My girls are wimps!

I just bolted outside to see what child had lost a limb. You would think someone had by the amount and the tone of screaming. 

I found the girls soaking wet and screaming that something was in the pool. 

I made them fish it out...

When that got old after 10 minutes of uncoordinated fun, I tried myself to catch the intruder. Hmmmm, harder than it looked.

I finally got him and let Emma show him off!

It was a crawfish, or mud bug, whatever you call them in your part of the country. Darn, too bad there was only one. A few more and we could have had dinner. "Them are good eatin'!"

Do you ever find random bugs, crawfish, animals in weird places? 

Heres to you, weekend softball chick!

Our 9 year old was asked to play all-star/select softball this past month. She loves to play and is a great athlete so we said yes. Then began the three a week practices, three hours a day.

Endurance athletes having nothing on this group of little girls. They play hard. 

So heres to you little weekend softball chicks;

~You play 7 games on 1 Saturday back to back.

~You withstand the 106 degree heat and 100% humidity, It doesn't affect you, little softball chick.

~ Your lazy parents watch from the sidelines in comfy, fold up chairs from Walmart, yelling from the shade, "Run, run, faster don't quit, run it out!"

~You play all day, all weekend, in the heat, never giving up all in hopes of a cherry snow cone. Way to stick in there, little softball chick!

So heres to you little weekend softball chick! 

I raise a cup of an ice cold beverage, while you drink from a rubbermaid cooler in the dugout,

You ROCK Woodlands Force! Great Season!

I was one of "THOSE" Mom's....

I know you have all seen them, the Mom's who take things way to far concerning their children's sporting events. They dress in the professional teams attire, do their nails the team colors, are usually the team Mom and think their child is the only all-star on the team. 

Well, I did it, I was one of 'those' Mom's on Saturday. Oh, I didn't do the outfit thing and I don't usually paint my nails but I went full out screaming until I was hoarse and doing the whole, "that's my kid" and "oh, yea, baby, I am the Mom!"

Emma's soft ball team has had an O.K. season, nothing fantastic, Saturday was their last game and they were playing the #1 team fighting to make 3rd place. Emma had the game 'those' Mother's dream of! She made 5 outs in the infield, playing pitcher and one at short stop. At one point during the game we were down 2 to 12 and I was praying the umpire wouldn't call the game. Their biggest girl got up to hit and smacked one into the outfield, Emma made a backhanded running catch, almost diving, and CAUGHT the ball!! The girl was OUT! This is where I went nuts, jumping up and down, screaming, hanging on the fence.... the whole nine yards. It was a spectacular catch, something a little 9 year old girl would NEVER be expected to make, but she did!

It even gets better. Two innings later we are only down one run 13 to 14. Emma's team had two outs, one little girl was on first base and Emma came up to hit. First pitch was thrown and Emma smacks it into the out field, this is where I go completely hysterical, I am on the fence screaming, "RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN" 

Emma hit a HOME RUN to WIN the game! Then Paul and I cried. 

I don't care what any other parents might have thought, it was a beautiful moment and memory for us all.  Emma was awesome and I don't feel a bit bad about being one of 'those' Mom's. 

Of course I didn't have my camera or video camera, but you can see some photos of Emma's game on Thursday night HERE.

Onto baseball....

Tucker's team is starting playoff's tonight. They have had a rough Spring, three kids have had broken hands, we lost our first round draft pick and we lost twice as many games as we won.

But something really cool is happening tonight. One of the boys on Tucker's team, has a best friend who was diagnosed with leukemia a few weeks ago. The boy's parents on the team had been rewarding the boy with $5 a hit per game if he got a hit, (we have all done this I will admit!) but the boy on the team had a better idea. We are playing these playoff games for the little boy with leukemia. The boy's on the team made a large card for him and we have big posters for tonight. The boy on the team has asked his parents to donate his money from his hits to Craig's Cause a fund set up for his friend. The parents decided to do something bigger, they are donating $5 for EVERY hit! So we and other parents on the team have jumped in also and are donating to the cause. Most are doing $1 per EVERY hit the kids get and $5 for every hit their son's get. I am so proud of the boy's and I hope they have a great game tonight!

GO MARLIN'S! 

What is a Compound Word?

As I am typing, the kids are supposed to be cleaning the playroom. This is all I hear:

Emma: "No it's NOT!"

Paige: "Yes it IS!"

Avery: "Uh huh!"

I stormed in. "Why aren't you picking up your toys!?" Emma answered, "Mom! Paige said that 'clean up' is a compound word!" To which Paige argued, "It is! It is!"

So there you have it-my kids are so smart they argue about what is compound and what is not... while cleaning their playroom.

Softball Girl

Saturday was opening day for both Little League and for Softball. Paul and I spent the day running from one side of the park to the other catching both Tuckers mini tournament games, Emma's game and team pictures. 8:15am to 2:45pm we drug little kids all over filling them with healthy foods like chicken on a stick, cupcakes and $5 a bag kettle-corn. At one point Paige handed someone her cupcake said, "I can't finish it, it's too much sugar!" But the highlight of the day was Emma getting her batting helmet spray painted! The boys are jealous because it is against rules in LL to have anything on your helmet.
The man who did the decorating was quite the character! He was a lot of fun. He did whisper that he prefers decorating motorcycles to little girls softball helmets-but I don't believe him. I think he prefers the purple unicorns...

Lemonade Stand

How could you not stop by this stand and get some lemonade from these four little girls?  You can't!  They're too cute.  We decided that it was finally time to dejunk the garage this Saturday, and while we were cleaning we had quite a few people stop and start "shopping around" what they thought was a garage sale.  Guess we had a lot of crap.
So the girls thought they'd do a lemonade stand, it's the traditional activity when Mom and Dad are cleaning the garage or having a sale.  It's perfect for two reasons: 

1.  It kept them occupied and 

2.  It kept them occupied.

Paige and Emma busied themselves getting the tables and chairs, Aunt Anna made the lemonade and I made the sign.  Soon they were out to make their first dollar.  It was so funny to watch them interact with their guests.  All in a five minute period, this is what was going on:

Emma looked like an air traffic controller waving cars in to park so they could get lemonade

Paige was doing a butt swinging dance and then pointing to the sign 

Avery was waving like Miss Texas

And Storie was licking all the straws (and putting them back) and drinking all the lemonade.

As the show went on, Storie became even more helpful-adding straws (the licked ones) to drinks, taking a sip and announcing, "Is good!!"  

I know what business I'm going into next, lemonade stands.  They made $26!!!