Monday, May 21, 2007

I'm Baaccckkkk...

I'm back with a longer update than what I left you with this morning. I was SO sleepy this morning that I'm amazed I was able to put a coherent sentence together!!

This past weekend was VERY busy, but so very very exciting!

On Friday, Delaney had her 5th Grade Graduation and Awards ceremony. We were so incredibly proud of Delaney. She received a slew of awards; in fact, several people were joking with her that her medals were gonna weigh her down and tip her over! I know most people kinda roll their eyes when other people start bragging on their kids, but you're just gonna have to bear with me now (besides, I know mine aren't perfect; they can be little irritants at times, like every other child in the world! lol; but they also are so good and make me amazingly proud). So, I'm bragging!

Delaney received: Top grade point average in her class, top math average, 5th grade scholar, Presidential scholar, All A's (for this year, but also for all of her elementary school career!), a 4 on the Alabama Writing assessment (the highest you can get on the 1-4 scale); and she also got recognized for a presidential fitness award and also for being on the safey patrol. To put it mildly, we were all SO proud of her!

A few pics from the ceremony...

One of her awards from her principal...


I was NOT gonna lose it, because hey? this is just fifth grade graduation right? Forget about it!! All I could think of was how fast Delaney has grown up, how much I love her sweet-but-stubborn-little self, how fast I know the next years will go by (remember, it seems like just yesterday that McKenna was going through the same ceremony and she just finished her freshman year of high school!), and how proud I am of the young lady she's becoming.

I was doing okay until the entire fifth grade class started singing their song about growing up and spreading their wings (oh man!!), and then my mom leaned over and whispered, "I can still remember the day that Delaney was born. How sweet and little she was, and how we were all so happy!" That just did it for me!


At the reception afterwards, here's Delaney with Savannah, Scotti, and Shelby...

And posing with my Mom and Dad...


As soon as the graduation was over,we rushed up to the high school to pick up McKenna up (we couldn't leave early because she had her Honors Biology final exam; she had to get an 86 to retain her A in the class, and she got just under that and has a B; she was a little upset, but she knows what a tough class it is!).

We had to get on the road so we could make it to Pigeon Forge,Tennessee, for our travel softball tournament with the Thunderbolts. This tournament had teams from Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia. And, oh yeah, Alabama (we were the lone Bama team!). The girls played SO hard and it did so great! We won our first two games on Saturday (Delaney pitched the second game) and then went into elimination play that night.We lost our first elimination game 1-0 to a good Knoxville Storm team, so got stuck in the loser's bracket for the rest of elimination play on Sunday (it was a double elimination tournament). The worst news was that it meant we had to play at 8 am and could not lose a game all day if we wanted to be champions! We dug ourself out of the losers bracket, winning three games and then making it to the Final round. (The third game was very exciting, coming down to the wire and the other team having a chance to win it inthe last inning, when Delaney made a double play to end the game--she caught a hard line drive then threw a second girl out).

We had to play the Storm again,but had to beat them TWICE since they didn't have a loss yet.Well,we won the first game 5-0 and were looking great. Then in the last game we were ahead 2-0 going into the last inning. Our ace pitcher was getting tired so we pulled in Grace.She did her best, but the other team came out hitting and came back to beat us 3-2. It was a day full of drama, close wins, and close losses. But we came out as runners-up in a big tournament and we were very proud of the girls and how they played and carried themselves!!

This is what Delaney did most of the weekend....



(love that pic!!! that ball was about two inches over her head and she dove backwards for it and just missed it!!; we still got the out at first because our awesome rightfielder got it and threw it in!)


Here's some of what the rest of the team did over the weekend (because D's not the only one on our team; lol!!; I just have more pics of her! I don't know if you can see it, but Tyler has that ball in her glove; she dove for it!) ...

(the girls came out to congratulate Reisa for an over-the-fence homerun!!)

This is what McKenna did most of the weekend (and the REST of us--cheering on the team! She's such a great sister and cheerleader for D!)...

This is what Sydney did most of the weekend (we think we may start calling her Pig Pen; she was just a whirling mass of dirt, but boy did she have fun!)...


Delaney's biggest accomplishment of the weekend was her being awarded the Defensive Player of the Tournament for our team (both the first and second place coaches got to select a pitching award and a defensive award). If you look closely, you can see the surprise on her face here as she receives it from the tournament director. We were SO proud of her!

The whole team with their trophies. Go Bolts!!

Just in case you think we only played softball this weekend, we did do a few other fun things. We went and saw "Spiderman 3," got some Starbucks, went to a massive scrapbook store (thanks for the recommendation, Telah and Kim!), ate some good barbecue, enjoyed our hotel room, and

Go-karted...


And rode on some kiddie carnival rides (Sydney LOVED this mini pirate ship)...


It was a FUN trip, but thank goodness we aren't going out of town for another softball tournaments for a few weeks (this next weekend's is here in town!).

Looking forward to a good week with school ending, a Lost finale party, getting ready for McKenna's Europe trip, and some nights of actually staying at home (imagine that!!!).

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW...Cheryl! These are awesome pictures! I loved everyone of them! The graduation shots are priceless. Brag all you want girlfriend! You should :)
Woo hoo for Delaney! How awesome!
Hopefully McKenna won't be too upset about the B...that's still a great grade and it gives her room for improvement next year (gee, now I sound like my father.)
Overall it sounds like you all had a super fun weekend!!! Thanks for sharing your priceless moments!

Kelly said...

sounds like she is as smart as you were as a kid!!!!!

Dawn Bibbs said...

What great pictures! You and I live such similar lives, don't we? Too funny!!! I love kids sports! And I love that your daughter wears purple. For some reason, the Stingrays don't like purple...something about it being for girls..LOL.
Thanks for sharing your weekend with us. Enjoy your week.

Leah said...

Oh my.. did you guys sleep at all??

Thanks for sharing all these proud moments! Brag on them kiddos all you want!

Bare said...

BIG congrats to Delaney!!! Sounds like she really racked up the awards! Way to go!

I hate I wasn't in town this weekend-- because I'm only an hour away from Pigeon Forge! I would've loved to have gotten to meet you, and watch McKenna play ball! *hugs*

Michelle said...

Congrats to Delaney! Sounds like she has a lot to be proud about - all the academic awards and then softball to follow!

Jo said...

Congratulations to Delaney. My goodness, you had a busy weekend. One of my little munchkins plays baseball as well, and the other one is a very handsome, bright little 11 year-old, in the fifth grade. He'd probably think your Delaney is very cute :-)

Cheers,
Josie

TK Angels said...

Wow- You sure were busy. I love love the pics of softball!!

I love love love the pics of graduation. Yes I agree. Brag!! Your kids are amazing and what a better way to brag than on your blog.

Love it!
Take care,
Love,
Terri

Unknown said...

Good morning Cheryl!!! glad to hear your weekend was awesome!!! YAY to Delainey on her awards and grad ceremony!!! and those are fabulous photo's of her playing ball...love all the action that was caught!!! And I lOVE scout playing in the dirt by the tree...too cute!!!

anyway...just popping in to say Hi!!! ciao for now chica!!!

Unknown said...

News update cheryl...

We are going out of town again... The tournament was moved to Cullman!!

HA! you just thought you were resting.

Mz.Elle said...

Oh wow,that looks busy and fun!

Greta Adams said...

I just don't know how you do it...i wouldn't have time to blog with all that running you do...YOU GO GIRL...YOU GET THE MOTHER OF THE YEAR AWARD FROM ME!!!!

Anonymous said...

Awesome pictures!!! Great weekend!
Congrats to Delaney for everything!

Linda said...

WOW...you been busy. My kids were outta town and I had some peace.....Beautiful pics....delaney is a doll...and you should be proud.

Nancy said...

Chery, you have every right to brag about Delaney and her awards. You are the proud MOM that you should be and I appreciate your sharing with us. After that busy weekend, how did you have time to post on your blog and what beautiful pictures you shared. I could feel and see in the pictures, the love you felt for your precious daughter. SHE IS SPECIAL INDEED!

Anonymous said...

How do you find the time? You are an awesome mom! TFS.

Mississippi Songbird said...

Congratulations to your children. That's wonderful. great Pictures too...

Mississippi Songbird said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
AngelConradie said...

whew... wonderful pictures cheryl! fabulous! and your weekend sounds marvelous! HUGE congrats on delaney doing to amazingly well at school and on the sports field- wow!