Baseball Bonanza

It has been a baseball bonanza on the prairie since last Thursday. 

The team we hosted lost two games and were eliminated, sending them home to Velva, 200 miles to the northwest. We were hugely disappointed. This group of boys were the most respectful and fun loving teenage boys we have ever been around and we hope we see them again. It is likely their town will host this tournament next year and Hunter’s goal is to be there playing. The days we enjoyed with the Velva boys included games, a bonfire in our new fire pit (this is the best item my husband has ever brought home from the Pheasants Forever banquet) and the fire was complete with Nathan’s famed banana boats. You cut into a banana, fill it with marshmallows and Hershey’s chocolate squares, wrap it in foil and let it melt into banana marshmallow chocolate goo. It is pure gooey goodness and was a huge with the baseball boys.

 It the midst of washing baseball uniforms, I fed a hungry baseball team. I learned it takes 38 eggs to make a breakfast brunch for growing boys. 10 eggs for each egg bake and I made three of them that included 3 lbs. of bacon, 3 lbs. of cheddar cheese, 24 slices of wheat bread and 12 cups of milk . Plus, I used 4 eggs for the quadrupled pancake recipe and 4 eggs for the doubled marmalade muffin recipe from the Pioneer Woman. The boys preferred drinking 2% milk at meals and drank gallons of it daily. They also went through 2 gallons of orange juice. Plus my neighbor sent over at least 5 lbs. of our famed local sausage and 2 dozen caramel rolls. Throw in a bowl of melon and berries and you have yourself quite a spread that feeds a baseball team. 

In between meals, the boys drank every one of the 36 Mountain Dews in the cooler, 12 grape Crush and 12 A&W Root Beer plus 36 Gatorades. Quite impressive. Despite my baking, they ate more of my termed “junk food” including plenty of pop tarts and fruit roll ups. 

My baking did not go to waste though as my parents came to visit and my mom taught Anika how yummy brownies can be.

In the midst of the baseball bonanza at our house, our favorite soon-to-be teenage son arrived home late Friday night to join in the baseball festivities. Our house finally felt full again and our family was once again complete.

Hunter jumped right back into working today at the lumber yard with Nathan after being a ball boy at numerous games on Saturday and Sunday. He had today off from his ball boy duties but will back at it tomorrow morning as our home team is in the championship. It is very rare for a host team to even win a game in a state tournament. Our team has had a tough time getting by Lisbon to win our district championship and again this year were the runner up team. This time as the host team, our local boys automatically had a berth in the state tournament. They knocked off a few teams and tomorrow morning it will be another district rivalry match up but this time for a state championship. Hunter will be working as a ball boy and I’ll be standing behind my newest sign hanging from our deck.