Softball, baseball, & water ballet! Oh my!

 A new Texas Roadhouse just sprang up in the parking lot of a strip mall near us, and Dorothy has been DYING to go there for lunch. (LOL LOL LOL LOL).

Well, it seemed like the perfect treat to celebrate her softball season after her final game on Sunday. Coop— also strangely stoked about this particular chain—could not come because he was at a baseball tourney, but Jack, Minnie, and I were jazzed.

Except.

I actually didn’t want to go because I wasn’t hungry (for anything on the menu)), and Minnie thought we were going to a girl’s house. A girl named Texas Road. 

MAMA, she implored. THIS A WEST-WANT.

I paid $2 for her to play games on the germy table tablet, and she rallied long enough for Dorothy and Jack to spilt a rib basket and a plate of cheese fries while she ate rolls and butter. WINNING.

I was so thrilled to celebrate the end of softball and the end (for a month at least) of baseball for Coop that I would have eaten at a thousand crappy chain restaurants if that’s what they wanted. And! We almost didn’t make softball playoffs at all, let alone every single game of the series.

Dorothy was SO SAD that she was going to miss her first playoff game on Thursday night (for her last water ballet practice of the season, and she had to attend WB to get her costume), but then! We had a thunderstorm! That canceled baseball but not water ballet! So the game got rescheduled for Friday. 

This was actually a mess because Jack had a dive meet and Coop had a baseball tourney game at the very same moment, but we split strategically. I took Dorothy to softball (and went to Portillo’s with her and Harry on the way— Portillo’s is NOT a salad place LOL.)

Ben and Minnie went to Cooper’s game, and Harry went to cheer on Jack at the dive meet.

Moments after all three events began (literal moments— the first batter on Dorothy’s team took a single swing), LIGHTENING. We all sat at our respective locations for the requisite 30 minutes and just when softball, baseball, and dive were about to begin again, MOAR lightening.

Sooooo, Dorothy’s game got rescheduled to 8am Saturday, meaning her team would play a double header if they won. AND OH YEAH— BEN AND THE BOYS ALL HAD CUBS TICKETS, SO I HAD MINNIE ALL DAY. GAAAAAAAH. We went to Dunkin Donuts on the way home to buy donuts for our kids and her team in advance of an early morning and honestly figured the morning game would be her last one.

BUT THEN THE BIRDS WON!!

Speaking of birds!! We went home between games (and to a grocery store to buy treats for her team because maybe sugar in the dugout was their secret weapon?) and discovered a REAL ACUTAL BIRD IN OUR VENTS. I could hear it chirping right above the exhaust fan in the girls’ bathroom. SO TERRIBLE YOU GUYS.

Ben and the boys were indisposed, so I decided to ignore it and watch the other Birds likely get creamed by the 1-seed they had to face in their semifinal game.

(I also taped a piece of paper over the fan grate just in case the bird like squished itself though because I could not even imagine the horror of coming home to a bird flying around my house).

The softball Birds? WON THEIR GAME to advance to the league championship game on Sunday!

We celebrated with some POOL

Ben and the boys got home and went straight to work on the vent. A few weeks ago, a random dad picking up his kid at school knocked on our door and told us a bird was going in and out of the vent on the side of the house, lifting the flap to get in and everything. We ignored him. And then the bird built such a giant freaking nest in there that he got stuck and tried to come into our bathroom. YIKES.

They ended up cutting down some bushes to they could wedge a ladder on top of the rocks on the side of our house, take the vent cover off, remove the nest, and leave the vent uncovered to encourage the bird to leave. Which he did. PHEW!

Minnie helped.

Ben, Cooper, and Minnie left bright and early Sunday morning, right after he and I menu planned and did some online grocery shopping, for Cooper’s tournament team’s semifinal game in a far flung suburb.

I dropped Dorothy at water ballet dress rehearsal

Thirty minutes late. Oops.

After rehearsal, Jack and I dropped her off at batting practice, grabbed Starbucks for ourselves and Dorothy and dugout candy for her team, and settled in to watch the championship minor league softball game. Because it was the league championship, the teams played the whole 6 innings without a time limit (usually at 1 hour 45 minutes, no new inning can begin). IT WAS A 3-HOUR game. Ben and Minnie joined as around noon, and Ben left Minnie with me (thanks a lot, partner) and went to watch Coop’s team play for their tourney title.

Dorothy’s team ended up league runners-up, losing 11-14 in an awesome final game. Coop’s team also took second-place, and we all met up at home for a quick dinner before water ballet. (after I picked up the groceries, natch).

Water ballet is such a weird but charming part of Madison pool culture. 

WHAT A WHIRLWIND, HUH?