Bully Buster...

So, while at Garrett's CHURCH LEAGUE ballgame last night, Braden and his friend Alex got into some trouble with bullies on the adjacent playground.  Specifically, Braden said he accidentally bumped into a boy who had an icee...and dropped it due to the bump...who then told Braden he would kill him for doing that.  Then, he proceeded to round up a friend or two to chase Braden around the playground.  He finally came to tell me and I escorted him back to the bleachers.  He insisted he wasn't scared, but I assured him there was no reason to push it...sit down and wait for the end of the game. 

Then there's the photo above.  Several older boys, probably 10-11 years old, were charging the smaller kids a quarter just to be able to slide down the slide.  Braden said he guessed the password correctly ("banana"), but Alex gave them a quarter to slide.  He came to tell his mom and she told him to go get his money back.  He was timid, so I offered to go with him.  That's Braden in the red T-shirt and Alex beside him in blue.  I just asked the one Alex pointed to if he had their money, but he said he hadn't taken anyone's money...but that he'd gladly give Alex a quarter if he wanted it.  Mmhmm...several kids then rolled their buddy under the bus and said he had, in fact, taken money on the slide.  The kid pulled, like, $2 in quarters out of his pocket and returned Alex's money. 

Just to insure that said bully's big momma didn't come lookin' for me, I finished up with a mini-lecture to the whole group about playing nice with each other on the playground.  At this point, some preteen lookin' girl piped up and said "I told them that, I told them!"  I guess she was supposed to be watching after them or something.  Big momma never did come after me, but I stuck close to the dugout until it was time to go...just in case...