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