Cool experience for Lauren!

Yesterday, Lauren went to Disney's Wide World of Sports to participate in an ESPN Rise clinic with 30 of the top High School softball athletes from across the country. These girls are going to schools like U of M, Florida, UCLA, Northwestern, Arizona State University and other tops Universities.

They went to a variety stations where they did fun and serious activities. The first picture is juggling, the second is a dingbat relay, the third was a pitching challenge. She also had a hitting station where she hit everything and a throwing challenge where she also excelled.

After the stations, they had lunch with the players. They mixed in with them and talked. They gave each of the girls a softball and a Sharpie to get all of the signatures. Lauren now has a ball with 30 signatures of some of the hottest new players in America. No doubt some of these players are future Olympians!

Lauren really had a great time! Some of the players were quite big, but one 2nd baseman from FL was shorter than Lauren! That gave both my girls hope!!

(The tall blond in the back of the dingbats picture is Leah, she's 6' 2" and is an 8th grader at Lauren school.) The short player, Ryan, wanted her picture taken with Leah. They had to turn the camera portrait instead of landscape.

Belated Birthdays!

Lauren is practically a teenager. This is her last year before the teen-age angst begins. We all went to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate Lauren and Janie's birthdays. Janie looks a little more festive with her bow. Janie is in her last teen year. It's always fun when the cousins get together. Even with the age differences (Mike 22 down to Lauren 12.)

Lauren's Success!

Lauren's team finally got a taste of success! They placed 2nd June 20th at the State Warm-ups in Apopka! The final score was 7-8 to a team that has beaten us quite badly in the past. The team has struggled with having enough girls all season. As you can see here, they only had the 9 girls, so everyone played all weekend.

2nd base is Lauren's usual position. She also plays some Right Field and Pitches some. 2nd is her favorite and she is awesome in that spot!

She's been batting 2nd for the last few tournaments. I have to say that she is the "Queen of the Suicide Bunt." We would put that on her uniform, but that would give it all away. She gets on base with her bunts about a third of the time. She has great placement and can get that ball down so that they think it's going to roll foul and hold off while she legs it down to 1st. We still love it when they let her hit. She's got this nice spot over 3rd base she likes to hit to.

She has a great group of girls on her team. They all get along great together. They have had to borrow so many players over the season, that they are always complimented on how welcoming and friendly they are to guest players.

Lauren and April had birthdays 2 days apart. So we made Future Rebel cupcakes for the practice that fell on one of their birthdays. These were practically gone when we got the shot. We all love cupcakes!!

We're Back!!

It's been a very busy Spring! Renee is finally doing much better. She lost some time and confidence with her eye/thyroid incident. She had to sit on the sidelines for almost 2 months. Her vision is back to 20/20 (with contacts) and she feels really good. She has learned a new respect for medicine and proper usage.

Lauren just kept chugging right along the whole time. She did wonderful in school and balanced that and softball very well.

I have to remember how to use this wonderful technology. I still never figured out how Mandy can put so many pictures on at once.

This picture is from Memorial Day weekend. The Future Rebels had 4 teams entered and all 4 placed. Our 14U '95's won the 14U's, the 18U's won the HS Gold division, the 16U Teal won the HS Silver and the 16U Black took 2nd in the HS Silver division. This all of them. Can you find Renee? (She's on the left of the red-headed 1 with white sunglasses on her head.)