Memorial Day.

Roman and Ivy eat bananas whole now

A CD on Ezra's bookshelf created a great morning light.

Tanglen walk-a-thon turns into run-a-thon

Icee after walk-a-thon

Roman playing croquet

Levi at Como Zoo for all-day fieldtrip

Como Zoo

Open gym night at the gymnastics center

Levi has his mom's old desk in his room now.

I like this photo of Roman at OK Preschool.

Ezra and his 2 pre-school teachers this year.

We went out for bagels on a Sunday morning in May.

Summer fun.

Three of the old CC roommates and their kids.

Domo worked very hard on the yard this weekend.

Like a limestone cowboy, I did some yard work too. Trying to get rid of that creep, charlie.

We recognized Memorial Day, but in a low key way.

Solo, dancing and a birthday (or two)

I wrote a story this week about a real estate owner who is battling cancer (It publishes Friday and will only be able to be viewed by people who subscribe to our paper.) It's interesting because it is the third story I've had this year of a small company exec that's suffering from cancer, a very strange coincidence.

Here are my other two (Click the headlines to go to the story, which should both be free to read now):
Wellington Windows starts anew after disasters

Sick of taxes, regs; Hoyt is leaving Minnesota

I also had a story recently about the oil boom in western North Dakota. Here's the link to that story. It turned out better than I expected and I got a lot of good feedback on the lead especially.
Minnesota firms drilling into N.D. oil boom

I'll be moderating a panel discussion on the ND topic in late June in Minneapolis. I'm told there's a lot of people who want to attend. It should be fun.

Levi got to sing a solo in the fellowship hall on Sunday during the congregation pancake breakfast. He basically led everyone in "This is the day." It was very good and many people came up and told us so after the meal.



Dancing is what our kids were doing in the basement after dinner tonight. I have a photo.

And then there's actually 2 birthdays we recognized around here this week. One of them is our cousin Roz, who turns one. We wish we could be there to watch her smear frosting on her clothes/face, but we'll need to take a raincheck.

The other Bday is Levi's Beannie Baby whale friend, that he calls "Whale". Levi remembered that he got the friend on his last day of Sunday school 2 years ago. Last year he remembered the same thing and we all celebrated his 1st birthday last year.

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As always, I miss my dad and think about him during this time of the year. I always find myself dwelling about how much I'd like him to be here, sharing time with our kids.

Here are some photos. As always click to enlarge.

Levi is in the blue shirt next to the youth director holding the mic. Ezra is in the orange shirt near the front row. 

Our baseball team.

At Kari's graduation party in St. Paul.. it rained, but we had a good time. Chuck must've been cold, cause he turned blue.

Wednesday in DT Mpls, there were 7 food trucks parked on one block. I  haven't yet tried any of them.

The front of our team.

I posted this on FB too. It's very cute because its the same outfit Ivy's cousin Madison had on during her 1st Bday.

On Wednesday night there was some dancing going on in our basement. Ivy too.

Part of the celebration of Whale's 2nd Birthday.

It says on this sidewalk: Origami bird. You have great long wings to fly. Why do you sit still?

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of our moms and grandmas.
It was a nice morning around the Black house. A little fresh fruit and french toast in bed for Christina along with a few home-made cards. The afternoon was uneventful (unless you consider mowing an event) and then we went on a walk after dinner. It was very peaceful and nice outside. Ezra zoomed on his big wheel. Everybody smiled.

On Saturday night we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house to celebrate a birthday and mother's day. It was great and fun seeing our cousins and uncle Jonathan.

On Friday, Christina took the Levi and Ezra a musical of Moo Moo Quack.

The weather is almost so nice I could spit. It was perfect again tonight on our trip to the park. No wind. 75 and sunny. I actually turned on the AC in the house tonight so that everybody could fall asleep.

That is except for Levi. He was up till like 9:30 in bed, challenging his little brain to figure out some basic multiplication problems. He is a wiz at math. Just loves it. We're very proud.

That's all for now.
Sam out.

Levi looking big league.

Levi playing catcher. I said from behind the fence that he should get on his feet. ..

..Then some other dad said, "cause the photo is better." He was right, but that isn't why I said it.

Jim got an iPad for his birthday. It was fun to help set up.

Levi's multiplication worksheet tonight. Got 33/35. Wonder what type of math he'll be doing in 3rd grade?

Mother's Day walk.

We went to plant sale last Thursday.

Lemonade!

Well, we had our first ever lemonade stand today. Turns out we have a pretty good location for this. We actually had a lot of people stop by, and they made a total of about $15. Not bad at 25 cents a cup.

...brings May dandelions.

We are well into the second week of May. Things are generally good in the Black household. Everybody is walking/running and we're starting to get busy with baseball for Levi.

Our team sponsor is Bennis Feed and Fuel, a 70-year-old store that supplies food and items for wildlife and pets. It's not as cool as American Pie Pizza or The Crossrads Deli (with a giant olive on their jerseys), but it is way better than the team that has a mold-testing firm as its sponsor. Plus, we have nice dark blue jerseys and hats (see photo below).

Levi is doing great hitting the ball out of the pitching machine. Tonight I got to be acting head coach and run the machine and tell everybody where to play. My biggest job is to just be positive and encourage all the kids to keep trying their best.

I think we actually won the game, but I wasn't keeping score. I think that on 3 of the 4 innings that we were up we reached our max-allowed of 5 runs scored. I think that only happened twice with the other team. Very few teams have well-rounded players who can catch and throw at all bases, so it is lucky if the best fielders are standing where the ball tends to be played (pitching mound, third and first base).

I love our new park though - Big Willow - and think we'll be spending a lot of time there over the next decade. I worked the concession stand for my mandatory shift last week and stayed until after dark. It felt like the Field of Dreams with these dads and sons playing pickup game in one of the fields - no bugs. Just baseball, under the lights, for the fun of it.

That will be us one day, almost certainly.

What else is going on? We had some friends come over last week - Sarah and Cabot and their awesome kids who are growing up to great companions for our kids with about the same age gaps. We had spaghetti, bread, salad and some good wine. For desert, there was some early season watermelon. What more could you ask? My favorite part was the 'show' that the kids put on downstairs after we were done - turning up the soundtrack to Friends and dancing together.

Speaking of electronics. 2 quick things. Our TV went kaput. I wasted $75 to see if it would fix, but the diagnosis wasn't pretty. I looked at Costco, but may end up going to Best Buy cause they have the best selection and salesmen who know the features, not because I love Best Buy.

Second thing, I stopped by Goodwill the other day and bought a 5-disc Technics player for $6!!!! A bargain. It is the exact same type of unit that I bought for $150 when I was in college in 1993. No kidding. It works fine and it opens up my whole CD library to be played, instead of just those that I take in the car or that I have uploaded on the computer. It is very cool and my old Bose 301 speakers and tunor/amp have never sounded better.

We have tons of whirly birds in our lawn from our big maple tree in the front yard. I'm glad cause it hides the dandelions all over the yard. We cut up and threw away a huge buckthorn bush over the past two weeks. The neighbor behind our neighbors complained to us that it was an invasive species and was set to ruin her garden. I thought it looked nice, but whatevs. Now its gone. As for the dandies, we decided to try a service that sprays some organic weed control stuff made out of sugar beet pulp. Hopefully it works.

Gymnastics is going great for Ezra. He's been coloring and doing art projects like crazy, not unlike what his big brother did at that age. The challenge is figuring out what to do with his artworks when he's done.

Roman and Ivy are sleeping in their own cribs in the same room during the night now. For several months we had been using the Pack-N-Play for Ivy in the bathroom in the addition, but I moved her down to her room last week and so far, so good. Unfortunately, they are still both waking up 6-out-of-7 nights a week, wanting to be held or have a sip of milk before going back to sleep.

Thats it. I'm too pooped to pop. Time for bedtime.
Here are some photos. As always, click the picture to enlarge:

Levi is in the field, playing third base.

Ezra and his friends Bo (on left) and Crackers (right).

All-American kids.

Big Willow had a nice opening day ceremony. The tourney teams from 2011 got trophies and rings presented to them. Levi (1) and his friend James (5) watched. 

"Dhiss" is mostly all Roman says at 15 mos. He's happy, which matters more than words.

Roman has the same hat-size as his 6-year old brother.

Ezra does his Bob Dylan impression.

Ivy does her Elton John impression (she has on Christina's old t-shirt).