Like a duck on a june bug

Warning: Bragging to be displayed in this post. Read at your own discretion.

This is what Ladybug's softball coach calls her.  Duck on a June Bug.  I love to watch their face when she does it right whether it is her fast hands while hitting, a long shot, her throwing or catching.  They kind of just shake their heads like how did she do that.  I love it for her too because you can tell how happy it makes her. 

We have had to work very hard this year in softball.  There have been some tears.  She has done pretty good.  She has only had one strike out the whole season, she pretty much always connects with the ball.  She is not doing too bad in the field.  She stops most of the balls.

There has been a lot of mental coaching:
Practice how you play - show'em what you can do - stay focused.  
Keep the end in mind - what do you want to happen?
Make a plan - what are you doing to do this week to get better at your batting? 

Lots of reminders:
Fielding - You have to stay in front of the ball.  You may get hit but you have stop it.
Batting - Put your weight back, swing 100% every time.

Well Saturday's game came together for the entire team!  They all got out there and played.  My pictures show the girls getting hit after hit after hit.  It was so exciting to watch.  According to the coach we had 34 total hits, scored 16 runs and made 10 outs in the field.

The deal was if the team got 3 strike outs or less, he would buy icee's for everyone.  There are games where we had gotten up to 9 strikeouts and you can't win a game when you do that.  The girls only had 3 strikeouts for the game.  They all did awesome.

This was also one of Ladybug's over all best games. 
She stopped several hard balls at short stop and make great throws to first base.  She stopped a ball in left field and threw it to the pitcher before the runner could get past first base. 

She hit five for five times today.  3 of the five hits dropped past the infielders and one was a hard grounder that went straight to left field.  It was her overall best hitting game so far. 

 Then the last inning she played pitcher and make great stops, great throws to first back and caught a pop fly, and threw it to first to assist in a double play! 

She has worked hard and we got to watch the hard work payoff.  She was so excited. 

She went into this game wanting the game ball. I told her she had to keep the end in mind and she kept that end in mind and did it.  I was so excited for her because at the end of the game coaches talk, the girls were pointing to Jess to get the game ball.  It was overwhelming watching the other teammates acknowledge her good playing.  

It goes to show what hard work can do and how it can pay off.  We were so proud of her and the entire Lady Bears team.

Well for some reason, the concession stand was expectantly closed when the game was over.  So coach took all the girls to orange leaf for yogurt.

Great job Lady Bears!!

Please can we go to the splash pad..

Batman has been begging to go the splash pad since it first opened for the year.  We practice baseball/softball near it and he sees it everytime we practice.  So after school the other day, we headed that way.

So here are some fun pictures of the kids.  They had a blast.  

 Then a little time on the playground.  Batman went all the way across the monkey bars by himself.  It was the first time I have seen him do that!

And a little swinging.

Day one of camping

For Spring Break this year, we joined two other families and went camping close to Austin, TX at McKinney Falls State Park.  Three families included six adults and 15 kids.  Four of the kids are juniors in high school.  They pretty much did their own thing.  The rest of the kids range from 2-seventh grade.

We headed out on Monday morning.  Scheduled departure time: 10am.  Actual departure time: after noon. The drive took us about three hours.  We had some decisions to make when when got there.  The campground was full but we wanted all three families to be close together. One family has a camper and the other two are tent camping so after we got our spots all sorted out we set up camp.  

 Kids waiting around for the grownups to pick the perfect spot.

 Sweet Le Le. 

 H up in the tree.  You will see a lot of these.  We have a fabulous tree right on our camp site.

 My man

 D and Batman are the same age.

 Boys look tired already.

 Nate cuddling.  So sweet when he does this.

 Sweet S up in the tree.

 The four Allen kids.

 Well, we decided we wanted to be close together so we just all camped at the same site (but we paid for three sites).  Well they didn't like that because we put one tent on the grass and not the pre mapped out tent site.  So they made us move one tent.  Unfortunately it was the Simmons tent that was not on a spot.  Not everyday you see a tent walking down the street.

 The girls playing. 

 Batman up in the tree again.

 Sweet girl in the tree.

 Here is a shot of the tree.

 The boys playing cards.  T was so sweet with my kids this week.

 Ladybug wanted to help with the campfire!

 We finally got everything set up and ready to go.  But we needed to cook dinner before it got dark.  Kabobs were on the menu.  (It is all about the food right).  But it took us a while to make Kabobs and grilled pineapple for that many people!  We finished cooking by flashlight that night.

Day one is in the books.

A little water action

When we put the nerf basket together for the baseball auction, I came across these nerf water guns.  I thought the kids would love them. So I picked them up and told them when they accomplished certain things I would have a surprise for them.  It worked. 

They had a great time with them and were so fun to watch.  They both love anything to do with water!