Springfield's Japanese Stroll Garden

Springfield has a great little Japanese stroll garden. We went there with our good friends, the Colemans, on last Sunday. It was hot, but we had a great time and it really reminded us of our time in China a few years ago. Enjoy the pics!

Watoto Choir Video

Here's a video of yesterday's performance at College Heights. If you would like to see more, go to youtube.com and search for Watoto. There are a bunch of videos of the choir there!

Watoto - Who Says Joplin Ain't Got Culture?

Here are some photos from today's performance of the Watoto's Children's Choir at College Heights Christian School here in Joplin. Christy, the girls and AJ got to go to this awesome afternoon performance from these orphaned children from Uganda. We're still looking into this organization, but it looks like this is an awesome organization that is seeking to see real change happen in Uganda and the rest of Africa. Watoto has Children's Villages, Church Plants and so much more going on.
We highly recommend that you check out http://www.watoto.com/ to see what's going on and how you can be a part of what God's doing in this part of Africa. There's even sponsorship opportunities to help change the lives of some of these kids who have been ravaged by war and AIDS.

The end of the blogging storm...

Here are the final shots of the last month or so as they come sprinkling in... Our series of blogs were spurred on by and posted mainly for our main blog supporter, Robin. Hope that anyone else looking in enjoyed the fruits of Robin's naggi..., I mean, labor. ;)

I got the crazy idea that running around town photographing the girls might make for a fun family night... I forgot how quickly the girls get tired of posing and smiling. We made to 2 locations around Joplin before I gave up and took us all to Sonic for a drink. Hope that you enjoy some of the shots I got here... Thanks to Robin for keeping our little blog going. You can check out her out-date blog at wallyjack.blogspot.com (last post May 14! Come on Robin!)

Of Kisses, Smiles, and Baby Raccoons...

It's pretty easy to see why the girls would be kissing on this little guy! AJ continues to amuse and wow us as he gets older and starts to show us more of his personality.







This picture is Christy's pride and joy. The kid's got a great smile but it quickly fades under the flashing bulb of the camera. It's a challenge to get a decent shot. But, Christy caught him just right with this shot and got a full smile from AJ.





Even this more subdued smile is better than what I usually get from him. Once we train him not to drool so much, he'll be getting all the ladies!










The girls participated in a "field day" recently with one of the home school associations in town. The girls did pretty well, even finishing first in a few events. But the highlight of their day was holding this baby raccoon. Apparently the parent raccoons had died and a boy had adopted the raccoon as a pet.







Here's Greta with the baby raccoon...


Ok... We're starting to run out of pictures, Robin... But I think I have one more posting of pics in me... It should arrive tomorrow night if all goes well... It's of our girls around town....

WildCat Park

One of the best things to do around Joplin is visit WildCat Park. It has a great walking trail through various types of landscape - forest with a river running through it, a boggy area, a little field area, some rocky areas. In general, we love it because it gives us the chance to feel like we're not in Joplin anymore.



Just a cute picture of the girls as we headed out on our hike.











Anthony getting his first ride in our baby backpack. Some of you might recognize the pack... we have some great pictures of Greta at the Great Wall of China in this pack...






Doesn't look much like Joplin here. For those of you who are local you have to head south on the trail to get to this view... South and up quite a little hill to get to this spot...






The girls hanging out for a much deserved rest after climbing Joplin's closest thing to a mountain...







You gotta cross this bridge to get to what we think is the best part of the trail. It also gives you a great view of the river...

Stay tuned as we'll be bringing you some more shots from our last couple months....

Joplin's Rennaissance Fair

A couple weeks ago, Joplin had the first ever Rennaissance Fair. Though it might not have been to the scale of other Ren Fairs around the country, it was really fun for us to go as a family. Here's a picture of a parrot that the girls got to put on their shoulders like a pirate...




Here's a picture of Joplin's Queen... The girls were made "ladies in waiting" by the Queen and were very honored. Greta even purchased a gift for the Queen with her own money (at Ren Fair prices, I might add). Greta had to do this because according to Greta, "This is my Queen! I have to get a gift for my Queen!"











A nice woodworker with a foot operated lathe...









The girls loved getting close to the falcon... Apparently, falconry is the sport of Kings and the oldest sport around... I never knew. This guy did and he was happy to let us know! :)







Matthew the magician actually put on a decent show hiding wooden eggs and plastic balls and eating fire. The girls liked it and were both a part of the little show...






The girls fought bravely with their foam covered swords. I think Tatum would have soundly defeated Greta in this battle. It would have been a little like that bit in the "Holy Grail" with the Black Knight. "Tis merely a flesh wound"





Great harp musician from KC area - A lot of the performers were from the KC Ren Fair and they were all very talented... This guy played the girls a little tune about dragons. He asked the girls if they believed in dragons - they said "no", but he played the song for them anyway because he does!




Greta was the big spender at the Fair. She wanted the camel ride so bad that she spent her own money to ride the camel. I think that the smile on her face means that it was worth it...

Randomness...

Feet of AJ...









Crazy Hugging Bears...












Cinco de Mayo Maddness???








Have Anthony and Christy gone nuts and begun to let the girls wear make up?






Out of focus fountain shots....

Just some of what you've been missing in the last couple months as life has become way too busy for the Geiser clan...

We'll fill in the details over the next few days...Really, Robin, we will....