"Catch up! . . . and mustard*, too!"

A joke from my kids:

"What did the mommy tomato say to the slow baby tomato?"

"I don't know. What?"

Slamming fist on table, "Catch up!"

It's time to do some catching up...

Sam turned 9 in April. He had a late party since he has a friend with the same birthday and didn't want their friends to have to choose. I love this picture of them playing football at his party.

This is at the old house. I didn't notice Elizabeth's "devil eyes" until after I uploaded the picture. I was about to edit it, but then realized that only a truly possessed child would want to clean THAT much {notice the play vacuum AND the real Hokey!} I just had to share.

While packing for our move Matthew found the goggles from Grammie and Grampa. Funny kids.

Brandon had his last orchestra concert before we moved. He's been learning the viola this year and picked it up so fast! Unfortunately, we couldn't see him well enough for a picture so this one is from Sam's party. Isn't he getting handsome?! He also just memorized all 13 Articles of Faith. We are so proud of him!

Sam was supposed to have his last baseball game the week before we moved. But the league decided to go with a tournament format instead of just taking the standings. His team won that Saturday and so they had to play again Tuesday. They won again, and were in the championship for the title - which was to be played at 1:00 p.m. on {yep, you guessed it} MOVING DAY!

A lot of juggling on our part made it so he could play. He struck out twice in the early innings and his team had two outs when he got up to bat during the last inning. They were the visiting team so they played the top of the inning. The league only allows 4 runs/inning and the score was four to one. That was plenty of room for the number-one ranked Philly's to take the game.

Two strikes flew and the other team's families were starting to cheer at his impending defeat. But Sam didn't let it faze him. He swung hard and hit a foul ball way out over the loudest of them. They became much more quiet, and a little nervous, I dare-say.

On the next pitch he swung his hardest and . . . CRACK! Into the outfield it went! He brought in two runners, sealing the victory and first place in the league for his team.

He got a trophy, a medal, and the game ball he's been trying to earn all season. Now that's leaving on a high-note!

We said goodbye to our old town and friends and started the drive to the new house. It was such an exciting {and l o n g, hot} day!

*Whenever I need to say, "Catch up!" to my children, I can't help but pause and then add, "and mustard, too!" I don't know how it started, but it will be fun to see my children say this to their dawdling kids. Maybe I'll add, "Get your buns over here!"