Baseball and Apples

This past weekend was our annual trip to the Cardinals vs. Cubs game in St. Louis. We usually only go to one a year as a family - and Saturday's game was it. As the Cubs had one on Friday night I had high hopes that we'd see another W.

Here is the 50% of the Schmidt family cheering for the Cubs.



Megan really does love those ballpark hot dogs! She ate hers - AND Abby's. Abby decided to only eat the bun, then beg for cotton candy for the following 5 innings. The Megan perk of the day **We are potty training, Megan said she had to go. So we went up to the Cardinals Club and one bathroom had 4 people standing outside in line so we went to the next and went to get in line and Megan just walks in and says loudly "I have to go potty", all the nice ladies let us cut in front of them :). Thankfully Megan went potty too.**



An attempt at a family photo. The seats are shaded because of the deck above us (which is great for the hot days) but not so great for lighting. We wanted the stadium in the background too...not so much.


After the game we had a surprise planned for the girls to go to an orchard I read about that has some good types of apples I want to use for making applesauce. I highly recommend Thierbach Orchards' to anyone in the Columbia to St. Louis area - it is well worth the drive. The pictures will speak for themselves and the apples were the best I have tasted - and we eat a lot of apples.

There was a tall slide...

Some apples were really tall - actually a lot were already picked so we had to hunt for some of the Jonagolds that I really wanted for making a pie.


And the other 50% of the Schmidt family cheering for the Cards - (I love how blogger puts these in whatever order they choose to). We did get a lot of comments on our "blended" family. Especially when Tim was holding Abby's hand to walk and I had Megan. They couldn't believe he let his kid wear Cubs - then saw me and it made sense. Megan had lots of comments on her adorable cheerleader outfit.



Some apples were lower - these are Mutsu apples and are delicious! We used them in a pie I made (best one ever!) and will use for applesauce next weekend. So sweet and juicy!



Posing has never been a problem for these clowns.

There were bounce houses with slides as well - had to eventually tear the girls out of this one as it was time to go.

One more family photo of our day of fun. Tim loves it when I make him do this.


One last photo of Abby picking (thanks blogger - it was supposed to be up higher).

We will definitely be back to Thierbach since we'll need more apples to eat. They have a great deal on "seconds" - apples that have fallen from the tree if you are making things with apples it was a case for $15 - I love these people! We also bought some apple butter and cherry salsa and I know they will be great. Their apple cider was good too.

Tailgating and a Baptism

Just what you think would go hand in hand - tailgating and a baptism.....but that was our agenda for the weekend. Saturday we headed out to Lot X for some BBQ and good times. It was spitting rain most of the day but thankfully our tailgating group had 3 tents so we stayed dry. The kids still ran around like crazy and after 3 hours were begging for naps so the mom/kids combo headed back home before the game. (note to self....get babysitter next time).



Here is Abby with Truman - that is as close as she will ever get to Truman the Tiger. Abby and Megan still fear Truman and run away crying if he gets close.


Don't worry.....she wasn't driving.

Here is Abby with her cousin Lance who was baptized on Sunday. It was an early morning but we made it on time and were back in Columbia by 6 that evening. If it weren't for kids I bet Tim and I could have gone to sleep then.


And of course a self photo of my nephew Theo and me. He doesn't look as happy to be in the photo though.

Then the cutest photo of them all. Abby finally got a cheerleader outfit since she had outgrown her old one (which Megan is wearing). Finding a size 6 (so she can wear it next year) is impossible. I went to an ungodly amount of stores (and I hate shopping/the mall) and ended up having to go to the team store downtown in the end. But the happiness when she opened the bag was worth it all. Funny what we'll do for our kids.

A couple new "Firsts"

This weekend we had a couple "Firsts" that we attended.

One of the first activities was Claire's 1st birthday party on Sunday afternoon.


A happy baby now since she has some food.


Abby, Megan, and Cora (Claire's big sister) eating cake and ice cream. By some miracle there were no spills!

Abby's first was to go dove hunting with Tim on Saturday. She was very excited to go and was dressed in her camo 3 hours in advance. You can see the 1 small dove sitting next to her that they shot. She gave an interesting story of Tim "getting the meat out" before they could go home. It was the first time she heard a shot gun as well. She also had a good story about picking the "red things up" (shot gun shells - not sure how many shots were fired for the 1 bird). I'm not sure she'll want to go again, she is more excited for deer hunting. To keep things even; Tim took Megan fishing on Sunday evening.


Just one last picture of Claire-bear before presents/cakes.

We had in general a pretty relaxing weekend. The weather was nice, the football was crappy, and the family time was fun.

Football Season is Here!

September is here and with it football season!!! Friday night lights and Saturday tailgates are now in full swing. I do love football season. Mizzou played Miami of Ohio and Iowa played Tennessee Tech - both at home and both at 11 AM. So we taped Iowa and went to the Mizzou game. Tailgating started at 8 AM when the parking lots opened up.


Our cheerleaders for the day. The Pollard's came in town for the game - and of course Abby was upset she didn't have a cheerleader outfit. But she sported the Hawkeye gear with me.


Here we are at the game. It. Was. Hot!. is about all I can say about that. People were dropping like flies and leaving after the first quarter. The girls lasted until half time and Megan probably would have gone back in if Tim would have taken her - however the Moms (Suellen and I) got to take back the girls to the house and AC! I did get a couple comments concerning my Hawkeye wear and a reminder of a certain Insight Bowl game. All I could do was smile :).....


We ended Saturday night with Shakespears and Sparky's - it doesn't get much better than that.

We actually stayed home the rest of the weekend and worked on much needed projects that have been avoiding us with the summer/boating season.

Monday Tim worked so the girls and I went and saw The Smurfs. It was smurftastic!

Just for Laughs

I know I am by far a perfect parent, who really is anyway. We all just try to get by the best we can with as few time outs and melt downs as possible.

I had some quality time with the girls the last couple of days as the hubs was out of town. Apparently there are some Twinkle Toe shoes that are Mcd's kid toys currently - so we HAD to go get them so the girls could put them on their backpacks. Megan has not been eating her chicken nuggets lately (I know it's a shocker to most of you that have seen this kid eat). So Abby and I had finished our dinners and Megs could not have her toy until everything was gone. I continued the multitasking that is a mother's perk (aka laundry). Abby and I had a conversation that went like this:

Me: Abby, can you please tell Megan to finish her chicken mcnuggets so she can have her toy?
Abby: Sure (skips down the hall)
1 minute later....
Abby: EAT YOUR NUGGETS!!!!
Megan starts to cry......however all but 1/2 a nugget were eaten. Possibly out of fear or the Abby pep talk.


Later that night:
Abby: Mom - you are a good mom.
Me: Thank you Abby, I love you too.
Abby: But only with 2 kids.

And that is how we ended the night. Apparently I have my hands full with all that I can handle.

Chicago Trip

This past weekend I took a vacation day and made the lengthy drive to Chicago for my friend Jessie's bachelorette weekend. The reason I drove was to pick up my friend Leann in St. Louis who had flown in from Canada. Then also to carpool with Wendy and Gayle. With traffic and construction we managed to make it from St. Louis to Chicago on Friday in 6 hours, which overall isn't that bad. Plus having 4 ladies in the truck made the time go by quickly with good conversation.


Here is our bacholorette Jessie with Allison - who was also attending her first bachelorette party. She spent the day with my brother Tony and his wife Colleen and had a great time too!


The bachelorette on the prowl! We did take the bear claw with us during the day. I was one of the few trusted Cub fans to keep an eye on it around all of the Cardinals fans.



We've finally made it to Wrigley Field - it was good to see it again!


Jessie with The Bull. There was this whole running of the bull bar crawl thing going on. You can see random "runners" in the background, the Medic, and there were also Flaminco dancers and matadors. Then random Roller Derby girls - Bernie's was a happening place to be!


Here is our GBS photo from the day. This group of girls have been friends since 1995 when we were all at UMR and we still remain close friends and get together a couple of times a year, even with the distance we all live apart. These ladies are the best!

Couldn't help but put a photo in of the newest Papke animal. This is Finn - and he is ADORABLE! Tony and Colleen rescued him from a shelter in IN. He is so mild mannered and lovable! One of the perks of having the bachelorette party in Chicago was that I got to visit with them on Friday and Saturday. This dog is such a conversational piece. Everywhere they walk him he gets mauled by people who want to pet him. He's going to be quite the social butterfly. He was also wonderful with Allison which added to the great time she had with them during the festivities. He reminds me a lot of our dog Buddy, but that is a good thing to see that in Finn.

Just a photo of Jessie opening some girlie presents at the brunch at Meagan's house.

It was a great weekend of friends and family, and a whole lot of walking! We'd all be healthier people if we lived in Chicago and had good public transportation to utilize. That's my theory at least. We hit the road by 7:30 on Sunday and I was back in Columbia by 3 pm. Conveniently Tim and the girls did not get back home until about 7:45 and I got a very nice (and needed) nap in.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school again for Abby. She is now a 4 year old at the T-Bird Preschool in Auxvasse. They have both 3 and 4 year olds, so this year she is one of the older kids. We of course got new outfits for the first day, Megan picked out a dress too - and her disappointment that she was not going to preschool would have made you cry/laugh depending on how your morning was going.


Here we are all ready for our pink pancake breakfast.


Abby at the preschool room ready to go in. As you can see Megan had to come as well. We ended up walking from our babysitters to try to make things easier on Megs. Abby had no problems leaving us. Megan needed some extra hugs from Abby as I think she was sad to see her best friend leave her - even if it is only for 3 hours. So Megan and I walked back to Taunia's and Taunia got her mind off of things with talks of food - that's our Meggers.


Also big news is that Megan is in the process of potty training! It seems to be going well - here she is posing with her big girl panties on. She is doing very well so we'll see how soon we will be diaper free. When there is a post with us having a new fish you'll know.

Couldn't resist the potty photo - we put one in the living room so she can sit and watch TV while she tries to potty. It's already been removed though as she is all about the big potty and just uses the little one for a step.

Another morning photo on the first day of school - not going to quite make it there on the 4-wheeler but still some morning fun.