the graduate

Before school ended last June the 5th graders put on an anti-bullying play for the school. The play is a comedy/musical which takes place in a school with two teachers talking to the kids about how to handle bullies. Many weeks earlier Erin told me she was going to try out for one of the two main parts, one of the two teachers.

I told her, "Great," but was thinking, "not again". She tried out for main speaking parts in the plays every year at her last school, but was never given one of those roles. She's not really the theatric type, the teachers told me, and I can see what they mean. But much to my surprise a few days later Erin learned that she was given the main female part in the play. I couldn't believe it.

Her role was actually pretty well suited for her. She was kind the of straight man to the other dufus goofball teacher, Mr. B, played by her classmate and our neighbor two doors over, Paul. He was absolutely perfect for that part. Together they had a whole Laurel and Hardy type routine going on.

 The songs were funny, the dialogue was clever and I don't know when Erin learned all those tons of lines, but she did and it came together well.

 A few days later was 5th grade graduation, with a graduating class of about 90.

 All but one of Erin's best friends are going to the same public middle school she'll attend, where the number of kids in each grade equals the number of kids in this entire elementary school. Yikes.

catch up softball

I'm going to try to catch up on my blog a bit even though I find Blogger ever so much more difficult to use since it's last major update some time ago. I'm going to try to get used to it.

This past spring's softball season was the most interesting so far. The twins were signed up to play along with a few others from their girl scout troop, as they did last year. When Kate broke her leg the coaches nicely said they'd hold a spot on the team for her, and she could join in whenever she was ready. 

Allison took this season much more seriously than any previous season. My grass-picker, as another mom called her a couple of years ago, now at least kept her eyes on the game when she was placed in the outfield.

The outfield was her least favorite position as it got relatively little action. Catcher was a little more interesting.

 But having a base position and infielding was the best. And she was pretty good at playing a base, making many outs throughout the season. She really wanted to win each game, even though scores aren't kept until playoff time.

This is how she looked if her teammate did not make the out at base.

She is a fast runner, the fastest on the team, and god help any opposing player blocking her way to a base because it wouldn't end well for them.

 

Fists clenched and dying for the next hit so she can outrun the fielders.

About 2 weeks before the end of the season, Kate finally got the all clear to run, so she joined in. She was instantly one of the more consistent hittters, but probably the slowest runner with a kind of hoppy, limpy run. We talked about having another player run for her after she hit, but she managed to run fast enough to get to base more often than not, so she ran for herself.

 For the first time, we hit the batting cages between games for extra practice and that helped the girls quite a bit.

When the playoffs came around, they won their semifinal game but then lost in the finals, making them the second place team in their division. This was the first time a team Kate and Allison played on won any playoff game, so I thought the playoffs were really exciting, and they only lost in the finals by 1 run.