A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 30 Recap

Monday found us gearing up for Allen County 4H Judging. Olivia took her sewing and cooking project and Isaac took his laundry project, but gardening waits until Aug. 19. Olivia did her sewing project first and said it went well.  She had to take a cooking test first before they judged her project portfolio. She didn't get judging sheets back for either, so wasn't sure how she did. Isaac talked to the laundry judge for the entire time Olivia did both projects. LOL. We found out the next day that Olivia was the sewing alternate for State Fair and Isaac was the State Fair selection! So I guess Aug. 3 we are headed to Columbus!

After the 4H judging we were all packed up to head to the Lakehouse for Cedar Point and Soak City on Tuesday. The hope is that because we go on a weekday it will be way less busy. I'm too cheap to get a $15 locker, so I had to carry my keys around (annoying) and go out to the car and get my phone to use our drink pass (annoying), But at the end of the day, it was great and we talked Grandma Barb into coming over around 4 to join us at Cedar Point.  Olivia had had enough, so she talked Grandma Barb into heading back to the lakehouse.  Isaac and I started riding every roller coaster, but he started with Top Thrill Dragster.  I waited in line with him, but told him I couldn't go on that first as I needed a warm-up coaster.  So he did Top Thrill by himself.  I then waited with him in all the other lines to ride. Jeremy had a work trip on Wednesday, so he surprised us around 7 by coming into the park. We enjoyed the evening riding all the rides with not too bad of wait times at all. 

When we got back home, Isaac wanted to go camping and has been begging to sleep in a tent in the backyard. Thank goodness Paw agrees to this crazy idea, because I'm certainly not sleeping outside. No thank you. Olivia and Maw slept inside too, but the boys slept under the stars all evening.  

This weekend the kids were invited to the Hamilton's to enjoy the birthday festivities of both Morgan and Grady.  Complete with a WATER bounce house, they had an absolute blast.  Morgan was turning 4 and Grady was turning 10. We left Jeremy at home so he could do his homework, but we had an absolute blast. 

GAHHHHH, we are so excited that the Olympics are starting. Karin and Mandy decided it was the perfect excuse to throw a party. Complete with kid games, themed food, and coordinated clothing, it was so fun to hang out with our dance family friends. Even though we found out at the party their girls were choosing to move to another studio and focus on gymnastics more (insert sad face), we are still happy that dance introduced them into our life. We had a great time at the party even tho we watched very little of the Olympics and just talked most of the evening!

Sunday night ended with Fam Jam Swim Night at the Ottawa pool for our church. We've never been, so we were excited to try out a new pool.  We headed over and the kids found friends right away and ditched us. Jeremy hung with Isaac and went off the diving boards and slides.  He lost his watch in the bottom of the pool and two girls found it and came to tell their mom's who happen to be sitting right next to me.  So we decided to play it cool and let him freak out about it when he discovered it.  Olivia asked him what time it was so he would notice it was missing. We all giggled as we watched his face turn white and freak out.  We didn't let him suffer long before we finally told him we had it.  

A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 29 Recap

Well we are one week out from 4-H judging.  So in typical fashion, it was time to buckle down and get their projects done. Olivia took Cooking and Sewing.  This week was time to buckle down with the sewing project. She picked out a super soft material with butterflies so you have to make sure that the pattern is all going the same way. Her pattern also included pockets.  They actually aren't near as hard as double bias tape. UGH. Bias tape has to be pinned on perfectly and then held into place as you sew and make sure it doesn't move...and it's so thick. I made the top, mask and slippers.  Top was not that bad, but I did have to learn how to make a buttonhole on our new sewing machine. The eye mask I made from scratch.  It's suppose to be a butterfly.  And the awful slippers. I had to make four until I got them right.  They were hell. Olivia's foot is 3 inches bigger than the little pattern. The first pair were too small. The third slipper I had upside down and when I slit the tear away part, I actually slit the material. I had a melt down and then finally got it for the final pair. Here are some pictures of her working on it and the finished product.

It can't be all work and no play this week. So we had a nice day to actually get out on the Indian lake this week tubing. Maw and Paw asked me to go along so someone can help out watching for boats and to drive when Paw decides he's brave enough out there too.  I think it's impressive at 70+ he's still tubing and Maw too-but getting on the tube is entertaining!  Kids love eating at McDonalds on the lake then going out tubing. I like when the go together vs. going by themselves. 

16 years on the 16th of July. Yep, this is our 16th wedding anniversary. Awe, seems like a not THAT long ago. So Jeremy got us reservations at the Met here in Lima. I was so excited to see their special- chicken that was sautéed in white wine with green olives! Uh, yes please. It was amazingly delicious. And I still enjoyed the company- even after 16 years ❤️ The kids also made us gifts and decorations for our special day. They're getting so big and so creative. 

On Sunday we made plans to go visit the Cousino's. We haven't been able to spend tons of time with them this summer, so even though Griffin wasn't home, we still made the trip down to visit the rest of them. We haven't been able to get back there since they moved. Kids enjoyed swimming and we enjoyed just sitting around outside and catching up. 

A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 28 Recap

Cedar Point and Soak City- Divide and Conquer. Olivia would rather spend the day at Soak City with all the water slide.  Isaac is a die-hard rollercoaster junkie.  So we now each take one and go our separate ways.  Because we were able to go up earlier than Jerm to the lake house for the holiday weekend, we had two separate cars.  Even better because when we had enough sun, we got in the car and headed back to Lima. The worst part was having no where to put our keys and phone, so we had to rent a $15 locker for the day (highway robbery!), but other than going back to check my phone to make sure the boys were getting along ok in the park, it was a great day in the hot sun. 

Another cool thing about being in Ada for swim practice in the morning is discovering all the cool things that they have like the Traveling Zoo in Ada Park. My fellow momma Ann had told me about it, but I had forgotten about it until we were there the morning of.  How cool was this? The kids got to pet most of them (except the lynx, which looked like a cheetah) and they were amazed at the variety as you can see in the pictures. 

Tuesday night brought us the Baseball Lima Area World Series! And Isaac's team (Elida Orange) played for the title against a very equally talented Bath team.  They were neck and neck throughout the game and ended up losing by one run. Isaac got hit by a pitch and got to take a base, but ended up striking out the next two times at bat. The pitch he got hit by left a mark for a few days, but he was a pretty tough dude. 5-4. But what an amazing season these boys had. We are going to host a pool party for the boys at our house in a few weeks to celebrate their runner-up championship!

More 4-H Cooking. I mean Isaac is working on his projects too, but Olivia has to take pictures and keep a portfolio for judging, so we have this binder in process with lots of pictures of her cooking. Most of the recipes have been pretty good.  Her favorite has been the Yogurt Pops and her least favorite has been the trail mix.  I really enjoyed her veggie pizza and since no one else eats it, I polished off the entire pan myself. LOL. 

Every summer we buy a kids bowl free summer pass that allows us to bowl with the kids (2 games per day) for free. They got their own bowling balls from Poppy and Grandma Julie for Christmas last year and we got them their own bowling shoes for Easter. Amazingly this is only the second time we've been there this summer.  

Swim Champs. I could write paragraphs about this year's first outdoor swim champs that took place on Friday and Saturday. Jeremy took Friday off so he could watch. Being our first year we had no idea what we were doing. Well, because Ada was the closest to Kenton (where champs took place), we had the first warm-up time at 7:30-7:50.  Coach asked us to arrive by 7:15 a.m., which means we left the house around 6:15 in the morning. YIKES.  Jerm complained he had to get up and leave earlier for champs then he does on a regular work day. 😂 Truth. So we read all the recommendations and got there to set up our tent and folding chairs.  Good thing we brought blankets. It was all but 60 degrees and misting- you know that annoying rain that is just enough to get things wet- sideways. Kids warmed up and we thought the meet would start by 9.  WRONG. They have a really cool parade- Ada did a gators/swamp theme-but that didn't even begin until 9:30. OMG, did we really get up at 5:45 to not even start swimming until 10. Yep. But we did get to watch both kiddos do a few events. 

Top 3 relays and top 6 individuals make the podium and get a medal. The first day here were the results for our kiddos:

Isaac

50 meter free- ranked 8 and placed 8 with a time of 42.95. Super disappointed because Isaac is very good at the free and this was a terrible time. I don't know if he was tired or what, but in indoor championships he swam 39.06, so I have no idea what happened today. 

200 meter medley relay- Isaac swam anchor, free style. They placed 4th, only for us to pack up and leave (because it was the last event of the day) and then one of the top three teams got DQ'ed, so all the other boys got to stand on the podium and get their medals.  Poor Isaac was in the car on the way home because we had got up at the butt crack of dawn and were exhausted. 

Olivia

50 meter free. Ranked 8, finished 7 with a time of 41.75...first one to miss the podium. Yes, she swam faster than Isaac.

Butterfly-ranked 5 with an entry time of 57.31 and this is by far her best event and the one she enjoys the most. Don't know what happened. She had a brain freeze and did two free style strokes after she started, forgetting what event she was doing?! DQ'ed. She was in tears and sobbing at her failure. We tried to calm her down before her relay competed, which thank goodness she had that left!

200 meter medley relay- ranked second.  Finished sixth. What the heck?! They added nearly 56 seconds to their time. I have no idea what happened here.  

This was day one of champs. Freezing, way too early in the morning start, epic failures, and so many tears.  Not really the way were wanted to end our swim season....but there is always day 2 right? Thank goodness the weather was a bit better on Saturday. Overall the entire day was much better. First of all we had the same warm up time, but because we learned that we are not morning people and the kids really didn't need the warm up time anyhow, we skipped it. Didn't arrive until 9 am and let everyone sleep in, a much smarter plan. Here was Day 2 results:

Isaac

100 meter free. He was ranked 10, so he wasn't in the fast heat. We told him if he won his heat he'd have a chance. He took 3.31 seconds off his time and swam in 1:38.20 winning his heat! He ended up placing 8th overall.  We were super proud of him for winning his heat. He got a goodie package for winning his heat. 

200 meter free relay. What a race! Isaac is the anchor for his team. His first teammates split was 53.15. When Isaac got to start, they were in fifth! He swam 35.24 split and the team earned 3rd place to get on the podium with medals!

Olivia

50 meter breast. She was pumped up to say the least. Ranked 10, she needed to take off some significant time to medal. After her disappointing fly, she was on fire. She took off 5.14 seconds and swam 57.56 to place 5th (and really I think she got 3rd, but her timer didn't stop at the end so they had to give her a manual time, but she beat the third place girl in the video). She was so happy. 

200 meter free relay. Their team placed third, but was DQ'ed because the last girl jumped too early.  Thank goodness she got a medal in the breast stroke or she would have been really disappointed in outdoor champs. 

We had two weddings to attend this weekend. Friday night I left from champs and drove to Delaware to Alex's wedding. Because I left straight from the swim meet, I didn't have anywhere to change. I ended up changing and getting ready in the Kroger bathroom in Delaware. LOL. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Alex was a PR alum from ONU. Her wedding was outside and by the time it took place at 4 p.m., the sun came out and it was beautiful. I went by myself because Jerm had papers to write for school and someone had to stay with the kiddos. 

Sunday was Conner Fleck's wedding. His mom Kathie was my colleague at ONU for 7 years. Conner was an engineering major at ONU and did his co-op with Jeremy. Conner and Kayla got married in Ada, so it wasn't too far of a drive for a Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful day for an outdoor wedding, and the whole family went to enjoy! Don't ask me how Kayla and Conner got a picture with just Isaac, but here it is. LOL. I'm sure years later they'll say what the heck was this picture for? Jerm's favorite part was the City BBQ catering. I love attending weddings. Always so special with so much excitement.