Dream Boat

 Colin has been begging for a boat for a few years now.  Earlier this summer, he even tried to get by with an inflatable boat, which quickly became trash.  On Friday, Jim told him he may have a lead on a small aluminum john boat (all Colin really wanted).  Colin hopped right on his bike with a pocket load of his field lining money and bought this little boat.  He was beyond excited!  He even bartered for it, so he was proud of that too!

 Reason #2455 why Colin needs to pass his driver's test and get his own vehicle!  Incidentally, the boat will not be going back in my van until we get some rain and the water is less disgusting!  It wasn't bad on the way to the city lake, but on the way home I wanted to throw up!!

 Cameron (notice the championship medal is still around his neck?)  and Quincy were part of the maiden voyage.  Quincy just got taken for a spin around the lake, and was super happy about that!

 The boys fished off of the boat for a couple of hours.....unfortunately, they didn't catch much!

 Last night, I gave Saige some food and went about cooking dinner for everyone else.  It wasn't very long at all when I noticed she had eaten all of her stuff......so I chopped her up some more only to notice

 she was being robbed by the brown eyed bandit!

Sorry Saige!!!

CHAMPS!!

 Cameron (above) and Colin (below) played in a crazy long, very intense, hard fought game tonight to get become the champions of their tournament!

 I had to give Cameron a little talk before the game because he is not the best sport sometimes when it comes to losing.  I told him it was ok either way and that we were proud of them for making it to this game.  His response was "second place is first loser - that is not ok"  -- I am pretty sure I have Uncle Jay to thank for that line!  Or Ricky Bobby from Taladega Nights?  Not sure which one?  Anyhow, my lecture was for nothing because they won!  Both boys played really well!  It was  a ton of fun to watch!

 And yes, Cameron did insist on standing up on the fence by the scoreboard and having his photo taken!  (They were the visiting team tonight)

And no, Madison did not shed a single tear when it was time to close up the concession stand for the year!

Lake day

 Although a lot of our summer has been consumed by ball season, the kids did have a great day with grandma and one of her friends at the lake this week.  Grandma's friend has a really cool dog who likes to fetch sticks and rocks out of the water!  I have not stopped hearing stories about how cool "Molly" is and how she may get to have some puppies next year and how they are sure that getting one of Molly's puppies is very necessary!

 Even Harper, who is terrified of dogs, seems to enjoy talking about Molly!!  They had a picnic and did a little horseback riding as well.  It was a fun day for them....Colin told me it was sooo much more fun than staying home and doing chores! 

Finals

Colin and Cameron's team has earned the right to play in the championship game!  I was hoping for them to make it to the last night just because it is a home tournament and I thought it would be awesome to have the home team still playing.  I am very proud of them for playing awesome tonight and getting a hard-fought win!  They are pretty excited about having a chance at the title!

Quincy was pretty ticked because they played the early game tonight, and she and Preston have been attending Bible School at the local Methodist church.  When cousin Melissa delivered her to the ball park the boys' game was already over.  She was not a happy camper, although I have not once this season actually seen her sit and watch them play!!  :) 

Madison is almost giddy over the fact that she is going to be released from the captivity of the concession stand.  She was having a little too much fun marking out the menu items she ran out of tonight!!  It could be a sad night tomorrow when there are no big pretzels for people to have for dinner!

I am almost giddy at the idea of having an evening at home!  Of course, the school calendar came in the mail today - my nights at home are going to be short lived it looks like! 

The final storm

 Colin (above) and Cameron (below) have started their end of season tournament this week.  They won their first game to advance closer to a title! 

 Cam alternated the night between playing shortstop and catcher (I still don't know how you put on all that equipment in this heat and spend the evening crouching, jumping, and throwing yourself at people, but Cam makes it look easy and it is no secret that he loves that position!)

Colin spent the night on 3rd base, and had some remarkable plays there.  Sometimes when Cam is catching and Colin is on 3rd I worry about them getting mad at each other, but so far this season, that has not happened!  They really work well together.  They are as hard on themselves as they are on each other!!  :)  I am enjoying watching them play together....and it is even better when they win together!  Since it is a home tournament, it would be really fun to watch them take it to the end, but if it doesn't happen, it has been a good season anyhow!

Calm before the final storm

 We enjoyed a mostly relaxed weekend before the final round of baseball tournaments coming up this week.  I say mostly relaxed because on Friday night around midnight, we got a call from "officer Q" stating that he needed to talk to Jim.  I didn't panic because I knew all our kids were at home!!  There was another water line break.  Jim had to go find the maintenance man, and figure out a plan of action.  He then got up very early Saturday morning to help get everything set up for the fix.  They were successful, but it did take a good chunk of the day.

 While he was doing all that, I took Mallory to her interview for Queen of 4-H.  She is very honored to have been nominated, and where I am not sure how she will do, I am very proud of her for giving it a try!  We will find out who is crowned at the Overbrook fair in a couple of weeks.

 We also had a nice time meeting with Jim's parents, and an uncle and cousin who were in from out of town.  The kids had a great time spending all of Uncle Ray's money in the game room at Cici's pizza, and we are now the proud owners of several very fancy necklaces!  It was fun to visit with them too!

 I have been making apple butter, and Mallory made a batch of salsa all from other people's gardening efforts.  I have found a great recipe for apple butter that goes in the crock pot, it is easy and most of the work happens while I am doing other things, which is super exciting to me.  Plus, it makes the house smell really good! 

 The little girls never seem to grow tired of spending time at the pool.  Ever.  The older kids can take it or leave it, but Harper and Quincy think it is a mandatory place to go on a daily basis.  Preston usually wants to go too, but he spent most of the afternoon swimming at a friend's house, so he was done for the day!  Quincy is getting to be a pretty confident swimmer, although we haven't convinced her to go off the diving board this year, which is really bothersome to Colin.  She went off all the time last year, but toward the end of the season, had a little mishap.  She jumped off the side into a ring, and she missed.  She really did not come close to drowning, because Colin was standing right there, but it scared her enough to have some healthy respect for the water!  Maybe not a bad thing??

This will be the last week for lining fields, concession stand running, and the ball season for Colin and Cameron's team.  I don't think I will be shedding any tears when next weekend is here!  It has been a real adventure, and I think it will be a good memory, but I am ready for an earlier bedtime, and fewer things to worry about.

What money can buy

 I had to go to a job site at work today to take some photos of the rehab project that we are in the middle of.  I gotta say, for what it is costing, I thought that the dirt would be gold!  :)  The construction is going well, and I really am happy with the contractor, and excited that aside from some misplaced money (thank you state of Kansas for changing the computer system in the middle of this project) things are going very smoothly!  We are even ahead of schedule since although the dry conditions are not good for anything else, it has enabled us to take absolutely no days off for weather!

 Colin has been wanting a boat for a few years now.  I mean he has been begging and pleading for a boat for a few years now!  He spent some of his hard earned field lining money on this "boat" and has really had a fun time floating around on the city lake.  He has been promising Quincy that the next time we had an evening free, she could join him. 

Unfortunately, he had some sort of a mishap, and his new "boat" now has a hole in it.  He took it to the local mechanic, thinking they could put a tire patch on it, but it made the hole bigger.  He was pretty bummed out about it!  Luckily, he didn't pay much for it!

Tournaments

 Preston (above) and Quincy (below) had their tournaments start tonight.  Both their teams lost in the first round. 

 Not to say that they didn't play really well, because they did, they just didn't have what it took to win tonight!  Quincy's team is made up of a lot of really young girls (most are just barely 5 years old).  They tried really hard, but most of them just weren't worried too much about chasing a ball down, or about paying attention at all.  Quincy did a great job of paying attention and of trying to make some plays.  We are very proud of her. 

Preston's team never really learned to work together this year, they had a lot of talented kids, but each one of them forgot that there were teammates to look for help from or to count on.  I think this will come with age and maturity.  I also think that Preston had a couple of kids on his team who REALLY do not enjoy playing ball, and I hope that their parents will realize it and not force them to play again, because they were really not enjoying it at all. 
 

 Overall, I think that our kids have enjoyed summer ball, and the little ones seem to happily go to the ballpark and not complain about it.  I think they even enjoy it, but part of that may be that they have learned how to manipulate concessions (by asking daddy).

A public service, because that is what I do.....red Gatorade is a very bad idea.  Very bad!  Stick with yellow....or water.....or apple juice or anything that is not red.  When a 2 year old spills her red Gatorade, it  will stain your feet red. 

3 teams down --- 1 to go!!!  (Will that statement alone get me kicked out of the running for mom of the year???)