Halloween

Here are the kids for Halloween. Drew was an evil sorcerer, while Jordan was Sharpay from the "High School Musical" movies. Like always, they got more candy then they could ever eat.

Dance

Jordan is taking Dance at church this year. Here is her first performance.

First Day of School

The first day of school is here, and the kids were excited! On Saturday, Jordan told me she wished it was Sunday, because then she could go to school the next day. It was a very smooth morning, and they were ready to go well in advance of the school bus' arrival. Hopefully every day will go as smoothly!

Scout Camp

Drew and I went to Scout Camp last weekend. We arrived at 1:00 Thursday, and left at 5:00 Saturday. Drew had a lot of fun. He got two bullseyes in bb guns, and one in archery. He especially liked the pool time, and learned a new game - Mountain Ball.

The weather was a constant source of conversation. The heat index was over 100 each day, and prompted the camp to implement some heat advisory rules which meant Drew didn't have to wear his uniform at all during the camp. The combination of the heat, humidity, and constant walking everywhere caused one of the dads to remark that they ought to market the camp as a weight loss program! I'm pretty sure that Drew and I each drank over a gallon of water each day.

We didn't get much sleep Thursday night. The group sharing our campsite had some raccoon issues (a piece of advice - don't keep food in your tent or you will get a midnight visitor. And also apparently raccoons can open coolers!), and then a thunderstorm kept us on our toes later in the night. We all slept much better Friday night.

Overall Drew enjoyed it. He already mentioned that he wants to go back next year.

Dog Days of Summer

The summer is continuing to fly by and we've been busy. Apparently, too busy to update the blog. Today, however, is a relatively quiet day, as you can see from the picture.

This week we're dog-sitting Tanner. The kids are really excited about having him here. Drew and Tanner are enjoying a little Harry Potter in the picture above.

We had our end-of-the-year softball party yesterday (even though we might play a rescheduled game on Thursday). What a fun group of girls! Jordan really enjoyed playing and already has asked to play next year.

Drew is still taking tennis lessons, and really enjoys that as well. It's fun to watch him learn a completely new sport. They both are taking swim lessons once a week too. By the end of the summer we'll have two little fish in the house! Already they're asking to go to the pool every day.

Speaking of the pool, Drew & Jordan spent last week at Grandma & Grandpa's and had a great time. Between swimming and basically being spoiled rotten, it was the perfect vacation for them! And Bill & I were able to go to the Royals game Saturday night with other adults -- what a treat! To top it off, we saw the Royals win with a walk-off home run!

Softball

Jordan had her 1st softball game last Saturday. The league is VERY laid-back, and since it was the 1st game it took a little bit to get the machine pitching the balls correctly, but the kids didn't know the difference and had a good time.

Hitting was a little difficult. Like everyone else, Jordan is swinging the bat after the ball has already passed her by, but that is to be expected. She did a good job on defense though. When the ball came her way she chased after and grabbed it. She really enjoyed herself. Grandpa Simms was here to watch, which made it even more extra special.

Sunday was her 2nd game. Everything went smoother, and Jordan once again chased down anything that came her way. It is obvious that she is having fun.

Jordan's Day on the Farm

Jordan, Bill & I went to Shatto Dairy today for a field trip. She was very excited, especially to have Daddy along. Between that and her missing tooth ...

Anyway, the trip was a lot of fun. Shatto Dairy is a local family dairy that supplies milk to area grocery stores, etc. The milk is great, and it comes in glass bottles, which are reused again and again (less plastic in landfills!). We sampled root beer milk, strawberry milk, banana milk ... of course, the majority of the kids said the chocolate was their favorite! Jordan voted for "all of them," which means a great future in politics for her. Her favorite part of the field trip was the hay ride. It was funny to watch the reactions of these kids to the farm. Some of the girls even covered their noses with their shirts when we went into the milking barn. We ended the day with a picnic lunch.

Lost Tooth

Jordan lost her 1st tooth Sunday. She is very excited, as you can imagine. Inflation being what it is, the tooth fairy left her $2 last night.

Weblos Woods

Drew and I went to Weblos Woods camp this weekend. The camp is for scouts who are in the transition years between cub scouts and boy scouts. Weblos (stands for We Be Loyal Scouts) is a two year program, and Drew will be "crossing over" into Weblos in May. So, this was his first campout!

We arrived on Saturday morning, and Drew set up our tent with the help of a boy scout. (Weblos start learning how to camp for themselves with little parental involvement. This is because as Boy Scouts they will expected to completely fend for themselves, with parents there just for safety reasons.) The picture shows Drew in front of our tent after he completed setting it up.

Then, after lunch and the opening ceremony Drew participated in 3 activities - Forestry, Geology, and Sportsmanship. Foresty consisted of learning about the different trees in Missouri, Geology was a lesson about minerals and rocks, and sportsmanship was some team games. Then we went back to the campsite where Drew made a "foil dinner" - hamburger, potatoes, and carrots - and we sat around the campfire.

The night was cold, but we were prepared and slept just fine after a busy day. We had a small religious ceremony and the closing ceremony Sunday morning, and were back home. Needless to say, the first thing I did was hit the shower, while Drew went for the food. He had a cinnamon roll and 4 waffles! Hungry Boy,

Poetry Reading

Drew had a poetry reading and "Scientist Hall of Fame" presentation last week. He did a great job: better than I did with the video camera (I'm afraid I missed the first couple of words of his poem: "Cocker Spaniels"). His project devoted to Johannes Kepler was very interesting. Kepler helped people understand the orbits of the planet around the sun. It's amazing what a great job all of his classmates did with their poems and projects. Some poems were funny, some were sad, some were informative: but you could tell that they were heartfelt.

So Drew had a better week than Jordan: she's been a little under the weather with a cough. But today she's better and is looking forward to a friend's birthday party and softball practice.

Softball Practice

Eleven 5-6 year old girls, most of whom have never played softball before, at their 1st practice. A field so muddy that one of the girl's younger brothers got stuck and lost his shoe. Yes, there were some funny moments at Jordan's first practice. But overall, everything went much better than you would think. Jordan has laid claim to the team clown already, which I know doesn't surprise anyone. Jen is one of the coaches, and Drew helped the girls learn the bases and the base paths. Should be a fun year!

Chilly Royals Game

We learned a valuable lesson last Saturday - Don't buy advance tickets to April Royals games, unless you are certain of the weather conditions. We went to "Powder Blue" day on 4/12, with the intent on getting there early enough to get free Billy Butler powder blue jerseys and then enjoy the first family outing of the baseball season.

The game started at 6:10. The gates were supposed to open at 4:10. We reached the stadium parking lot at 4:00 and encountered a nightmare - a huge traffic jam. Apparently everyone had the same plan as we! (Only the first 20,000 fans received free jerseys.) After finally parking in Lot L, the farthest lot from the stadium, we reached the stadium gates at 4:45. It was a madhouse! People everywhere. And apparently there were 20,000 fans who had already entered because no jerseys were left.

Things kind of went downhill from there. It was bitterly cold, with a very strong wind whipping throughout the stadium. Jordan was freezing before the game ever started! By the 5th inning we had enough. Lesson learned - don't count on the free stuff and watch the weather forecast!

On a positive side, we saw the new scoreboard. It is huge! I've posted a picture taken from my phone on opening day. The completed scoreboard will have the familiar crown look, but the team wanted the board operational for opening day this year. Renovation of the stadium won't be done until opening day 2009, but so far so good.

Welcome

Well, Here we go. We are going to attempt to start a blog and post some pictures, so that friends and family can keep up with our lives. Jen is much better at sharing when she talks with her family than I am. So, Mom & Greg, Dad, and Matt may get a lot more out of this than Donnie & Phyllis, and Steph & Brian.

Who knows how often we'll update this - it is a brand new experience. But I'll try to post pictures of the kids and keep it as current as possible.

Bill