USTA Tennis

Millie was very excited to play in her first USTA tournament at Floyd Central the past weekend. The youngest category they offer is 10 and under (she is 6) so that is what she had to play in. Her first opponent was a 9 year old from Jasper. She has been taking daily private lessons for over a year and she was darn good. Millie played very hard though and although each game was close, her opponent won every game for an 8-0 victory in the end. That put Millie in the consolation bracket. The problem was I didn't think we would ever get to play it. We have not had significant rain in our area for about 8 weeks and this will go on record as the driest summer in over 50 years. I'm so glad this outdoor tournament could end that drought and finally bring the much needed rain to our area. Millie finally got to play the next day after about 8 trips back and forth to FC thinking each time we would get to play. This opponent was also from Jasper and was 9 years old. Millie and E. were very evenly matched and it was a great set to watch. Millie finally won 8-6 for the victory in the finals. I was so proud of her and she had the biggest grin on her face I had ever seen. It was much better than the tears she had the day before when she was not winning. I'm so glad she won that second game just for her confidence. I was worried that if she got shut out twice, she would not want to play any more. She was so happy with her win and she talked non-stop about how good she was at 6 years old and if she can beat a 9 year old and she was only 6 that in 3 more years she would dominate these tournaments. That's my girl!

Coach Miller, the FC Tennis, coach was very impressed. I think he's ready to draft her already for the team. He said they have never had a 6 year old even compete in this tournament before and so she now holds the record for the youngest player to compete and win. He said that deserves a trophy and he would get her one and give it to her the next time he sees her.

She was invited to play in their junior league on Sundays at FC so I'm looking forward to seeing how much she improves. I just hope she continues to have fun and not take it too seriously. Me too for that matter...

Go Rockin' Hoppers

I know I am way behind on blogging but I didn't realize I had not blogged anything about Millie's softball season yet. I'll try to sum is all up now.

She was drafted to the Green Team but that name wouldn't do so somehow the girls voted and their name became the Rockin' Hoppers. So there you go. The coaches knew many of these girls from the previous season but considering we move all the time, Millie has to keep establishing her athletic and intellectual abilities in every new town. Even though she was one of the youngest on the team (we may have fibbed about her age so that she didn't have to play on the t-ball league) the coaches noticed right away that she was a strong and consistent catcher, thrower and batter. They placed her at Pitcher's Helper in the outfield and she led off the batting as the first batter. For those of you who may not be familiar with the 8U softball league, it is coach pitch but there is still a player who plays that position to field the ball and stop the play. So Pitcher's Helper along with First Base are the 2 most critical positions on the team. Although she has the skills necessary for this position, she didn't know the game well enough to think fast and know how to play the position. But she quickly caught on after the first 2 games and after losing the first 2 games, they came out with a fantastic season and won the rest of the regular season games. They went into the playoffs as the third seed. They easily won the first 2 games of the tournament but lost the third which sent them to the losers bracket because it was a double elimination tournament. It was a pretty tough team that beat them and the number 1 seed. We were pretty sure that we would beat the team in the final game of the losers bracket to get back in the final championship game but but a fluke, they beat us. They played well and our girls had several unusual mistakes so we didn't make it to the final game.

I was very proud of Millie though and how well she did at her first season of softball. She caught 3 or 4 pop flies and made a double play all by herself in one game by catching the pop fly and then tagging a base runner out. It was very exciting! I think she was most excited about games where she had people other than me come and watch her. She made it a point to tell me about halfway through the season that she never lost a game where she had someone special watching her. Throughout the season my mom, sister and nephew came, Brian and Hannah, Pat and Amy as well as her teacher and her 2 best friends that lived next door to us

She had a great season, fantastic coaches and a great support group that cheered her on along the way. Thanks to everyone who boosted her spirits and kept her excited about the game.

4H Tractor Pull

Who needs a motor when you have Meunier Power?? The pedal tractor pull was last night at the county fair and our kids had a great showing.

Reed's weight class was up first. There were about 8 in his group. Only 3 of them made it across the finish. Reed was one of them. You could tell it was super heavy by the look on his face but he didn't give up when it got hard, I was so proud! The two other giants that also qualified (I wanted to demand a weight check) ended up beating him in the final round when they added more weight.

Millie's group was up next and her and two super human sized boys made it through to the 3rd round of finals. She was so close to making it to the finish but the weight was so heavy the wheels on the trailer stopped turning and she was just dragging metal across the concrete and it locked up about 2 feet from the finish line. She did great though and I was proud of her effort!

Jacob's group was up last and it turns out he was the only one. He made it about 10 feet with all the weight in his trailer and we were all excited when he got his trophy.

Happy Boy

Reed has been working hard on learning his letter sounds. He has known most of them for awhile now but was having trouble with Y, W, U and G. He was getting discouraged and didn't want to practice any more. So I decided he needed motivation. I picked up a little race car at the store and told him when he learned all his letter sounds, he could have it. Well, that's all it took and today he finally made it through all the letters without a mistake. He was so happy and so was I. Now we can move on to sight words. This may take a bigger motivator but that's ok with me. I found a remote control New Holland tractor that should have him reading by next week.