New team for Renee!

Renee recently switched teams. She is still playing for the same organization, just with a different group of girls. This was their first tournament together. In fact, this is from their first game together. I had the camera and camcorder all charged up and the disk with plenty of space...I was ready. Like I said it is a new team, this new group had no one scheduled to keep the score book. I had one, so I ended up keeping the book. That means not many pictures. Half of the ones I took focused on the fence instead of the girls. Here are the few that turned out.

Renee played short stop in the first game and batted second. She had a tremendous across the body diving catch for a 3rd out in on e inning. She got on base with every at bat. She scored both runs her team earned. Her third at bat she hit a beautiful triple down the first base line. Her team played really well, but ended up losing all three of their games on Saturday. The second and third games she played 2nd base. She has a lot more experience with 2nd base.

Lauren played the role of Cheerleader. Here she is in her "Rally Tape". She and another of her teammates, who also has a sister on Renee's team, used my Teal Duct tape and Sharpie to decorate themselves with all of the players numbers. They had fun and made the girls laugh.

So, this is how the rest of my pictures turned out. It was nice fencing, but, really?

When we got home, Renee is in the shower and we here her say, "Really!!" Yes, she really ran out of water. Nope, no water and it's dark out. Rod went out for a look and said there were a bunch of ants in the thingies. Rod, Lauren and I got as clean as the swimming pool could get us. Our appliances like the Holiday weekends too. Last summer it was the AC going out on the Saturday of the 4th of July weekend. Wanna call a well guy on Labor Day weekend? Me neither.

Rod and Lauren were able to get it running again while Renee and I were at the fields Sunday morning at 6:45am. Her team had the 8:00am game. They played a higher seed and won! The coaches and parents were really pleased. The girls felt pretty good about themselves too. They had a 12:30pm game against the 1 seed. They lost that one 2-4. It was really a close game.

We were so proud of how well Renee played. She had fun and played with so much confidence. She could hit anything this weekend! Go High School White!!

Who's having more fun?!

Labor Day weekend is all about getting outside and having some fun! Rod had a blast with this!

The girls had even more fun! We weren't sure if they were liking it or not...but, Lauren kept saying, "Go around again!!" They were giggling like a couple of two year olds! So, to my friends and family with little ones, don't worry, some fun stuff they never outgrow. Get ready Konrad, the girls can't wait to have you take a ride with them!

If you look where the shovel is that, that is where I was digging for the new fire pit. The tall weedy area on the left is my "garden". I do have a thriving Rosemary bush growing in there. When it cools off a bit more I may put in some broccoli. Right now it's still too hot.

Baseball Fans!

I know I've mentioned this before, but our Renee is a Red Sox fan. For her Birthday this year we got her tickets to a Rays vs. Red Sox game. We have talked about doing this for a while, but we never did it.

Renee wore her Ortiz shirt and cap. There were actually a lot of Red Sox fans in the stadium. The game was completely sold out.

I know it looks like I must have run up to a really high spot to take this picture, but no, I did not. This is where our seats were. We were in section 308, Row G, Seats 3-6. I was nervous, but they were actually excellent seats. It was the fact that we were in G and not MM (that's for MMmmmMM, my nose is bleeding).

Lauren, Rod and I cheered for the Rays. As did this guy who was sitting a couple of rows behind us. Sometimes the crowd was pretty anti-Sox, but overall they behaved themselves. We had so much fun!!

The Rays won the game with a walk off home run in the bottom of the 10th. Excellent game! We got to see an awesome somersaulting catch in Center Field by Boston - it made the #6 play of the week on ESPN. We saw security tackle a guy on the sidelines who was headed for the field. (The crowd was chanting, "Tase him! Tase him!" Ruthless.) A bat split and fly way too close to Evan Longoria. Home run hits by BJ Upton, a Boston guy and Dan Johnson in the 10th. We learned the value of letting a foul ball be a foul ball when it's hit deep to right and there is a guy on third. (Renee really hated that one!) Oh, yeah! And $40 doesn't go very far at the ballpark when you're hungry and thirsty!

We definitely want to go again!!

Baseball!

We got there way early!

We got to watch batting practice. You can see here how good our seats are.

During the 1st inning we start to hear the thunder and see the dome ripple in the wind. We really would have thought the roof would be solid. But, we did not get rained out! That would have really stunk! Yeah for domes!

See just how excellent our view was during the game!

Birthdays!!

This weekend we celebrated Rod and Renee's birthdays. In my head (at the store) Rod was turning 43. After I got home, I realized that that would make me older than I am. So, when Rod and Lauren went to the store the next day I told them that I needed a new 2 candle. As you can see, I did not pull this off so swiftly.

Now, I new Renee was turning 16 and that the letter candles only had 13. When I saw the little car candles...I couldn't resist!

Needless to say it is convenient to have 2 birthdays together, but the time it takes to light that many candles and get everyone to sing before total meltdown is next to impossible.

We had a great time!!

Rod went golfing with Michael, Mike and Kate on Sunday morning. Renee had gone to Daytona with a friend for the weekend. Rod got back from golfing and said, let's get some pizzas and have everyone over today! We were still waiting on Renee to get home when the guests started to arrive. She calls at 3:10 to ask if she can spend another night with her friend. Ah, no, you have to come home and have a party. (We had been thinking "Surprise" until I had to go and tell her to come home and why.)

Making two birthday cakes in two hours was a little challenging. Not my prettiest work. This is not an episode of cupcake wars. The cakes were a little warm and Renee's is supposed to be shaped like a flower, but it slide around on the lemon cream cheese filling in the middle. Rod's was a chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream icing and chopped up Recees PB cups in the middle.

My other issue was that I tend to leave too many pictures on my discs. I had to switch out discs in the middle of the song. Bad Mom!! I still have to check the other disc, hopefully I got a few more.

Sally vs. the sprinkler!

This is Sally, our dog. The Vet says she's a Cattledog. What she was, was a stray. Yes, I'm allergic to her and she has to live outside all the time. She has a nice set-up, but it sure gets hot in Florida. Maybe that's why she loves water.

When she was a pup she would climb into her water bucket. So, we got her a pool. She has always had her own pool. I have to stock up when they are on sale because they only make it about 6-8 months before they crack. She also loves our pool. She will lay on the top step whenever she gets the chance.

But, we truly believe her favorite water is the sprinkler! She likes any kind. She was going after this one even though the pressure is quite high. She attacks the water while her tail wags and splashes water at us. Her favorite are the garden style that has 3 arms and spins while shooting a spray of water straight up. She just stands right over it and lets it spin beneath her.

McKenna! This one's for you!

These shots are from Lauren's last season of soccer. This was 7 and 8 year old co-ed soccer. Her Dad helped coach. She was always right in the thick of things. The boy next to her in the 3rd and 4th pictures is Mason. He was always on her team. They were the top two scorers and would take turns scoring at will.

She really enjoyed playing soccer. Renee had already played for a few years. While we were at Renee's practices, Lauren and I would kick the ball around on the sidelines. By the time she started she had pretty good skills. Her first season was rough because a boy pushed her over in the very first game and she was mad for the rest of the season.

The next season, when she was on 4 and 5 year old co-ed soccer she must have forgotten all about that boy. That was when she really started to dominate. One of the boys she played against introduced her to his friend like this:

Seth: "This is Lauren. She kicks my butt."

Friend: Mouth drops open and says, "Huuuh??"

Seth's Mom: "Seth!"

Seth" "At SOCCER! She kicks my butt at soccer!"

Word of warning to Kim. If you are cheering on the kids to "run" and "kick", make sure you don't repeat my mistake when I was encouraging a boy named Forrest. Yep, I said it. "Run, Forrest, run!" Once it's out there, you can't get that one back.

We hope you enjoy soccer as much as my girls did. They played every Spring and Fall for a number of years before switching to softball.

Go McKenna!!

Professional Softball!

Saturday we went back to Disney's Wide Wold of Sports for more softball. We brought Lauren's friend and teammate, Stephanie. (We met a lot of girls from the girls' teams at the game.) This time we went to watch the Pros play! The Central Florida Pride was playing a double header against the Chicago Bandits. The Pride has lots of big names in softball: Olympians Natasha Watley, Jessica Mendoza, Kelly Kretchman, Cat Osterman, Lauren Lapin, and Andrea Duran, and other outstanding College players like Megan Willis and Francesca Enea.

The Chicago team's biggest name was Jennie Finch who will be retiring from softball after this season. She was the big draw for many of the fans. The Chicago team also featured 4 of the best bats in the league. One of the girls we were with actually got the home run ball that the league leader hit. They had to leave early and asked me if we could get her to sign it for them. We were able to get her signature along with lots of others on balls the girls had brought from home.

After the first game they had a really nice tribute to the career of Jennie Finch. It was crazy to hear Jessica Mendoza telling about how she and Jennie had been playing against each other since they were 11 years old. Team USA was the only time they finally got to play together. All the players said what an asset she has been to the success of softball and the her genuine niceness has been so nice for anyone who has ever come in contact with her.

We were able to line up after the game and get signatures. As you can see the kids were several girls thick. I was impressed that Lauren and Renee were able to get as many signatures as they did. We also got a "picture" with Jennie Finch. Of course half the girls and Jennie weren't quite ready for the shot, but we got it!
One of Lauren's friends and I chased down a foul ball that bounced off the upper deck and landed down the row from me. I gave it to Stephanie because she was the closest kid to the ball. Later the girls went up into the upper section to try for some more, but no more fouls came their way.

By the time two games were played and signatures were gotten, it was really late. We drove through McD's and then headed home. By the time the girls got in bed it was 2am. The girls had such a great time!

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!!