World Series Game!

When Boston was getting close to becoming the American League Division Champions, it was hard not to get excited about the idea of the Red Sox meeting up with St. Louis in the World Series.  And since Boston would have home field advantage, the games in St. Louis would be over the weekend.  And since our friend Arnie is the First Base Coach for Boston, the idea of him getting us tickets became a reality when they beat the Tigers for the pennant.  So Nate and I dropped the girls off at his parents' and we headed for the city.  The sea of red we saw as we pulled off the interstate was C-R-A-Z-Y.  We went to Will Call to pick up our tickets and then made our way into the stadium.  Outside we stopped to see what the crowd was forming for.  Entering the stadium was Hall of Famer Frank Robinson and the not so famous Bud Selig.  At least in the opinions of the Mosley's.  When we went in the stadium, Arnie was standing in Left Field.  He soon headed for the dugout area where he started warming up his arm so he could throw batting practice.  Here are a few pictures of him doing that.

 Arnie came out to talk to us about 1/2 hour before game time.  Just after we finished talking they started the pre-game ceremony and the introduction of the Budweiser Clydesdale Horses.  I was standing at the wall as they came around.  It was pretty cool.

 I loved seeing the dog that is in their commercials.  That thing sat there like a statue!

 We went to our seats and found this sitting in the row ahead of us and down a few seats.  A hat of the Green Monster.  The Citgo sign and field lights light up.

 Arnie doing his job at First Base

 Big Papi David Ortiz

 Awesome job singing God Bless America

 Arnie in the dugout

 Arnie looking little next to Ortiz!

 it was a crazy, exciting game!

After the final, controversial out, we left the stadium and went across the street to the hotel to wait for Arnie.  We saw several unhappy Red Sox players come through to go to the elevator.  While sitting in the restaurant with Arnie, we saw Ortiz and his "crew" come in and get sat at a table in the back.  Complete with a policeman standing guard.  It was late so we said goodbye to Arnie and headed back to Greenville.  We look forward to seeing Arnie again in November when he comes to speak at Nate's team fundraiser.  Now he can add World Champion to his title.  The Red Sox beat the Cardinals tonight to win the World Series!

Pumpkin Patch

Our first trip to the Rader Farms pumpkin patch was a freezing cold one!  Shelby's Wednesday night group planned an outing there.  The original date it rained.  The make up date it said 42 degrees on my van when I pulled in the lot after school.  That does not count the 5-10 mph wind that was blowing through the countryside.  I could not feel my fingers and toes by the time I convinced Morgan to pick out our pumpkins and then wait inside for Shelby to finish up.  Morgan messed around while Shelby played with her friends.

Shelby with Kaitlan and Emily

 Morgan loved the school room

 face plant while crossing the spider web

getty-up horsey!

 trying to lasso the pony

 Shelby bouncing on the giant pillow

 Morgan bouncing

 Morgan rolling

 and rolling

 and rolling

 I think the girls had fun but I didn't warm up until I crawled into my heated water bed that night.

Matthiessen State Park

 After studying land forms and creating their own islands, the Oakdale Fourth Graders had a field trip to Matthiessen State Park.  The were able to see some of these land forms for real.  I was a chaperon and let me tell you, I got a work out!!!  Holy climbing stairs and rocks.  Sideways stepping across a bridge because it was flooded.  And the whole time thinking..... how am I going to do this again in two years?!?

My group

Ketsia, Shelby, Jemeriah and La'Niyah

I could barely keep up

as you can see they moved a lot faster than I did

I eventually made it down there!

 entrance to a cave

 looking out the other end of the cave

 steps to climb after making it across the water on stepping stones

 more stepping stones

 there was a little bit of water in the water fall

 they had fun throwing big rocks into this pond

 the top/start of the water fall

A two hour bus ride.  Made our way down to the Lower Dells.  Headed back up to the Upper Dells.  Lunch.  Cause they weren't tired yet, run around some.  Back on bus.  Two hour ride home.  Moved slow but I didn't die.  Success!

Platypus Island

Shelby's first (and I'm hoping last) big project in 4th grade was to create your own island.  They studied land forms and then had to put what they learned into the island.  The main requirement of a list of many was to include at least 10 landforms.  Shelby chose her latest favorite animal the platypus as her island.  It was a lot of work but mostly because we did not have a bunch of uninterrupted time to work. Shelby has a lot of creative ideas on top of being a perfectionist.  She is something.

 She finished up at 11:15pm the night before the project was due.  She was able to smile.  It took a few days to get the house back in order.

She was even more excited when she earned all 60 points for an A+.  I've encouraged Morgan to start thinking about her island that we will be doing in 2 years!! :(  On a positive note, we learned a lot this time around so the next one should be just a little bit easier, right?!?

Normal West Homecoming

Shelby got to walk in the Normal West Homecoming parade as a member of the Oakdale Student council a few weeks ago.  Oakdale had a float and she got to throw (toss - you know parade etiquette) candy.
(Just a little side note on proof reading as I usually quickly pick up those kind of errors when I read.  My last post about the dinosaurs I hit post before going back to fix souvenir that I knew was wrong.  So I did go back and fix that).  OK, back to candy tossing....

 a little school spirit via the hair

 a fun float

 there's my candy tossing girl

 the Oakdale float 

Wizard of Oz

Discovering the Dinosaurs

A few weeks ago we decided to take the girls to Peoria after church for the Discover the Dinosaurs traveling display.  Let's just say it was one of those things that had we never heard about it - no big deal to miss it.  I do think the girls enjoyed it and we just kept telling ourselves that...it's for the kids.  We had fun till we went to the souvenir area and I refused to buy anything.  After I said we paid an arm and 2 legs to get in there, Shelby said, "I thought it was an arm and a leg".  I said that it was but that is how much we paid for what we got - 2 legs!  If anything it was a rare day that we could spend together in the middle of fall baseball.  Here are some pictures.

 leaving their autographs

 Shelby and her fave triceratops

 digging for fossils

 they did have a lot of dinosaur facts on display

 not the best pics but they did ride a mean looking T-Rex

 I took this up close picture of the duck billed dino since it resembled another of Shelby's favorite critters, the platypus