One PROUD Momma.

Today was one of Those days.

The perfect kind.

Charlotte's schedule and mine didn't jive, so my abs got a break for today. (Remember Charlotte? The trainer I worked with last spring? The one who gets RESULTS??? Yep, she's killing me again. One muscle at a time.)

I had a VIPS appreciation luncheon to go to. There I learned that my volunteer hours are worth about $20 / hour to the school.

That's a lot more than they pay me as a sub.

Hmmmmmm.......

Lunch was good. I could tell there was about a pound of butter on the rice and veggies. I'm trying to watch what I eat, so I pretty much ate the salad and dessert. Trust me, the strawberries on that cheesecake made it worth every calorie. They were "Da Bomb."

But that's not all....

After a minor falling out with Biggsy over my not playing catch with Abbie enough, I've been practicing with her a LOT this week. We've played catch every morning before school and every afternoon. It. Has. Paid. Off.

Big Time.

Tonight the Flames played their first tournament game.

Snuck up on you, didn't it???

That's because I haven't mentioned softball much around here. You see, we finished off our regular season last week at 1-7-2. That's right. One win. Two ties. And SEVEN losses. YIKES.

But I have to tell you, this season has been COMPLETELY different for our Abbie. Last season I spent the entire season trying to get her to STOP chasing love bugs in the outfield. This season she's back on target and hitting better than ever. It's a completely different ballgame. And really, our team is a LOT better than our season record reflects.

I will say, that bribery might have helped a bit. Abbie read Peter and the Starcatchers last week (all 380+ pages of it.) She's really been wanting to read the other two books in the series. So today I went to the library and checked out #2. I let her see it, waved it under her nose and let her smell the ink. I told her if she did a great job and caught any balls that came her way (in the air), she could have it tonight. If not, she'd have to wait until Saturday down at the Creek.

She did a great job, has read Chapter 1, and can't wait to read it at school tomorrow.

It's over 500 pages. She's in Second Grade.

No Maternity Test Needed. This is my child!

But I digress.....

I've been taking pictures -- LOTS of them. As the unofficial team photographer, I've taken almost 1600 pictures total for our teams. YIKES. I've picked out a few to share with you. Enjoy! (Oh, I will say after looking at 1600 softball pictures, I'm beginning to think they're a lot like my tubing / kneeboarding pix. Pretty much all the same. Sorry!)

Abbie Hitting her First Double:


On 2nd base with her First Double!

Scoring.... That's what it's all about, right??

Kait throwing the ball to Kass to get a runner out. It's going to be fun to watch these two play together as they get older. They're quite a team!

Kait hitting. Coach Scott has told her she can hit coach-pitches in the last game. She can't wait!

Kait getting on 3rd and celebrating with her Daddy.

Concentration is everything when you're playing 1st base....

Have you EVER seen anything this cute?? No way!

Abbie scoring another run. I told you. They may all run together. The problem is that in T-ball we don't keep score. So I have all these fun pix of the kids -- playing in the dirt, looking cute, all that jazz.

But in Coach Pitch, we definitely keep score. So all my pix of Abbie's team are pretty business-like. Another difference? In Kait's league, I'm right on the side of the field taking pictures. In Abbie's league I'd end up with a skull fracture if I tried that. There's a reason all our girls wear face masks and mouth guards!

This girl can hit!

And yes, our girls won tonight. They scored 17 runs in four innings, winning against a team that had beaten them twice this season.

Meltdown! Can you feel the heat? Go Flames!