birthday and ball

you know what today is, right? ben's birthday! (also his first day of summer school; he's taking gym class, a state requirement, so he can still stay in band and spanish during the regular year. he says now he'll know what it is like to a be scholarship athlete at a texas school). anyway, we've got steaks planned for tonite and a few presents, though he says all he wants is a new pair of jeans. he's also got football practice, work, and two baseball games later in the week.

today emma will be playing tennis and golf and recovering from a huge softball weekend. after losing their first game in the year-end league tourney, emma and her teammates reeled off 4 straight wins to earn their way into the state tournament. some really exciting games along the way (along with lots of rain) including several throw-outs of base stealers at third by "hartmann" (as she is called by her coaches and teammates) who wore the gear for every inning of all six games. one of the highlights for us: a bang-bang play at the runner who tried to go through our catcher ended up having to get carried off the field.

coming the rest of the week here on hartmann home: an overview of our turkey trip, followed (hopefully) with day-by-day summary and photos over the week.