It's that time of year again....

Not only is it back to school for the girls, its back to softball!!

(The girls showing off their new outfits from Christmas.   Styling and ready to head back to school!) {Thanks Gran for the cool clothes}

I'm kinda feeling bitter-sweet about softball starting back.

I LOVE watching the girls play and doing something that they love (and I love), but it's a time suck on our family.

Spring season officially starts with practice sometime in February, and games start in March and run though May. 

However, Audrey's team starts Winter Conditioning today and will practice twice a week from here on out.  And Madilyn's coach also called last night to make sure we are playing and to inform us that sign-up start Saturday and practice will start next week for her.  Madilyn was also asked to travel and play tournaments as well.

That's 5 months of softball people! 

5 months of practices, games, tournaments, muddy cleats, washing uniforms, cold nights and hot coffee.

Softball takes a lot of sacrifice on us as parents.

Because Eddie and I both work, and work over an hour away from home, school and the ball fields.  It puts a lot of pressure on our schedules.  We (and my we, I mean Eddie) rushes home from work, to grab the kids from the after-school program at school, swings by the house to have the kids change clothes, and shove food in their mouth and then run back out the door to get to the field for practice or games or whatever it may be.  Then I usually meet him at the ball field to relieve him so he can go home and get ready for bed since he gets up at 4 AM.  If the softball scheduling gods smile on us, then we might have practices on the same day or even at the same time.  But in years past the girls would practice and play on different days which meant I was usually at the ball field 5 or 6 nights a week.  Kinda makes it had to have a life outside the gates of the park. 

This year because Madilyn moved up to 10 & U, ALL her games will be played in the late time slot at 7:30.  There's good and bad to that.  The good side is I will rarely miss one of her games due to Audrey having a game at the same time. But the bad side is games won't get over with until at least 9:00 and because we live in the next county over, we won't get home and the kids won't get in bed until 10:00, on a school night. 

All complaining aside, I am really looking forward to getting back out there.  I'm ready to see my girls perform well, to see their teams win, and to have fun. 

Let's go Jr. Aces and Warriors!!