My daughter, Kathleen has been Irish Dancing since she was two and a half years old! At that time, her older sister also danced and as a family our lives revolved around practice, feiseanna, competitions and performances! We loved it, but sometimes, there is little time to squeeze in other interests. When Covid forced the girls to do school online and dance classes online, we looked for ways we could get outside and away from a screen. Since we now had some extra time but nowhere much to go or do for a while, we seized the opportunity as a family to develop some other interests. Really, the truth is, that I finally got a chance to share some of my interests with the girls and they didn’t have anywhere else to be, so they had to join in and participate! Like many other families, we took out old family photos and reminisced and shared stories. I also dug out my old stamp collection and my old baseball card collection, which we never had time to look at together before. I was probably their age when I last looked at this stuff and they were amazed I still had it! The cards had little meaning for them since we’d never watched baseball as a family together. Kathleen was especially surprised to hear I had been a big fan as a child and had gone to many of my hometown games. She couldn’t believe my mom would give me permission to leave school early and take the bus to the ballpark to watch an occasional matinee game with my friends! Her curiosity peaked, and after that we eagerly waited for the brand new stadium to open for the Single A “Fredericksburg Nationals” a farm team of the Washington Nationals. Once the stadium began welcoming visitors to attend the games, Kathleen was hooked! She loved everything about attending the game, from the rousing jingles they played to liven up the crowd, to the hotdogs and cotton candy! It took her a while to understand the rules of the game, but even before she had it straight, she knew all the players and their jersey numbers by heart. I was able to rediscover my love of the game and for the last several years her knowledge and love of the game has continued to grow.This summer, as she trained for Nationals, we opened up our home to a college player from a local team in need of host families and the girls made a forever friend. While Kathleen headed to dance class and workshops, he headed to the gym and to the field and while she was only a rising 4th grader, and he a rising college Junior, she felt like just as much of an athlete with her sport! All summer we’d head straight to the field after her classes so she could catch the end of his games and the team even sent her a video message the morning of her solo competition wishing her good luck! This school year, she decided to join Little League and is keeping so busy continuing with her prelim lessons and still managing to learn how to play the sport she has grown to love. It’s so fun to share my rekindled love of our National Pastime with her, and to see her balance school, dance and ball, which is no easy feat for our family! I was not surprised she decided right away to create a baseball themed dress for the IDM Design a Dress Contest this year! She worked on it bit by bit this summer and often discussed her design with me. As summer drew to an end and I lamented how fast it had gone by, I sat down and on a whim started doodling on an extra template we had printed out for her. Before I knew it, I was designing away myself! We had lots of fun working side by side making our baseball dresses! I decided to incorporate orange and greens because I like how they stand out on stage and along with the white of the jersey incorporate the colors of the Irish flag. I included red for flames, blue for the open sky above the ball field, a traditional claddagh design, celtic knotwork and shamrocks together into a baseball jersey themed dress with a team name, “The Shamrocks” and Kathleen’s lucky number 27 on the back. (It’s her birthday!) I also added a baseball diamond, bats, balls and a belt to give the appearance of a player suited up for a game. It’s time to play ball! Get your peanuts here! And don’t forget to ROOT, ROOT, ROOT for Kathleen!