spring pile-up

School's almost out, which means my calendar is overflowing with things to do. Everything seems to happen in May and early June.
The twins finished their softball season and I really came to like this new league. The coaching was a lot better and the league overall is better organized.

The girls really enjoyed themselves this season, as if you couldn't tell.


They received trophies and the t-shirts in the brightest possible color after their last game, and then the team went out for a pizza party.



I caught most of their game but missed the party because Erin and I had to be somewhere else. Weekends rarely have only one item per day going on anymore. I joined a band comprised of many of my friends from my college band, as well as many from the UC Berkeley Cal Band and Stanford Band. We had a gig to play at a festival in another town, so Erin and I headed there.

The girls had open house at school recently, where we have time to visit each of their classes and view a lot of their work, mainly larger in-class projects that they've spent many weeks on. Erin showed us her animal research report that she and a partner completed.


There was lots of pointing out examples of her work for John, who hadn't seen it before. I, on the other hand, have seen everything already. I've either prepped the materials, worked with the kids in class on these projects, put them on display in the classroom, or sometimes all three. So I always hung back and took pictures while the kids explained these projects to John.


Erin's Sandwich book report, which she chose to do as a hamburger. Each layer of the sandwich has a different component of the book report attached to it.


Erin with her fabulous teacher, Mrs. Feldman.


The routine in Kate and Allison's classes went much the same. And the toughest part about open house is that it only lasts an hour, and we have 3 classes to visit in that time, so we really couldn't linger and chat like most other families.





Kate and Mrs. Drake



Allison and Mrs. Smithwick


The girls have been with these teachers for two years and they're each really terrific. It's sad to know the girls will be leaving these teachers in particular. Big changes are coming in the fall.

We've also had a school book fair and a K/1 sing-a-long performance (John attended and a short video may follow). Before school is out the girls have one more field trip each (and I'm chaperoning), a field day, a read-in day, and Erin has a big speech presentation. Her speech was supposed to be given last week but she was terribly sick for several days and missed school. And that WASN'T on my calendar.

divide and conquer

For the past two weeks we've had tons of rain so the twins' first two softball games were cancelled, but finally we had a sunny saturday and the girls would finally get to play. Unfortunately for me, Erin had an activity scheduled in another town at about the same time so John and I had to split up and I didn't get to see their first game. I wouldn't get to take any pictures of their first game either, and that is equally upsetting. Instead, I gave a camera to John and since I have a friend on the opposing team who is much more skilled at taking sports photos than I am, I did end up with some really great photos. The girls have had several practices with their team and they were raring to go.



Things are a bit different in this league. The softball fields for the 6 year-old division is smaller and they don't keep track of "outs", or even make a runner who is tagged out leave the field.


According to John, the twins played pretty well. They each did okay at hitting and fielding, and Allison in particular ran the bases just as hard and fast as she could.

Here is Allison batting:

And here is Kate playing first base, and successfully making an out at first.

It sounds like the game was tons of fun and I'm sorry I missed it, but there is always next week, if it doesn't rain anyway. Meanwhile, Erin wanted to dance in a small local Scottish fair along with a few others from the dance school. I recently ordered Erin her own official Highland dance competition outfit (used...wow those things are expensive) and here she is before the performance along with her teacher, who would also be dancing.

This was a small fair and a small stage compared to the huge Highland games we have taken the kids to each year, but it was good for Erin to have some extra performance practice because next month is her first real competition. A local pipe band provided the music for the dancers.

And there were 6 dancers altogether, including two of the three instructors at the school. Erin was by far the youngest, and the only beginner. She danced one number on her own.

And after the others danced individually or in pairs they did a final dance together.

Afterwards the dancers posed together for some pictures and they also posed with the band since one of the drummers is the father of one of the dancers.

I know there are another couple of games that Erin and I will likely miss because of upcoming dancing events, and I guess for now I should just be glad that between John and I we can manage to get everyone where they want to be. Don't ask me what we're going to do when the day comes when all three of them have different activities at the same time.

all warmed up

Ah, softball. Our ski season is barely underway but our thoughts have had to turn to softball as well already. As much as Erin loves playing, there wouldn't be time in her week to do both softball (3 days per week) and Highland dancing. Erin wants to start competing in Highland dancing this spring, so...that's where she wants to put her time for now.

The twins want to play softball again and I thought I'd sign them up to play in a new league--the league in the town where we'll be moving in hopes of their getting on a team with girls who go to the new school they'll be attending this fall. This league groups the girls by school. It was a brilliant plan.

Registration was done late last year and I got an email from our coach this week. The girls will be the only ones from their (new) school on the team, all others attend a private school right nearby. As it turns out, there are no other girls from their new school playing in their entire division, so at the moment it feels like we'll be driving extra far for practices and games for almost nothing.

Anyway, unlike their old league, this one holds an optional pre-season practice day for all the girls in all divisions to warm-up their skills, or start learning them for the first time. There was a huge turn-out this morning. Everyone stretched out and then divided up by division, and then divided further into groups of about 10.
"Get a partner and let's play catch! If you need a partner come see me!" were the first instructions. Having a twin comes in handy sometimes.


Next they worked on fielding grounders on the pavement. I don't think any of the other 8 girls in our practice group had played before so our group coach quickly started having Kate and Allison demonstrate for the others.

Next we moved to batting and fielding. Allison showed the others how to swing properly, and as one girl hit the others got the balls and threw them back to the coach.


And that's kinda where the trouble started. Kate and Allison were ALL OVER fielding those balls. They were alert and ready and in position while the other girls looked pretty nervous about getting hit with the ball and a little bewildered in general.




When a ball was hit and the twins took off after it before the other girls even moved. Then they sometimes pushed each other, fighting over who got the ball and threw it back. The other girls just stayed out of the way. Even when a ball went directly toward one of the others, K or A dashed off and fielded it before it reached them. But it's not like they played so amazingly well or anything. Actually, they were pretty rusty in general, but they at least understood what they should be doing and they weren't shy about it, and that put them many steps ahead of the others in the group.


One little kindergartner didn't know what to make of these competitive girls running in front of her and she started crying. I pulled the twins aside and asked them to let the other girls get some of the balls but they could not understand why in the world I was disappointed.
"But you are SUPPOSED to run after the ball!"
"You are SUPPOSED to get it quickly and throw it to first base!"
"The other girls are just STANDING there!"

I really didn't have time to explain any further, and they went right back, and nothing really changed. I don't think the other parents were thrilled.
"They're a little, oh, I don't know..." one dad observed, "...aggressive."
Um, yeah.
But I have to mention that earlier in the day I got a question that totally threw me off guard. This was a question I haven't been asked since I don't know when. A dad asked me, "which one is yours?"

You see, around school, no one EVER asks me "which one is yours?" Quite the contrary, people I've never seen and never met know my name and all my girls' names and come up to me and mention the girls doing this or that and meanwhile I have no idea who they are or who their child is. This happens on a regular basis because, well, it's just that obvious who my kids are. It was nice being able to blend in a little better.

It's going to be an interesting season.

time flies when...

...your kids play softball. Wow, what a busy spring we've had, but softball season is now over and we successfully juggled our 3-day a week/2-team schedule for the past 10 weeks.

Last saturday morning the twins played in their final game, and it was a great wrap-up for them as I think they each played their best game of the season. Kate hit 3 pitches and played pitcher.




Allison hit one pitch and played third base, which normally isn't so extraordinarily exciting since the plays are usually at first. But as luck would have it a large number of hits came straight to her so she was very busy fielding and with the help of a teammate she made one out at third. Not much grass-picking going on that day.

Erin's season unfortunately ended a week earlier. Starting in this age-group the teams play a double-elimination tournament during the final two weeks of the season, and a champion team in each division is decided. Erin's team lost their first tournament game against a team that was just plain better than them, but the Comets managed to keep the game close and lost 4-6. I was proud of all of them.

For their second tournament game they played a team that was decidedly NOT better than they were, but we had a truly terrible umpire. Most of the league's umpires in this division are teenagers who are baseball/softball players themselves and trained/hired by the league. I've seen some very questionable performance by these kids all season long but since the results of regular season games never really counted for anything, I didn't give it much thought. I did think they'd step up the quality of the umps for the tournament, but I was wrong.

The 14 year-old who served as umpire for Erin's second tournament game was fairly clueless, asking the coaches for help making calls and calling something one way then changing his mind afterwards and reversing himself. It was a confusing mess. Erin has two teammates who pitch really well and the best of those was pitching this final game. I swear she was on fire that day, throwing strike after strike, yet nearly everything she threw was called a ball by this kid.

If the pitchers throw 3 balls then the coach of the opposing team comes out to pitch and naturally they throw slower and friendlier than our pitcher does, so that enabled the other team to rack up hit after hit when in reality a large number of their batters struck out. It was blatantly unfair and the other parents and I were frustrated as we watched our team's greatest advantage neutralized and lose 1-4. Ultimately, I don't care that Erin's team didn't go farther and I know they weren't the best team, but I do care about fairness and I've complained.

The losses never really bothered Erin though. She's a good loser (at least when it comes to softball). In the afternoon before the closing ceremonies her team got together for a team pizza party and then we went to the main field where the champion teams in each division were awarded and all players got their participation trophies. Camera problems again! I took some pictures of Erin's whole team together, but they've disappeared. Aargh.

The players on her team range from 7 to just shy of 10, and as one of the younger players I can't help but notice how short Erin looks compared to some of the oldest teammates.

Erin's softball playing could have extended into the early summer because a competitive travelling team portion of this league was gearing up for the year. When Erin learned about the try-outs for that team a couple of weeks ago, she begged me to let her go. Her coach is also a coach of one of the travelling teams and she spoke to me about Erin's enthusiasm and having her try-out. I discussed it with John after learning that would mean 2 multiple-hour practices per week plus tournaments out of our county all day every saturday and sunday for the next month. We decided we just couldn't manage all of that, given homework and girls scouts and the fact that Erin won't be out of school until later June. Maybe next year, we said, and I felt guilty because I think that's the first time Erin asked to be able to do something (productive and worthwhile) and we turned her down. I like for the kids to be able to pursue whatever they want to pursue and find a way to make it work, but I suppose the older they get and the more involved these options are, the more I'm going to have to accept some limits. John is much better at realizing how crazy is too crazy. I'm not so good at that.

The twins posed with their team and were excited to receive their first trophies, and after this ceremony we had another party to attend for team Dolphins.

And all three claim that they'll be back next year.