Sunflowers

Ainsley decided to try out softball this season. Her good friend Isabel talked her into playing and fortunately they were put on the same team (we did request it). The girls on Ainsley's team narrowed down their team name choices to the "Yellow Jackets" and the "Sunflowers". Let's just say "Yellow Jackets" never had a chance.

Yesterday was a big day for our little Sunflower. The morning started out with the league's opening ceremony where all the softball teams were introduced and got to run out onto the field to music and cheers from the stands. After that we waited for team pictures. There really wasn't enough time to go home in between the two but there was plenty of time for Ainsley and Isabel to dirty their white pants.

After pictures were over Ainsley stuffed half of a peanut butter sandwich into her mouth and ran off to warm up for her first game. At her practice before the game she came home excited to tell us she'd volunteered to play catcher. It turns out she really didn't know what she was getting herself into. Once the game started she waddled onto the field in all of her catcher gear with a great big scowl on her face and grumbling about the helmet being too big. The situation became dire pretty quickly. The day had started at 9am and it was now almost noon. All she'd eaten was half of a sandwich and a few vanilla wafers and when Ainsley gets hungry she's just like her mom when she's hungry -- a beast. Add the uncomfortable catcher's gear and we had trouble. We were sitting right by home plate and got an earful for the first half of the game but everything turned out alright. Halfway through the game she ran out of the dugout asking for food so I sent her back with half of an apple. Then her coach put her on third base and she was all smiles. She batted a few times and their team won by one run. They don't actually count the first few games but the girls were still happy. We all had a fun time hanging out at the ball field watching Ainsley (you should have seen Landon covered in lollipop drool) and I'm pretty sure she's excited to go back to practice -- as long as she doesn't have to play catcher!