Sam found a new friend, the turtle, walking around the yard the other day.  Turns out he was hiding out in the hydrangea bed.  We saw him again the next day, but he seems to have moved on as we haven’t seen him for a few days.  While Sam was taking his photo he also ran into an old friend, the anole, that was hanging out closer to the house.  Unfortunately, the neighborhood cat caught him the next day and we haven’t seen him since then.  😦

  The Varsity Sports banquet was at Mr. Gray’s church (the school principle) and it was nice evening honoring all the athletes that played Varsity sports over the course of the year. – both boys and girls. Sam and Alex both attended as Sam played Varsity Soccer and Tennis, while Alex played both of those as well as Varsity Basketball.  All the Seniors had a small poster of them playing their favorite sport mounted on a a display wall.  We chose the photo of Alex jumping in the air to keep a ball in bounce in the State Soccer Tournament.   Quite a few people had never seen it before and were very impressed that Alex got that high off the ground.
  We were a little disappointed that Alex didn’t win any awards for Basketball (we were expecting most improved) or Soccer (most valuable player – that went to Zach, who did deserve it). Alex did  however take away the most improved for Tennis as well as receiving the honorary award for being hit with the ball the most times during the season.  Sam didn’t win anything either this year but he still has a few years of Varsity sports and we expect he might pull in a couple by his senior year.  We are very proud of both of the boys this year as they worked very hard on the field and off the field.

Trinity had an end of the year Tennis Party this year after playing just 2 matches (last year they didn’t play any).  Alex and Sam both played this year, but Alex got some special recognition as he was the team captain and the only one that had played all 4 years since the team started (Mr Bradford was the coach all 4 years).  For his contribution, Alex received an oversized Tennis ball signed by the team and apparently Donald Trump, as well as 2 cans of new balls.  The party was pizza and cupcakes sponsored by the Payne family.  🙂

Sam finished his science project, ‘You Say Tomato and I say Science Project,’ with little time to spare.  But a few last minute staged photos was all that was needed to finish the project the night before.   The project was to determine which water would produce better tomatoes, Tap Water, Distilled Water or Seltzer water.  The final project received a 95, of course we don’t know why he lost the 5 points.