First Softball Tournament

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Anna Kate was selected for the All Star Team. We are so proud of her for accomplishing this in her first year in this league.
Here she is getting one of many base hits. She played left field the entire tournament, but I forgot to get a picture.

Last weekend's tournament got rained out, but this weekend's tournament had no cloud in sight. It was super hot. In between two of our games, the girls all got popcicles. This little girl with Anna Kate has black eyes because Anna Kate threw a ball to her during a practice and it bounced off her glove and hit her in the nose.

Our team won all its games and won the tournament. Here's Anna Kate getting five from her coach after receiving her medal.

Tim helps coach the all star team, so Anna Kate got to present him with his medal. Here they are having a father/daughter hug. This was a pretty neat Father's Day weekend moment.

Here's the Mississippi State Games 10 and under slow pitch softball champs. This tournament is Mississippi's equivilent of the Olympics. Pretty neat accomplishment.

We are so proud of you Anna Kate!

Park Champs

Anna Kate's last park softball game was Thursday night. They won, so they finished the year with a 15-0 record. That's Anna Kate (#3) in the middle getting a high five from her coach.
The team receiving the trophy.

Anna Kate getting her medal.

A picture with Coach Tim who has been an awesome coach.

The entire team with their medals and the trophy.

We ate together as a team after the game, and the coach presented each girl with a trophy and a team ball. Anna Kate was so proud to receive these items, and we were so proud of her. Way to go Anna Kate.

VBS Family Night

I meant to post these two pictures from VBS family night earlier in the week, but we have been so busy with softball this week. Anna Kate had a park game and all star practice Monday night and just all star practice last night. We were midnight going to bed both nights. Needless to say, I am exhausted. I am surprised I am not sore. Maybe I am just too tired to notice. Last night, Anna Kate's all star coach asked all the moms to wear tennis shoes and bring their gloves because he wanted us to play a few innings against the girls. It was so much fun -- like old times. Several moms were on New Hope's state championship softball teams with me, so it was neat getting to play together again. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from VBS family night this past Sunday night. Anna Kate and Emma's age groups both went on stage to perform, but I was too far back to get any good pictures. I took these two while everybody sang a couple of songs from our seats. All the songs had such cute hand motions. My girls really get into all of that. Anna Kate is sitting on the row in front of us with some of her friends. Tim is holding Emma up so she can see. It was a fun week at VBS and a fun night for family night. Until next year...

Softball

Anna Kate is having a great softball season. She moved up from coach pitch softball to regular softball. She is playing second base for her team, and has done a great job. In fact, her whole team is doing a great job. They are 13-0 with only two games left. Anna Kate was selected for the All Star Team, and she was so excited. We are so proud of her. They have practiced so hard for the past several weeks. Today was supposed to be their first tournament, but it was rained out. Hopefully we will have good weather for the tournament next weekend.

Her daddy loves giving her advice. He is her biggest fan.

Emma is such a trooper to attend all Anna Kate's games and practices. She will get her chance to play next year.

Daylilies

We made our annual visit to Mrs. Hayes' daylily garden this week. We stopped in one afternoon on our way home from VBS. The flowers were gorgeous as usual, but the sun was harsh. It was hot, so we took just a couple of pictures and headed to the comforts of home.

Vacation Bible School

The girls and I had a great time at VBS this week. I took the week off so I could be a helper and could spend time with Anna Kate and Emma. Here are some fun pictures from the week. The theme was Boomerang Express.

Anna Kate decorated this hat at art time.
And Emma made this cute little alligator.

They both had fun at recreation time. Anna Kate's age group played kick ball every day, which was right to her liking.

They also loved music time.

It was a great week learning more about Jesus and that it all comes back to Him. My sister-in-law Samantha taught in the 3-year-old class, and Abby, Philip and Hunter all attended. Hopefully they will share pics on their blogs soon.

Our Trip to the Beach

We had an awesome family trip to Orange Beach, AL, a week or so ago. Of course, you know that my husband is a geocacher, so we made several stops on our way, including this one below. I don't remember where we were, but the girls had fun playing on the board walk. We spotted this cute, little turtle.

We also made some stops on our way back to Columbus. We made a stop in Destin, FL, before heading back so Tim could get an earth cache. The girls and I stopped at a really pretty shopping center where we played in the water fountain. Please continue down the page as I have done five more posts from our trip.

Beach Fun

Just as soon as we could get checked in, we put on our swimsuits and headed to the beach. This was the view we saw. The weather was great the whole time we were there -- mid 80s and no rain.

Anna Kate had been to the beach before, but she didn't remember it. She was only four then, so it was fun watching her rediscover everything.

This was Emma's first time at the beach, and she loved it. I thought she might be a little scared, but I should have known that she would be fine because she is a our little daredevil.

Emma loved to turn her back to the waves and wait for them to hit her.

They also loved playing in the sand. I wish I could take credit for this great sand castle, but we found it the first evening we arrived. It had a neat tunnel running under it.
The girls built their own sand castles. It was like playing in God's giant sandbox. Too fun.

One of our favorite things was just standing near the water and feeling the sand erode under our feet each time a wave came in.

We also found tons of sea shells.