Big Sister, Little Sister

High school softball is in full swing.  We always knew our daughter would want to play and we definitely encouraged it.  She is such an athlete at heart.  I'm not quite sure where exactly she gets that from.  I'm not exactly a couch potato, but I'm certainly not a gun-ho, train 3-4 hours at a time kind of person.

I guess that's another trait she gets from her daddy.

She started playing with the high school team about a month before school started.  They have what they call the "summer season".  It consisted of a couple practices a week and a couple tournaments.

It certainly didn't prepare us for what was to come.

First day of school, practice for about 3.5 hours.  The same was true for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th day of school.  They had their first game that Friday.  Parents met the kids at school and helped transport the girls to the park where they were to play.

Believe me, that was just the tip of the iceberg.  We have done something softball related (practice, game, travel 3 hours away, etc) almost everyday or weekend since school started on August 6.  The season is almost halfway over so we are beginning to see a very small light at the end of the tunnel.  Just when we get to be old pro's at this schedule, it'll all come to an end.

High school sports are a completely different world than the little rec league down the street.  

 My daughter loves it.  She loves the early mornings, school starts at 7:20am; she loves the practices after school and she loves staying after and going to the games.  

After the official try-out, she made the Junior Varsity team.  After the first week of practice, she made the Varsity team.  She came home on cloud 9.  She was so excited.  She plays primarily for the JV team, but gets to dress out for the Varsity games.  In her book, that was way better than watching from the bleachers.  She's even gotten to come into a game during the varsity games once or twice.  

One of the things they do is have big sisters and little sisters.  I love the idea of this.  I think it builds a unity between the incoming freshman and the older girls (juniors and seniors).  My daughter's big sister is a senior and she's the sweetest girl.  All the big sisters got their little sisters a gift for their first game and the same of the little sisters.  

Tonight is senior night and so we I have been on the hunt for a gift for her big sister.

The last gift consisted of candy and a Powerade.

I wanted to do a little more than that this time.

This is what I came up with:

 

I started out with all my supplies

 

 I looked for one of those buckets with the chalkboard piece on the front.  I couldn't find one so I just bought the plain bucket and the chalkboard sticky paper so I could add it.

I started by just simply drawing a shape in Microsoft Word

I printed the shape out and cut it out.  I then made sure the shape would fit on the bucket.

 

After that I traced the shape onto the back of the chalkboard paper.

 

I then stuck it onto the bucket and made sure it was down really good.

 

I then got some tissue paper and started putting the gifts inside.  Everything fit perfectly.

I put the "A" charm on one side and on the other side is a zipper pull that she can take off and use on one of her jackets if she chooses.

 

I love the way it turned out and I hope she likes it too!

Have your kids gotten into high school sports?  Do they have big sister/little sister programs?  How about boys, do they get into getting each other gifts or is that just the girls?