids' Drama Camp production - "The Little Mermaid".

Ethan was the pilot of Prince Eric's ship.

He opened the show with a solo, which made this mama very nervous and proud all at the same time!

He did great, though, and it was a very fun production!

with Ursula

with our friend, who was a seagull in the show - such a funny scene!

with Ariel

Ethan and Tammy have spent a LOT of time together this spring.

She is the one behind all of these productions, making sure they are awesome.

And they always are!

And he was so excited that Andy came back from college to direct the show again this year!

oh ya got trouble....

with a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for POOL!

For a few months this spring we saw Professor Harold Hill and Marian the Librarian almost daily and thought for sure that the Wells Fargo Wagon was bringing us something "thepethal" (special).  All the while reminiscing about Gary, Indiana and playing in the boys' band at the ice cream sociable.

Yes.

The Music Man.

Ethan decided to do the spring musical at church.  They needed some boys for the boys' band and Ethan was excited that he got to do it.

There were long rehearsals and they were almost every night for a while there.

But he had the best time with the other kids that were in the production and met some really great adults that became like family to him.

And I'm pretty sure that we know every word to every song.

And have been known to just spontaneously break out into singing during any kind of road trip.

I almost cried during the curtain call of the last performance.

They all worked so hard, were together so much, and had so much fun.

I was just so sad for them for it to be over.

But there's always next year.

{with his "family" during Iowa Stubborn} 

{singing with some other River City kids}  

{the boys' band - he even got to "play" a sax, just like his dad}

{hanging out with Professor Harold Hill}

{some of the River City boys}

{Grandma came to see one of the performances}

{cast picture}

{posing with some of the cast}

early easter surprises

Grandma and Grandpa came over last Sunday to watch Elliott play flag football.

We have a running joke that it rains every time they plan to come over for one of the boys' sporting events.

It usually doesn't rain, though, until they are already here.

And that happened.

Rained out.

After they drove all the way over here.

But the boys were super excited to get early Easter baskets from them.

And so was I.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

march madness 2014

We are in full-on basketball mode right now.

Actually we are dividing time between basketball, baseball and flag football, so our weekends are crazy busy like all of yours, I'm sure.

But basketball is almost done, so I thought I should get some favorites shots added here.

The boys have both learned lots of lessons in being the underdogs this year, but they have had fun.....and they get a snack after each game so that always negates any ill feelings they had about the game, right?

And just because he can......

yes, those are 3rd and 4th graders :)

photography class

I've been taking a photography class online the past four weeks.

Its focus was on taking portraits.

Every once in a while someone will ask me to take pictures of their kids or family, and I thought this class might help me improve my skills with that so that I can do an even better job when the opportunity come up again in the future.

And, besides, I really love photography and want to learn as much as possible.

In fact, Brian will tell you that my camera is our third child :)

Anyway, these are some of the assignments that I had.

My subjects were very willing after I told them they would be paid for their work!

This first one was for a side lighting assignment.

This one was my submission for the specific age group photo.

We were to take what we had learned about photographing people of different ages and apply it.
I chose the boys' age group cause that's what I had access to and I figured that's what I photograph the most.


And this one was for a bonus creative assignment.
We were to take a portrait of someone but not of their face.

This last one was not for an assignment.

I just loved how it turned out and wanted to share it.

The last assignment was to take a group photo.

I had visions of getting a picture of Brian and the boys at a park near us, but the weather and our schedules this week just wouldn't cooperate.

I ended up submitting a photo that I had taken a few months ago with hopes of getting feedback on that one at least.

I really liked this class.

I feel like I learned a lot about taking photographs of people, and at the same time it made me realize that I knew more than I thought I did - gotta love that, too!