In the spring, there's an "opening day" event for the league that we play with. Isabella is on an all-girl team... the first all-girl team for the league. The intention of the coach is to keep this group of girls together. It's actually kind of cool to watch them. A couple of them are not that into it, but Isabella is quite good! She seems to understand the fundamentals of the game and is gung-ho to get outs against the opposing team! Some of the boys' teams are pretty decent... some know only how to hit, but know nothing about fielding. Our team mostly hits off of the tee instead of the balls off of the pitching machine, but knows how to field. I think that this all-girls' team has a shot! The name is cute: The Intimidators~
Mercer has moved up to the next level of playing -- he's on a team with other 5th-graders as well as some middle-schoolers now. At the beginning of this season, he seemed very timid. He has come into his own and is certainly competing at their level.
Mercer is still playing for the same tournament / travel team for the league in addition... but this has gotten off to a slow start with games and scrimmages getting cancelled. It is still new for our league to have a tournament / travel team... so hopefully it will take off.
Baseball is one of the main activities, of course that occupies Mercer's time outside of school, but - over the month of April - Cub Scouts took over any (and all) of our free-time. Because of baseball, Mercer missed some of the pack-wide camping events. He was required to camp and perform certain duties on a camp-site in his final year of Cub Scouts. We found one that worked better with our schedules and went to it. We took a little road trip. Isabella sacked out on our way there, but was bright-eyed for the fire that night. (see the tiny hands)
Isabella has been wanting to camp. I am glad to have had the opportunity to see and experience what he / Todd have gone to before. We ate our first meal in the dining hall and cooked the rest over a fire with other families who were from Decatur.
There was a theme of running games throughout the weekend where kids earned beads and plastic arrow-heads. We had a checklist of games and activities to complete for both scouts and their siblings. (This constant round of games and checklist was perfect for our active kiddos!) 
Other than the below-freezing temperatures we experienced both nights.... it was a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed watching Mercer and Isabella try their hand at archery, shooting bb-guns and watching them on a challenging ropes course.
It was a memorable trip - and - again I am glad to have seen it to gain some sort of perspective on what it's like when Mercer goes to camp. It was our last opportunity to attend as a family...as when he moves up to Boy Scouts, family members do not go -- just troop leaders who guide the Boy-Scout led activities.
There was quite a bit of stuff to finish before Mercer's cross-over to Boy Scouts last week such as some things with our community / meeting with a community leader. The den leader set up a meeting with the school superintendent... who later tweeted out that this was one of his "most challenging interviews yet." :) ha. I don't follow him on social media, but had several people send this Instagram message to me! Another thing that Mercer and I have been working on for more than a year is the science medal he wanted to earn. It was a bit of work on my part as well, but as transitioning into teaching science, I was willing to try and learn myself! This medal is optional in the Cub Scout program, but since he saw the medal several years ago after earning the science badge... he really coveted it! There were two other boys who were pursuing it as well... but only one mostly finished the activities with him. (Here's a couple of photos of our final experiment -- the fun one with Mentos and soda!)
There were multiple stops to earning this medal including lots of research and writing. Everything came down to the wire -- literally -- we were running around getting signatures in the days leading up to his cross-over and in the hours leading up to it for the final sign-off by the BSA council. 
His cross-over took place on a Monday night close to the end of April. He and the other 4 Webelos were the focus of this meeting with parents as well as the other 20+ boys from the Boy Scout troop in the audience in attendance. 
Several speeches were made as well as some formalities conducted after the boys crossed over a bridge such as being presented with the official Boy Scout book and receiving their Boy Scout neckerchief. (handkerchief that goes around the neck)
Here is his 5th grade class (minus a few kids who did not go on the trip).
These photos from the trip came from one of the chaperones. They went on a 3 mile hike (which Mercer was fine with, but said lots of kids complained). They did a lot of stuff in the water. They had a campfire. It looks like they had some team-building activities that they participated in as well. 
In the photos from the trip, Mercer is wearing his silly monster truck hat that he got when he went with a friend a number of years ago. It is red with horns! (It's an easy way to identify him in a number of these photos with all of the kids in gray 2019 shirts. He's wearing a blue sweatshirt in some photos the next day... and a green long sleeve shirt the next.)Overall he had a great time!
I don't think he missed us at all. He came back and - when we went to grab a quick bite of dinner, instead of talking to us that he hadn't seen for a couple of days.... he wanted to sit with a friend. It's starting! :) He seemed to be older, more mature, taller and his shoulders even a bit broader when he came back. Several other things that happened over this LONG time-span from when the last blog post was published:
- Isabella and I went to a hands-on art festival. There were some really cool exhibits there too. (THIS - to me - signals spring... when there are outdoor art exhibits and festivals!!)
- Todd and Mercer had baseball, so Isabella and I went to a ballet production that BOTH of her babysitters were in.... they're twins. She got all dressed up to go!
- We went on a hike. We went to Arabia Mountain & saw the rarely blooming diamorpha (tiny red flowers) in vernal pools, flew a kite and did a bit of geocaching. 
I had just studied this type of rock formation with my 6th graders...and it ties into the work that I did with my previous non-profit and the Arabia Mountain Alliance. Cool when the two worlds collide.
- Mercer and I built a mini-computer.
- Isabella and I "dip-dyed" our hair with red kool-aid. 
- Later in the week, we went up to North Carolina for a very quick visit with my mom, grandma and grandpa.
While we were up in North Carolina, we visited great-grandma and great-grandpa twice in the nursing home. We did not take an activity - like at Christmas - but the kids played games while the great grands watched. Grandpa was not doing as well as he has been doing previously. He was sleeping a lot. At the time of this writing, he's been moved to a different facility, so unfortunately - he and great-grandma are not together.
There was part of a day with no rain, so the kids played in the big field. They also hunted for some Easter eggs.
We visited a museum that we had not been to previously. They had a small aquarium and a petting zoo in addition to the other exhibits.
The kids were fascinated by the white peacock! (As seen here behind Mercer's umbrella)
We also paid a quick visit to my Aunt Becky. (Uncle Tony was taking a nap, so we didn't see him this trip.) But the kids got to play with the dogs which they always like. Overall - it was a short visit.... probably one of our shortest, but we had appointments through the first half of the week of this break & were lucky to get away even if it was for a short while.
The day after we got home, we hopped back in the car and went fishing down at Go Fish Education Center. This is where Mercer caught his first fish. We did this because Isabella FINALLY earned her first "Isabella Fun Day" and this is what she wanted to do! Mercer caught one right away. Todd caught several fish and Isabella enjoyed playing with them. Mercer and I got a behind-the-scenes tour of the hatchery... which was in his Junior Ranger book. (Not sure if we'll pursue his 3rd and final badge in that program from the GA State Parks, but just in case, we can cross off "hatchery" visit.)
We were tired of driving, but she was happy.... and we were happy to honor her request for a unique Isabella Fun Day!!
We also got to celebrate Isabella for her official Adoption Day in April -- on the 6th. We had a low-key celebration: dinner at home + some goodies in a gift bag. (We have already made the items that were in the bag.... donut-shaped bath bombs and slime! 
Isabella asked to do "science" and insisted that we wear goggles when we made both the bath bombs and the slime. Smart kid! (The bath bombs were a bust~ but glad she enjoyed the gifts!)
Mercer had an egg hunt at church (thankfully!) for kids in 2nd - 5th grade, so he was happy since he is now officially too old to participate in the other ones. :(
Isabella got to participate in the neighborhood egg hunt and party afterwards.
Easter was late this year, but it book-ended a memorable month for us!!
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