And finally...Graduation!

We are excited to say we now have a high school graduate! We survived a year of festivities leading up to the actual event. It's hard, in some ways, to believe it's all over. We are proud of Katie and her accomplishments. She's done well and we look forward to seeing what God will do in her college years. Congratulations, Katie!

Another School Year Completed!

The kids finished up their second school year at RCS yesterday. I look at these pictures and am so thankful for the teachers and experience Kamryn and Troy had this year again. What a blessing these people have been to us! Even yesterday Kamryn was telling us about Mr. DeBoer sharing with the sixth graders the story of his dad's sudden death a few years back and the testimony that he has from that. Thanks for making a positive impact! We are thankful for each of you! Now...bring on SUMMER!!

Second Place Ain't Bad!

Kamryn and The Tigers played in the RBY U12 softball championship game the other evening. The girls tried hard, but came up short against the Wildcats. They did take second place in the playoffs which is a huge accomplishment for this team who came in 6th in regular season. They are a great bunch of girls who got to learn from some great coaches. I have to say the highlight of this game for me was all the support from our church family who came out to watch Kam play. We had seven families represented and lots of adorable little fans! A couple of parents from our team asked Scott if these people were ALL from our church. :) So cool! Anyway, here are the second place LSU Tigers! Awesome season, girls!

What a cute bunch of fans!

photo credit: M. Wiers :)

Receiving awards after the game.

Showing Alliyah and Livi her trophy.

Still Hangin' On

We're still hanging on for dear life here! This weekend...

Kamryn and The Tigers beat the Bruins in their first play-off game.

The Sytsmas visited us and we explored Forest Falls. (Thanks so much for stopping by, Sytsma family!)

Katie and her friends had their baccalaureate service. (We had a relative think that they had missed graduation after seeing pictures like this on facebook. Nope, that's still coming this weekend.)

We had a special time of blessing for the seniors during church.

We listened to Troy perform in his first piano recital. (He did great!)

(Troy and his teacher, Mrs. Kimm.)

And we celebrated Kamryn's softball success with a pool party.

Stay tuned. There's more to come this week!...

Trying to Keep Up!

I should take more time to edit these pictures, but if I don't get these on the blog now, I'll get way behind. Troy and the Yankees took on the Phillies in the championship game the other evening. It was pretty exciting and the boys played great. Unfortunately, we came up a run or two short and lost 13-12. We were all pretty "into it." As you scroll down the pictures, you will notice Scott couldn't even sit down! We were blessed to have some out of town guests and church friends there to watch and help cheer Troy on. It was a great season and now Troy is thrilled to have been asked to play on the All-Star team. Hopefully that will be as fun as being on the Yankees. It looks like there are a few more baseball games in our future!

The team getting another trophy. Love the kids getting distracted by the dog!

2012 Pinto-7 Yankees

More Exciting Than...

Last Thursday we found ourselves yet again at the baseball fields. We thought this was to be Troy's last game with the Yankees. They were playing their second playoff game against the first place Padres. The Yankees have been a good little team this year, but don't usually have the strength to finish well. This game was to be different. They hit well and played strong defense. They silenced the usually raucous Padres parents. It came down to the last inning. The score was 10-9, with the Yankees ahead. There was one out with a runner on third. The Yankees were in the field. Troy was at the pitcher position. The coach told him if he caught it to run home with it. That, in fact, is what happened. Troy got the out at home. The next batter hit it again to Troy and he ran the ball over to first for the last out! A team dog-pile on Troy ensued. Yankees parents and fans were going wild. Parents were "high-fiving" me for Troy's great plays. It was just a ton of fun. Troy was given the game ball and had all the players sign it. They face the Rays tomorrow for the championship. Go Yankees!

Another "Last"

We watched the final performance of Katie's last high school play on Saturday evening. Being in high school plays has been a highlight of her high school career. The directors in each of her two high schools demanded a lot, but she rose to the challenges and loved it. This most recent play was called "Cash on Delivery" and was a British comedy. It was quite hilarious. Katie was honored at the end of the play as she was chosen to receive a drama "scholarship" for her work in ACA's drama program. Quite an honor!