Tough Guy

Troy had a bit of an accident in his game the other evening.  He took a ball to the mouth while sliding into third base.  The good news is he was safe...just kidding!  The good news is he didn't have major damage to his mouth!  His lip took most of the impact so there wasn't much damage to his teeth.  He did get a cut and two minor chips off his front teeth.  He was tough, though, and after getting cleaned up and checked out, he refused to come out of the game. :) 

Swimmin' With the Third Graders

It feels good to blog again.  Life has been busy.  We thought Senior year for Katie was busy, but May came in like a whirlwind and carried us away this year.  We are so enjoying having Katie home from college (even though there are no pictures of her!).  She's been a big help at home and running kids to practices.  She got thrown back into family life at full speed.  It's fun to see her plugged back in at church and with her Redlands friends.  Kam and Troy are both finishing up softball and baseball regular seasons and have both been asked to play on All-Star teams this summer.  This does complicate our schedules a bit, but it's something they both love and since we will be home most of the summer, it works.  We are finishing up a great school year for Kam and Troy this week.  It seems like just a few weeks ago they were starting school late because we had to take Katie to college. :)  Today I got to hang out with Troy at his class swim party for a bit.  A friend of his, Vinnie, (we love his name) has a ridiculously cool yard and hosted the party this year.  Fun times in third grade!  Looking forward to a great summer!

Celebrating Kamryn!

 The other evening we were privileged to celebrate the achievements of the 7th and 8th graders at Kamryn's school.  Kamryn was recognized for several accomplishments including:  honor roll, softball team, basketball team, volleyball team, English award, Bible award, Intramurals award, Presidential academics award, Knowledge Bowl award, and some others I'll have to look up :)  We are so proud of Kamryn!  It was fun to celebrate her achievements in Middle School!

More Ball Games...

We continue to enjoy watching Kam and Troy play softball and baseball.  Both of their teams are doing well.  Troy's Oakland A's team is in first place and headed into their first play-off game next week.  Troy loves to pitch and play shortstop.  He has a great little team, although most of the boys are not taking the games as seriously as he thinks they should be lately. :)  Kam's team didn't have the best regular season, but have won both of their play-off games and are headed to the championship game!  Kam rallies her teammates and plays her heart out at shortstop.  She loves to steal bases and slide.  Her coach has been a little interesting this year, but she has hung in well.  Both of the kids have been chosen  for All-Star teams which will continue into the summer.  The fun continues!

Happy 9th Birthday, Troy!

This handsome boy turned 9 this month.  He had been counting down the days until his big day. Up until two weeks before he was planning to take his mom up on the offer to go to Disneyland to celebrate.  Upon further thought, though, Troy could not let his baseball team down and miss a big game for a day at an amusement park, birthday or not.  He decided to stay home with dad and play in his game.  This determination and drive characterize Troy's personality to a tee.  He does well in most every thing he tries, especially sports.  We don't see this as much in his piano practice, but when he buckles down, he gets that too. :)  We were happy to celebrate the gift God gave us in Troy! (The excitement in the middle picture is after he read in a card that he gets to pick out a new baseball bat.)

Let's Go Galaxy!

A while back we were guests at a fund-raising dinner and kind of "fell" into some tickets to a LA Galaxy soccer team.  Upon finally cashing in on our tickets we began to realize how super spectacular these tickets and this opportunity were.  We had second row seats and were given two extras because of a mix-up.  Anyway, long story short, four Elgersmas and two friends attended a great LA Galaxy game a couple weeks ago for next to nothing!  We have now been officially spoiled and will have trouble watching games from up high in the stands anymore.  Our team lost, but we got to see the hometown hero, Landon Donovan up close and even got Landon "bobble-heads" to take home.

Holland Fest 2013

Our community has an annual celebration that brings people of all ages together to support our Christian school.  This is a huge day with many people putting in many hours of work to make it happen smoothly.  We try to help out where we can.  This year Scott thought it would be neat to create something for the auction.  He and a friend built some beautiful Adirondack chairs to raise money for the school.  They ended up doing quite well.  The funny thing is (and this is typical of Scott's projects), the chairs ended up taking way more time and energy than was planned.  It was worth the effort, though, and they went to a good home.  The day, though very successful, had a tinge of sadness as Mr. Leenstra recently having passed away, was obviously missing from this celebration.  There were many memories and much laughter still shared.  We are thankful for this caring community and glad to be a part of it!