Softball and Baseball

Both Darren and Claire were in sports this fall. (Unfortunatly, we didn't take any pictures of Darren!) We had Monday night games, Tuesday and Thursday practices at two different places, and Friday and Saturday games. I guess we are fully entrenched into the lives of soccer (or baseball) parents. It was very stressful for me, but they both had a good time. This was Darren's first year of coach-pitch. That is when they no longer hit off of the tee, instead the coach pitches the ball. It took Darren a little while to figure out that he shouldn't swing at every pitch, but he got the hang of it, and was able to get a hit almost every time. For Claire's age group, they got to swing as many times as it took to get a hit, and everyone ran the bases. The girls were cute to watch. The weather was nice most of the time, and Miles and Sammi had fun playing at the park during the practices.

At the beginning of the season, there were some "mean girls" who were older sisters of one of Darren's teammates. For some reason, they didn't like Miles or Claire. For example,they would bring their puppy, and one day, Miles asked if it was their dog. The older girl said, "yeah, it's our dog. And she's fast. She could catch up to you if you ran away." They also spanked him once. I started hanging around and just giving them looks so they knew I was watching. I also made sure that Miles and Claire were always nice to them, and they eventually became friends, although these girls would still whisper to each other and give me mean looks! Yikes! Anyway, I am so happy to see that my kids are not shy like I was. They always find friends to play with during the practices and games.