Softball Season

Waiting for the pitch

We are in the midst of softball season - and it is so fun to watch our favorite team, the Lightning Balls, play! Games are an hour and a half this year and there are a few rule changes to make it a little more difficult than last year.  Her coaches do a great job of preparing them for even tougher requirements next year. All of the girls on the team really come to play every game - they know it is expected every game. This little lady is very consistent at bat and has hit maybe every time except for one at bat and managed to get on base almost every time, too.  She is fast and can often outrun the play being made even when it is close to first base.

Beautiful Ballerina

ARM came home with a chalk art creation from school...this is going to go great in a sparkly silver frame on her bedroom wall.  Yes, her favorite color is still purple. There are a lot of things I love about kid art! It rivals those artists you see at the museum, in my opinion!

'Twas a Windy Night

   Talk about a sad picture! That is the trampoline that we only had since the summer, wrapped around a tree in the backyard after one heck of a windstorm! Had it not been for that tree, which we thought about having removed, this yard toy would have been up against the neighbor's deck, so there is that.
   Why, oh why, didn't we have some sandbags holding that baby down? Argh. Our kids and their friends sure had fun on it during the time we had it and thanks to my friend Linz for giving it to us.  RIP trampoline...we will miss you. Even Brooke, who claimed she'd gladly sacrifice you to play baseball. We know she loved to jump.

The Dolphins and the Dol-fans

Energetic, smiling, and determined, still learning and growing, but having a lot of fun! That describes Brooke and her teammates, the Dolphins.  This is her second year playing with this group of girls and they work really well together - three games to go and no losses yet (this year or last year). Much of this success can be attributed to the great coaches these girls have.  We are truly blessed because they are very patient, know their stuff, and most importantly want the girls to have fun playing.

Two games are coming up this weekend and we cannot wait to cheer the girls on.  Here is a photo from last weekend of Brooke putting up a shot, that did go in!

Snow=Happiness

Angel in the snow

Catching snowflakes on your tongue, shooting downhill on a sled, dressing a newly built snowman, whirling snowballs at your siblings, and of course making snow angels; that is what snow means to a kid!  It is so wonderful that these kids rush to find their boots, snowbibs, hats, and gloves when they see a layer of snow on the ground.

When they start hating the snow...that will be a sad day! A sign of them growing up, losing that childhood wonder.  Until then, it is a joy to bring them lunch in paper bags and cocoa to drink outside in their snowforts and see their ruddy cheeks over cups of cocoa after they stumble in the door.  The last snow day they spent four hours sledding thanks to a perfect day for playing without any wind.

Photo Op with Marlin

Recalling the accomplishments of zoo founder Marlin Perkins

Back in the 1980s, there was a television show called, "Wild Kingdom by Mutual of Omaha," with St. Louis Zoo director Marlin Perkins as the host.  This show was WILDLY popular (pun intended) and one of the first nature shows to take the nation's attention.  I remember tuning in on a regular basis to watch Marlin Perkins track elephants in the African savannah and show off the fangs of deadly snakes he was holding.

Fast forward to March of 2018 - this guy on the left had the assignment all 5th graders in their school have had since the beginning of time: the Famous Missourian! His famous Missourian to research was none other than Marlin Perkins.

This guy did a most excellent job of preparing for his presentation, even reading Marlin's 257 page autobiography - which he highly recommends! We said the next time we visited our beloved zoo we would have to get a picture with old Marlin - and here it is!

A Few Things Built at Grandma's House

 by: Igor

Checking It Off the List

    Look where we ended up over Christmas break! As break was winding down, we found ourselves downtown meeting friends and on the way back thought it would be fun to "check" out a VERY cool place that calls St. Louis home.  The International Chess Hall of Fame & Museum!  Yes, we are posing next to the World's Largest Chess Piece! Up and down the street, chess tables are sitting out on the sidewalks - all available on the frigid day we visited! 
   The museum has more photography exhibits than anything but something that may be the wave of the future for museums - big touch screens that are at least four to five feet tall that scroll endless chess facts and photos for visitors.

We hope to return when the weather warms up so we can sit outside at one of the tables and play a game! Evan and Brooke both know how to play and Abby still needs to learn, so we will work on teaching her in the meantime.

Celebrating at Gram's House

Christmas this year has been a whirlwind with a lot of traveling, but we are having a lot of fun seeing everyone.
Lots of fun things are planned in Kansas City and the kids love every second they get to spend with their cousins!

It is always amazing when we walk in the door and see how much everyone has grown since the last time we have seen them and we know when we give that last hug that it will be too long until we see them again.  But for now, it is one of the biggest Christmas gifts to get to spend time with these precious cousins!

Chef Tim Saves the Day

Ahh, the second grade turkey project!  The idea is for the kids to think up how their turkey would avoid becoming turkey dinner and write their story, decorate the turkey and then these hang in the hall at school before Thanksgiving.

Chef Tim is what Brooke came up with for her story - her turkey dressed up as a chef and ends up ordering pizza for everyone. Ordering pizza would definitely be a whole lot easier for Thanksgiving, but this year we are going to do something out of the ordinary for our meal and make a homemade Chinese dinner - can't wait!!!

Halloween 2018

Pictured: Brush with Death, Scuba Girl, Cereal Killer

These three got about as many compliments on their costumes as they did candy this year - and they got a LOT of candy! That was pretty cool since these were actually cheap and easy costumes to throw together.  The cereal killer enjoyed getting to eat the cereal to prep for Halloween, the scuba diver was excited about the purchase of new workout pants and the scuba gear to use in the future, and the Brush with Death loved the inflatable and can't wait to bring it to the pool!

As they have done in a few years past, they went up to Trunk or Treat at school and saw a lot of friends one night and trick or treated in the neighborhood on Halloween - the weather was great for both nights!

Birthday Girl

Can it be? Our little girl is 11 already? It does not seem possible.  We love this smart and beautiful daughter of ours more than words can say.

School is in Session!

 We are NEVER ready for summer to end! This year meant heading up to school early for Abby and walking the halls to see where all of her classes would be, find her new locker and learn how to use the lock. Middle school brings a lot of changes...she will dress for p.e., have block scheduling, have orchestra every day, and have encore classes that switch every quarter.  She is really looking forward to not having assigned tables in the lunchroom and being able to walk and talk with friends in the hallways between class periods.

Evan will be the big man on campus at grade school. Fifth grade is always a fun year and it seems to go by quickly with all of the different activities they plan for fifth grade.

Brooke has a teacher that is new to the school this year so it will be fun getting to know her.  She loves school and can't wait for math class!

Mother's Day with the Lincolns

This year on Mother's Day, we decided to take a day trip up to Springfield to see the Abraham Lincoln Presidential library and museum.  We recommend the visit to any history buff or fan of Honest Abe and had a fun time seeing the sites.

"I lost my toof!"

Another sign that she just keeps growing! Brooke lost her first tooth.  Yes, many kids have lost half a dozen by the time they are her age, but these kids seem to keep their teeth longer than average children.

This tooth was wiggling around for quite a while and Mom was pretty worried she would end up swallowing it.

And the other thing this photo points out is that she definitely needs to go in for a trim!

Circus Flora Tickets - Yes Please!

 Don't you love winning things? Thanks to the local radio station, we were able to go to Circus Flora for free!  Everyone loved "The Case of the Missing Bellhop," and I was surprised there were not more people there - it was family friendly and very affordable.  I definitely recommend it to anyone!  You can see that Abby was a little frightened that the tightrope walkers were going to fall - she could barely stand it.
 Next summer we plan to go again and are hoping to get some family or friends to go along with us - it is such a great show we want others to experience this show!

Magical Monday

 Feeling the wind in her hair :)

 Sorting real trash for recycling!

 Posing with friends and a very large bunny!

Holding hands at the Ring-around-the-Rosie statue.

Our little girl always has fun playing at the children's museum in town, especially when we have some friends along! The place was packed since some schools are on spring break but luckily the place is big so it is still enjoyable. 

Cool Shades on a Cool Kid

This girl makes shopping more fun.  It is very hard to pass up a rack of sunglasses, even if you do have an Easter dress to find! The good news is that we found an Easter dress for her, one that coordinates beautifully with the one her sister has - our family will be doing a navy color scheme this year! That sort of fell into place, normally we just try to make sure everyone has something nice to wear.  Now getting to church on time will be the next thing to accomplish!

Nothing Says Birthday Like Fried Dough

Mouthfuls of chocolatey birthday doughnuts!

When ARM was little we began a tradition of getting birthday doughnuts.  It was something we did not do often so it was a treat and there was a neat little place we could walk to so that made it a fun thing to do.  We "donut" have the neat place to walk to anymore, but that does not mean these kids do not want to give up getting doughnuts on birthdays - because who doesn't like doughnuts!?!

One of the nearby grocery stores has a little loft where you can eat if you want so we camped out up there for EMM's birthday breakfast. The funny story from this morning was that our debit card transaction did not go through so we had actually walked off without paying for anything without them realizing it until we were gone. Luckily for them, we had told them we were going to have our morning meal upstairs and they knew where to find us so they could actually have us pay for the groceries we bought!

Happy Birthday to our little guy...who is getting too big on us! How we love him!

A Cousin Stopped By

Well look who we have here - Cousin It! Our kids did not know who this famous member of the Addams Family was so we had to enlighten them!  They want to watch the movie on one of our upcoming movie nights, pretty sure they will love it.

Enthusiastically Participating

At school, instead of regular homework, EMM's class has sheets with projects that they can complete and submit to their teacher on their own time.  One thing kids like about "enthusiastic participation" is the variety of activities there are to choose from.  In this picture, EMM is posing with a cabbage as part of some homework at the grocery store - finding a piece of produce that weighs in at exactly two and a half pounds.

Be My Jiggly Valentine

Nothing says love like red jello hearts! These guys definitely love them, that is for sure. It was just us hanging out while dad was on a business trip, but we kept in touch over the phone and sent Dad our love.  We even made him a Valentine's photo scavenger hunt he could do on his trip, but he did not have a lot of time to get it in.

Cute Hair, Don't Care!

These ponytails lasted about 4 minutes...this girl is NOT a fan of hairdos, as her facial expression shows. She definitely looks adorable with ponytails but, sigh...the world will never know!

Derby Day...in January

Here is our race car driver! This year we had a little more involvement in the Pinewood Derby, Dad was in charge of the whole thing! That meant we had the scouts over to our garage on a cold night to work on their cars to get ready for the big race, Dad had to order the trophies and run the computer during the race (hardest part!).  This year our guy did not get in the top ten so he did not go on to the regional competition, but making the car and racing was a fun experience.

Getting Steps In

A little chilly, yes, but it was still a good day to head out on the trail with Dad.  A phrase around our house since April, when Dad won the Fitbit, is "getting steps in" - he shoots for 10,000 steps daily. Of course, these kids have plenty of energy to burn and are great companions if anyone ever needs company getting any steps in, they can help!