April Memories!

Wow! I am way behind on my blogging!!! I am just now finding some spare moments to sit down and collect my thoughts about what all has happened the past 2 1/2 months! I'll start back in April and update you from there!

April 13th: We celebrated Andrew's 14th birthday! I can't believe it... he is growing up so fast- literally! He is about 5'8" tall now. He wants to be at least 6', and I think he's going to be. He said he will blame me if he's not... Ha! He had has birthday party at the Springdale Youth Center. About 15 of his friends showed up and they played pool, basketball, ping-pong, and ate pizza and cookies. I forgot to take my camera, so I don't have any pictures. After the party, 4 of his good friends spent the night- Parker, DJ, Wyatt, and Toby. They stayed up most of the night, I think, and finally all crashed in our living room.

April 29-30: Matthew's 5th Grade Class Field Trip to the Ozark Natural Science Center! Matthew has looked forward to this field trip ever since Andrew went when he was in the 5th grade. The 5th graders raised money all year long to cover the cost of going. Randy went again as a chaperone. They had a great time. Matthew LOVED it- they were outdoors almost the whole time. He learned all about the plant/animal life in the Ozarks. He came home able to tell me all about frogs and the sounds they make! Evidently he made quite an impression on his camp counselors, too. We just got a letter informing us that they had picked Matthew as a ONSC "Shiner"- meaning that he showed a great interest in natural science and the ability to work well with others. This earned him a FULL SCHOLARSHIP to their Shiner Camp in July! (Their summer camps cost about $400!). Matthew is SOOOOO excited- he can not wait until July 29th. The camp is 5 days long, and they get to participate in fun, hands-on activities in the outdoors ranging from hiking and aquatic studies on the Kings River to cave ecology and exploration in a nearby cave! This is right up Matthew's alley!!! We are so proud of him! Here are a couple of pictures from the field trip.

The rest of April was consumed with State Benchmark Testing for all three boys (a full week of rigorous testing on math and literacy skills) and baseball- Andrew played Babe Ruth baseball for the Kiwanis' team. This was his last year to play- by choice. He has decided to give up baseball and free up some time in his busy schedule. He will be playing football, basketball and running track in 9th grade next year; not to mention taking a full load of AP classes. Matthew also played baseball this spring. He was on the Yankees. He says he is 'done with baseball' also. He just didn't enjoy it much this season. Both boys were on teams that struggled- they both only won 2 games all season. We still enjoyed being at the ballfields... I will miss it next year (maybe!).