Abbi's Tournament Last Weekend

 

Abbi's Club Team competed in their 2nd 18U tournament Memorial Day Weekend.  They had pool play on Sat and Sunday and the top 2 teams from each pool came back to compete on Monday.  The Pirettes won their first game Monday against Oklahoma Shootout, but they lost their next game 2-1.  Abbi pitched the first game, and all but one inning of the 2nd game.  The 2 runs were scored in the 1st inning, before Abbi came in.  I'm sure the coach hoped to give her a couple innings of rest as she had pitched a lot on Sat and Sun, but she was feeling good. Oh well.... she needed to go home and write an essay anyway.....They tied for 5th with about 4-5 other teams out of 40 teams....some of which had 1st year college players.

Hannah's Recital

Hannah's Private Lesson Teacher had a recital for her students last Saturday at the First Presbyterian Church in downtown Dallas.  Hannah played Sonata (for Viola) , Movement I, the solo she played for UIL competition and did a great job.  The composer of the piece, Mary Alice Rich, was in attendance and so was the person to whom it was dedicated.  

 

Guess it's about time I posted....

...since it's been 4 months and the first sememester of school is almost over....plus I've rec'd a gentle nudge from my avid blogger friend, Sheri.

Abbi and Hannah are busy studying for semester exams which are next week. This was the first year our school had Christmas break before exams, so we will see how much they forgot!

Here's a brief summary of the girls' activities since school started:

Hannah: 8th grade cheerleader, orchestra (viola), working on Science Fair project on DNA proteins, being a homebody with Mom.

Abbi: Softball with Texas Pirettes and Plano Sr. High, Student Council and FCA. Sweet 16 birthday and hanging out with friends if she ever gets free time.

The Plano Wildcats placed 2nd in the 1st Pre-season tournament in Round Rock last weekend. The 2008 season starts in Feb!

School Days

School started this past Monday for Abbi (10th) and Hannah (8th)...Here's a picture of Hannah with her viola, before she goes to the bus stop....didn't get a good picture of Abbi because I had to leave for work....She wouldn't want me to post the picture her dad took.

Both girls were happy to go back and seem to be enjoying. Hannah has 3 honors classes and made the Chamber Orchestra, but had 7th grade lunch (at 1:15) until they came and got her out of class yesterday and rearranged her whole schedule. She didn't seem to mind since she ended up with 8th grade lunch. She actually starts her new schedule today, so we will see.

Abbi has honors Eng and Chemistry and I can't remember about Spanish. She has Geometry and Intro to Medical Science, History and Softball Conditioning. She always comes home with funny stories about her classmates and teachers. She has lunch with a lot of her old friends and makes new friends easily so she loves school even though she ususally has a ton of homework.....more to come...when I get around to it:)

More STL Sites - City Museum

Another fun place was City Museum. Here's Randy with Abbi and Hannah climbing thru one of their contraptions and on top of the airplane that is hanging outside the 4th or 5th story. It's hard to describe this place, but it was an artsy maze of tunnels and caves featuring various materials and junk. It was a former shoe factory that was purchased and renovated by a group of artists. Check it out at www.citymuseum.org

This was a hollowed out tree trunk that you could climb thru.

St. Louis Pix

Ted Drewes Frozen Custard was the first stop for the Frakes Family in St. Louis; needless to say Randy was driving :).

Mary Ann took us to Crown Candy the same night we arrived. We all got strawberry and cherry lemonades which were very delicous! The candy was good too!

The next day we went to the zoo. The penguin & puffin exhibit was our favorite partly because it was 45 degrees instead of 95 like it was outside!

The only negative was the smell! Hannah and Abbi actually got to touch the penguins until one of the zoo employees got onto them. Oops! We didn't see the sign outside.

Enough fun for now....will post more later!

St. Louis - Where We Were

We visited friends in St. Louis this past week where Randy & I lived for a year and a half starting 20 years ago this month! Abbi & Hannah had never been there before, so we did all the touristy things....ted drewes, zoo, ted drewes, arch, ted drewes, union station, ted drewes, crown candy, ted drewes, gus's pretzels, ted drewes (not kidding we went there almost every day), Cunetto's Italian, finally sick of ted drewes. We also went to a cool place called City Museum...pictures to come.