Meet Keri

I told Keri I would put a picture of her on the blog. Let's see the responses on the blog to see if it merits any more postings. I was thinking of many faces of Keri theme. I could photoshop the picture and see what I can come up with. Check back later.

College Colors Day

The annual College Colors Day was Friday and the Jesse Hall employees had a great time. This is great opportunity to show school spirit and kick off the college football season. Everyone at Mizzou is very excited about the upcoming season. This year's celebration was much like last year's. Good food and games marked the festivities and Kristen won the football throw again. Maybe her prize was a Mizzou hat. :)

Explosion Win Again

Abbie's team won again. They played a much closer game and won 5-3. Abbie did not get a hit in her one at bat but she did swing well. She played second, right field, and left field. They celebrated with a dog pile on a birthday girl after the game.

Spider Monkeys are Coming!!

The schedule for adult fall softball has been released and the Spider Monkeys are again playing on Wednesday nights in the Coed D league. I will be playing on the team this fall and the girls will be in full attendance.

Here is a link to the fall ball schedule the Spider Monkeys are team 5. Unfortunately I will not be able to play in the first game so I will call on my replacement, Matt to fill my shoes and start the season right.

Butterflies and Bats

Abbriel's softball team played Tuesday night and won their first game. Abbie's team is the red team they called themselves the Explosion this week, but I have a feeling that may change from week to week. It is a recreational league after all. What fun would it be to have the same name every time you played. They play again Thursday at 5:45 pm on field 1. There are links to the full schedule in a previous post.

Abbie drove in a run in the first during this high scoring, one sided affair. The game was essentially over in the second inning. Abbie started at second base for the first inning and moved to right field for the remaining innings. If you want more detail about the game you will have to call Abbie and talk to her.

The girls on this team are pretty good players, but what really impresses me is their lighthearted and fun loving spirits (hint, hint Spider Monkeys). They have nicknames for each other. Abbie's nickname is butterfly.

Abbriel and Fall Ball

I have spoken with Abbriel's fall softball coach Coach Rob and she will be playing this fall on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Daniel Boone Little League (DBLL) Fields at the corner of Chapel Hill Rd. and Scott Blvd. Attached in the title link is the schedule for the games in an excel file and here is a link to the pdf on the DBLL website. Abbriel's team is team 4.

Any and all who are interested in attending the games are welcome and she will appreciate your support. There are many girls on this team that have more experience than Abbriel and she expects to learn a lot from all of them.

Hey Somebody Parked Their Balloon in My Backyard

Not often do I get to see a hot air balloon this close. It landed across the street in the church yard in which Abbriel and I often play catch. All of the neighborhood kids gathered around and watched the specticle and I took a few photos for the girls who were away at their mother's.

Abbriel's First Day of 5th Grade

Here is Abbriel's installment of video blogging her first day of school. If you haven't noticed she scratches her nose when she is nervous. She also had a tough time getting her comments under a minute.

Adrienne's First Day of Kindergarten

This is a video of Adrienne talking about her first day of kindergarten. She was a little grumpy about me asking about the paper. Otherwise she had a great first day.

The Power of the Library Card

Abbriel has been begging me for a week to take her to get a library card so that she can check out a book. I have told her no on many occasions because she does not read the books she has. But to prove her worthiness she finished the book she was on and I relented and picked up some books for the girls. Here is Abbriel reading a dinosaur book to Adrienne. The power of the library card can bring together even bickering siblings.

Update: Abbriel has had the library book for almost a week and she has not even read 50 pages of the book.

Getting Ready for School

I apologize for the blurry pictures. I took these with my cellphone and it did not produce the quality our loyal readers deserve.

The girls and I were busy getting ready for school this week while I was on vacation. I took them to the eye doctor and the dentist. The dentist office was a blast. The new dentist really had the girls going. He let them use the vacuum by themselves and Adrienne was really surprised by the powerful little sucker! They were both excellent and I was very proud of them.

I met Adrienne's teacher Ms. Sherbo earlier in the morning and we had meet the teacher night that evening and we meet Abbriel's teacher.

Adrienne and Dad

So Abbriel went to her friend's house for the last sleep over before school started. Adrienne was a bit jealous and wanted to call her friend Madison. I tried and tried for hours to accomplish that task and finally success. The babe was very excited to talk to her friend and I could tell from across the room that the friend was equally excited to talk to Adrienne. Those girls can scream now I just have to teach them not to scream on the phone.

We stayed home and watched movies and ate popcorn. Adrienne chose to watch some B movie called Karate Dog which had a surprisingly star studded cast. The highlight of the movie in my eyes was watching the dog sing Chantilly Lace at the end of the movie.

Touch Your Nose

So I was tired of the girls fighting amongst each other the other day and I put them up to a challenge. I told them I would give extra ice cream to the girl that could keep her index fingers on her nose the longest. (That way they would not have their hands on each other.)



I was surprised by how long they could keep it up. They opened the door to the car and put their seat belts on without moving their fingers from the tops of their noses. It was hilarious to watch them try to get out of their seat belts. They both received extra ice cream.

Spider Monkeys Win

The final summer game for the Spider Monkeys ended in a victory. The Smith Family could not attend the game as it was a 9 o'clock game and far too late for the girls. I requested Melissa call me after the game and tell me how it went.

They played the Diamond Devils the league champion. The same team that beat them 19-2 to begin the season and beat them 9-2 in mid season. Wednesday's 11-9 victory over the Devils is a testament to the improvement the team has made over the summer.

John's pitching is much improved as he did not walk a batter in the last two games. The defense was also much improved as fewer errors was the secret to the team's final win.

Congrats on the wonderful season Spider Monkey's it has been a pleasure watching you all summer.

Those Who Live By the Sword

The Spider Monkeys finally finished on the wrong end of a one run game. They had a great streak going winning many of their recent games by one run, but tonight their luck ran out.

They played a pretty good Grangers team that battled them all night long. The Spider Monkeys did not begin the game in typical fashion. They scored first in the top of the first and then shut out the Grangers in the bottom of the first. The two teams kept it pretty even throughout and the game was an example of good pitching as I don't recall a single walk being issued by either side.

The fielding was not great by either side and costly errors allowed runs for both teams. Clutch hitting was the key as the Grangers scored on home run (essentially a fielding error helped out by a lot of speed). It was a very good game with great plays on both sides but only one team can win and tonight it was not the Spider Monkeys.

Another Busy Day

The girls went Bonkers with their babysitter today. They were excited about it this morning and had a blast. They could not stop talking about during the car ride home.

Upon returning home I was surprised to find Abbie cleaning her room and my oh my what a good job she did. She cleaned and rearranged the closet and the cleaned and rearranged the room. I don't know what got into her but I did not once ask her to do it. She did it entirely on her own, and she did a great job.

As a treat for doing so well in cleaning her room I took Abbie and Adrienne to McDonald's for dinner. For some reason they see it as a treat. Afterwards we went to the softball game. After the game we had some ice cream and then I put the girls to bed.

The Smith Family sends out a special prayer tonight for the Whitt Family. Know that our thoughts and hearts are with you tonight.

Slide Show

This post has only been up a few hours and the feedback has been tremendous. I thank you all for sharing in our memories and thanks for visiting!