The best cheerleaders ever!



So the girl in charge and the rest of the Bulldawgs played their last softball game yesterday.  We traveled down to Halifax County, Virginia for the Regional tournament quarter-finals.  The Bulldawgs played hard on a hot, hot day.  Mercy -- it was hot.

But these three guys brought even more heat!  They call themselves the Hype Squad, and they are hilarious. While the guy on the right has two sisters on the team, the two on the left are football players, and seniors, and friends with several of the Lady 'Dawgs.  Their sports season is over; they will graduate in a week and a half.   So why not concentrate all (and I mean all) their school spirit and electric friendship vibes on these awesome Bulldawgs?

Fabulous!
 
 

The girl in charge and her kick-ass bestie were a little ambivalent at the end of the game.  They hate to lose, y'all.  But they also will graduate in a week and a half, and I suspect they are looking forward, just a little bit, to chillaxing these last few days.

They've earned it.

How 'bout them Bulldawgs?!




So the girl in charge has had what you might call a roller coaster ride of a softball season this spring.  She's playing right field for the Bulldawgs again this season -- it's her senior year, so she really intended to make every game count.  At let me tell you she got off to a great start!  During the first game of the season she hit a home run!  OK, so it wasn't really an official home run: she hit a totally sweet bunt that flustered the other team so much that all they could do was make error after error as my girl ran the bases.  The scorebook called it a "single with multiple errors," but at our house, we're calling that bad boy a home run!

But that was the last home run the girl in charge would hit for quite a while, because later in the same game she took a bad fall . . .


. . . and you can see why she was no longer all that up for running the bases.



Instead of softball cleats and a glove . . .



. . . the girl in charge cheered on the Bulldawgs carrying these accessories.  Yes, she usually had a book, too -- but I'm talking about the crutches and the boot.


But last week she got the all-clear from the quasi-sexy orthopedic surgeon.  She avoided an actual operation and was relatively good about obeying his instructions.  If she cheated a little bit there toward the end of her stint of "no weight-bearing whatsoever," well -- we will just keep that to ourselves, won't we?


 And now -- she's back on the field, wearing the good old blue and gold polyester Bulldawgs uniform!  It's nice to see her running those bases again.

Bring it, Bulldawgs!

Catching up: How 'bout them Bulldawgs?!

So it has been a while . . . . How's things? We've had a busy spring around here and that's no lie. Now that I can actually sit down for a minute, the first thing I want to say is:

YOU GO, BULDAWGS!

The girl is charge is having another fabulous season playing softball for her high school team -- these girls take no prisoners, people! Just like the girl in charge!

This one (one of my girl's besties) broke the district home run record this season -- and she ain't even done yet! So far she has smacked ten balls over the fence; one of them hit the scoreboard, which the fans loved and the Athletic Director hated. Look for a profile of her in the next issue of Softball Today, because, to quote the girl in charge, "she's just that awesome."

And here's her sister, also a phenom; softball is paying her way to college this fall. Don't let that sweet face fool you. No prisoners, people.

All in all that could sum up this whole team. They're lovely girls: smart, shockingly tough, kind, funny -- and girlie. In fact, they got a little razzing from an opposing team once, because the Bulldawgs showed up with pretty, pretty ribbons in their hair.

Final score: Bulldawgs 11, Razzers 3

You may be noticing that the Blue and Gold Bulldawgs are rocking the Pink in some photos. We've got some breast cancer awareness going on this season -- which you can imagine warms my heart. At one game both the Bulldawgs and the opposing team were decked out in dazzling pink jerseys. The only way the umpire could tell the two teams apart was by their socks.

Love those Bulldawgs!

Happy birthday, adored one!

Today my fabulous girl in charge turns sixteen, and I am a little freaked out, as usual, by the speed with which the years have flown by since I welcomed this dynamo into my world.

She has always been my dark-eyed beauty, and carries a serious demeanor wherever she goes -- this fools people into thinking that she is not just as big a goofball as the rest of us.

She holds her hugs close, so when I receive one I know she means it, and each hug is doubly dear.

She is brilliant and organized and logical -- a triple threat.

She loves to be on stage (here she and the tall boy ham it up), she loves to argue -- and she loves to win at any game. Good thing for her she usually does!

A natural athlete, she is strong and graceful.

Whether on the softball field . . .

. . . or in the ballet studio, she moves with power and beauty.

Her little sister has always wanted to be like her -- and glows with happiness when they spend quality time together.

She informed me long ago that "it's so hard to be the middle child," and I am sure that she finds it frustrating to be such a swan among us ducks and geese -- but we feel so blessed to have her in our lives.

If you are ever fortunate enough to meet this beautiful, loving, smart young woman -- who can't wait until she is old enough to change the world -- I know you will agree with me:

I'm the luckiest mom.