Softball, Anyone???

For anyone who knows me, my favorite part of summer is the softball games. It used to be me playing, but nowadays it's my two eldest. This year, they ended up in the same city league, on different teams. This happens to be a day when they played each other, and Hannah got loaned to Amber's team because they were short one player. This is Hannah the spaz warming up--she actually caught that one.
Wamber has recently shown an interest and an aptitude for the catcher position. She likes it there, for some unfathomable reason. Anyway, she's not bad at it for a nine year old, and here she is in all her gear.

The Grand Poobah loosens up his troops.....

When Wamber walks, she does it the right way. She tosses the bat and runs down there to first. I am of the opinion that this is because she had no bad slowpitch habits to break. The kids who have played slowpitch, they saunter on down to the base, after they go almost into the dugout to hand the bat off. That is one of the hardest habits to break them of.

This is Wamber sliding into home. She is safe, but the batter struck out. One curious rule in fastpitch is that if the catcher drops the third strike and there's no one on first base, the batter can run, and the catcher either has to tag them out or throw them out at first. This enables the fabled Strideout RBI, which actually exists, folks. In this video, first was occupied at the time, so the batter has struck out, but Wamber stole home and was safe.

This is Hannah's bee-yoo-tee-ful hit. She hit this low, outside pitch and just sailed it out there. A little bit of practice running bases without slowing down on approach, and she'll have a home run on a hit like this. She got a triple anyway.

Hannah's friend Dani is catching for the defense here, and she wasn't going to let Hannah steal home on her. She must have caught or blocked about 8 pitches and run her back to third several times. Here, Hannah finally makes it. (I think that's Wamber batting, too.)

Kate Plays Teeball

OK, if you have never witnessed the panorama that is teeball, then you are missing out. It is seriously one of the most hilarious things you will ever see (aside from little kid soccer). Little kids are so funny. Sometimes, you get hypo parent who thinks their 6-year-old is already another Natasha Watley or Derek Jeter, but most of them are just as excited when their kid actually notices the ball coming toward them (and gets up off the ground where they were sifting dirt in time to swipe at it after it has gone by). My favorite, though, is when they hit the ball and then set the bat down and look around before sauntering off toward third base, people screaming all the way. The kid is always so pleased with himself, and the adults are going nuts. My kid, however, is the knd who runs to first with a big cheesy grin on her face. The most important part of any teeball game, as everyone knows, is who brought treats and what are they???

Here is Kate on third, looking.......nervous?
Kate getting ready to hit the ball.....

Kate's favorite position is catcher. The most important position on the team, as evidenced by the fact that it sees the most action. Good job, Kate!!

Josie Swims!

Josie got her first taste of swimming pool over Memorial Day, and she is the only one of my many children to actually stand in the pool. She loved it! David, on the other hand, squeals like a little girl every time he has a bath and his head gets wet. *sounds of disgust here* Isn't she cute with her little swimsuit and big balloon butt?? The other kids, of course, got to use the big kid pool, but Josie and David made do with Little Yellow. (I realize that this one is out of chronological order, but you'll just have to deal with it.)

Check out my mongo tulips. They are mutants.

Birthday Part 3

Wamber turned nine on Saturday and we partied like rock stars. She had fruit kebobs and rainbow sherbet for a treat, and Hannah managed to skewer more than just fruits here. She also had an awesome fruit pizza for a birthday cake. Pretty cool, huh? (I'm really full of myself on this one--it was my first attempt, and it was really good!!) We even put candles on it and she blew em out. Mmmmmmmm......

Two words: Coconut Bowling. The kids loved the coconut bowling, which involves rolling a coconut down the sidewalk at 10 water bottles. It's scored like bowling, and it was really fun. Amber bowled a 64. The coconut split at the end, or I'm sure they would have spent an hour rolling that silly thing up and down the sidewalk. They also really enjoyed the cooler full of water balloons and the sprinkler under the trampoline.

We also had awesome teriyaki barbecue steak and chicken. Those steaks were sooooo tender and dang delicious. This is a really really good marinade (I marinaded the steaks about a day and a half) if anyone's interested:

1 cup soy sauce 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1 cup water 3 T oil

3 T vinegar 1 t onion powder

1 t garlic powder 1 t ginger

Baby Does Dishes

This was absolutely hilarious. I have to keep Josie occupied in another place while I load and unload the dishwasher, because she plays in it and runs off with stuff. Well, I didn't get there quite as quickly as I usually do, and this is what she was doing! I guess she had been watching me, and decided to do it herself. Here she is, putting silverware away in the drawer. She didn't lose interest, wither--I had to have Hannah get her when she started putting the dirty ones away too. Watch out, Wamber! She'll be getting your allowance before long!

Wamber Plays Soccer (and Josie Swims)

Wamber is one of the tallest on her team this year. Kind of weird, since Hannah has always been one of the smallest, and I'm not much taller. Anyway, she's not a killer yet, like Hannah, but she's starting to go after the ball better and such, and is having a really good time.
This is what they do before a game. Wamber is on the end.
One more shot of her--she's thinking about whether she can get to the ball in time. She almost did.
Josie had her first encounter with a pool Saturday, too. Unlike certain other of my children, who shall remain nameless, Josie stood right in the pool and splashed. NOT like Weinee Boy David and his sisters, who wouldn't do anything but stand at the side and touch the water (or Kate, who still won't let anyone splash anything anywhere near her). Ooops, I guess I just named them. Oh well. they'll get over it.

Josie Gets Her Birthday....10 Days Late

I knew Josie was over the last of the flu when she started growling again. So, we did her birthday thing on Saturday the 23rd. She got her own cake, and the others of us got cupcakes. I figured that no one would want to share with her once she'd finished with it, but she wasn't as destructive as some I've seen.
Ooooo....fire!!
Hmm. Guess I'll taste this stuff. Maybe some more. And some more, and some more....
Hey, gimme that back. I'm not done yet!! That's more like it! A fist is better than a finger any day for cake!
Ahhhh..... Now I need a bath. Big time.

She took a while to figure out how to open presents, but soon got the hang of it. What was funny, though, was David. He sat right next to her and took away the little pieces of paper so she wouldn't eat them. He'd tell her "thank you" for each one. Soon, she started handing them to him and saying "thank you" to him!