Stamped With A Guarantee To Be Busy In 2023: April

Kicking off the month with game night. Jeremy got out his poker chips and has been trying to teach the kiddos how to play blackjack.  After some wild games of Uno, maw and paw were game to start playing blackjack. Maw is still learning, but the rest of us were betting big. It's easy when it's not real money.  I hate gambling for real, but I love game night with the family. 

Track season has officially started. This picture of me at the track was taken during a 'Be Real' moment. I just like being forced to take a picture of everyday life every single day.  I like going back through the memories. I don't have that many followers and don't follow many people, but do it more for myself. Anyhow, I have 22 track meets scheduled for this spring. If the weather corporates like it did tonight, I'll get all 22 in! It was so perfect. Overcast and about 65 degrees.  It was just me by myself starting with the gun.  I prefer running high jump or clerking, but when it's just myself, I don't mind starting the meet. 

The first weekend of the month we were suppose to have another dance competition in Fort Wayne.  The third weekend was supposed to be in Columbus. Both comps were cancelled sadly.  While I understand things happen, it's super disappointing as we haven't finished a complete dance comp season since Olivia's first year in 2019.  This is the third year in the row that Olivia hasn't been able to dance all the comps scheduled because one reason or another. The Fort Wayne one was cancelled because of not enough other teams and Columbus was canceled because too many teams (overbooked). In order to help ease the pain, SODC decided to have a team bonding activity at the studio.  Girls got to get do their hair in a way that made them fill beautiful. Olivia asked me to do double braids.  I tried to get her to curl her hair, but she feels best with the double braids. Those who know me from back in the day, know that I also LOVED double braids...so the nut doesn't fall too far from the tree!With a free weekend before Easter, I decided I wanted to go shopping.  I preferred an outlet, but Isaac begged to go to Columbus.  I thought we'd start at the outlet in Delaware, but instead Isaac made a list of places we would stop.  He numbered them 1-5. The first stop was Ikea.  However maw agreed to ride along, so we asked him to stop in Bellefontaine to show her the store "Queen of Hearts." The two jumped on the thrown, maw put on the crown, and we snapped a picture before Ikea.  Then we went on to Columbus and after Ikea was HomeGoods.  I only found one small thing amazingly. Then after that we went on to the mall.  Isaac talked me into spending $50 at Bath and Body Works. Other than that, we put our name in at Cheesecake Factory and they said it would be an hour twenty minutes. That was plenty of time to shop at the mall.  Isaac got a pasta meal and of course Hershey cheesecake! His last stop was Top Golf, even though we told him before we left we couldn't go there. At 7:30 in the evening, the wait was like 3 hours. We certainly weren't waiting that long.  He was disappointed, but I promised at the time we would be coming back for a dance competition in two weeks and we'd try to make our way over there to play.  

Next activity of the month was coloring eggs. Because there was no way we'd ever eat two cartons of hard boiled eggs, we decided to only color one dozen of hard boiled, and one dozen of plain eggs. Olivia had her very artistic friend Ella who was over while Isaac decided this is what we were going to do this afternoon, so Ella got in on the action too. The funniest part was when she accidentally dropped the egg that wasn't hard and tried to catch it- ended up with egg all over her! Overall we had a lot of fun and ended with some beautiful eggs.  Love that the kiddos (and hubby) still love doing this Easter tradition. 

The other big thing that has been happening at our house is Olivia's band career.  She chose to play my flute that we had in the basement. Thank goodness I didn't have to rent or buy an instrument. However she has only been playing since the new year and have a listen to video. She's getting the hang of it and getting better and better. Fun to listen to songs verses just notes!

The week leading up to Easter was eventful in that the kids were suppose to have school on Wednesday with an early release. However, the newscast had called for high winds and tornados 🌪️ about the time they'd be getting on the busses to come home. The school used it's last calamity day and everyone got to stay home. I called Jeremy (who had to teach) and asked him to be home by 1 p.m.  He agreed since he knows how much I hate storms...yet we got about 5 minutes of heavy rain and wind, but that was it. Thank goodness. 

Easter weekend was eventful as always. Good Friday we headed to Piqua to the movie theater to watch the movie Mario. We went all the way there because I had $50 worth of gift cards to that movie theater chain and wanted to use them up. Plus we could go at noon instead of the evening. We were back in time to go to church in the evening. Because the service was solemn and all about Jesus dying on the cross, we left in silence. Kids didn't know how to take that and thought it was different to leave and not talk to anyone. 

Saturday kicked off with a trip down to Lima Senior Stadium for the mega Easter Egg Hunt on the football field. The divide the kids 12 and under into three different age categories to find eggs. Several local businesses have prizes within the eggs, and there is one grand prize of a trip to Disney World for the family.  While neither kiddo found a golden egg, they found plenty of candy eggs.  

We knew we had to work on Monday, so going to my parents for Easter wasn't in the cards this year. We decided to meet them at Texas Roadhouse in Findlay to eat a nice meal Saturday night and for them to see the kids and give them their baskets of goodies. Isaac got a gardening kit, a lobster float and money for plants, Olivia got a beach bag, flip flop bracelet, and some crafty items to make up. Both kids were excited to see Grandma and Grandpa Dentinger. We laughed when we tried to take the pictures, Isaac stood in front of Grandpa Ron and covered him up.  Everyone can't believe how tall Isaac is getting. He's no longer a little boy, but instead a big man!

Easter Day was still fun. Kids are getting to the age that they let us sleep in until at least 8:30 until they wake us up to go see if the bunny made an appearance. As you can see from the note, the last several years the crazy bunny has taken pictures on Isaac's iPad when he was here. It was a request that he did the same this year. His selfies didn't disappoint. Kids baskets and egg hunt were successful. Jeremy and I got them things from us too- Isaac got money to go toward his photo pass at Cedar Point and a new pair of Brooks black running shoes.  Olivia got a new swim suit and coverup and the carry on Minnie Mouse suitcase. We also got dress up, took pictures before heading to church. A great morning service on Easter before heading over to maw and paws for lunch.  Of course the kids were excited to also see baskets with fun candy and presents from maw and paw. Isaac got his wish of more money to go toward his photo pass at Cedar Point and Olivia got paints and Canvas's to continue her artistic career.

Shortly after Easter, ONU got to inaugurate the 12th president of ONU, Melissa Baumann. Since it's such a rare occurrence, it wasn't one that Jeremy nor I would miss, we dressed up in full regalia and participated in the ceremonies. The picture of me was from one of my PR students who I caught eyes with as well and posed!

What is better than a entire week of 70+ degree weather in April? Absolutely nothing I can think of....we decided with so many nice days ahead, it was time to break out the outdoor furniture. Of course, kiddos thought up some fun they could have on 82 degree day on the weekend by dumping water on each other and making some type of game out of it. I laid in a lawn chair and they put cones around my chair to make sure I was not part of the shenanigans. I captured a few shots of them having fun in the sun. 

Mid-April was scheduled to be our fourth dance comp. However the venue was overbooked and SODC was bumped out of the competition. We had already booked a non-refundable hotel room literarily 10 minutes before we got the notification we were cancelled. So we decided to still head to Columbus and make the best of it. We had promised Isaac if he went to the dance comp we'd reward him with Top Golf. So we headed down the Hilton in Polaris where you can see Top Golf from our room. They gave us VIP cards to enjoy free reception in the evening (which was sweet). and we got up and went to Top Golf Sunday morning. After 2 hours having a blast, we grabbed some cheesecake for lunch and Jeremy took the kids to Dave and Busters while I roamed/shopped at Polaris. Since we were right beside Benihanas and it was the lunch hour until 3, we grabbed something before heading home.  It wasn't the weekend we had planned, but love spending time with these people before we're not cool enough to hang out with! 

Wednesday, April 19 we flew to Scottsdale for the PRSSA National Leadership Assembly.  Myself and Alyson Hoffman, Megan Allen and Alaina Casey headed west to participate. Jeremy ended up coming along as well since his dad and step mom live in Tucson and were able to meet up with us while we were so close. What a much needed and beautiful destination. The first morning we were there, we didn't have activities until the afternoon.  So we got up early (3 hour difference- so really like 9 am for us here in Ohio) and headed down to Camelback Mountain to start the climb. It's rated a extremely difficult trail, but we were determined. Poor Megan didn't quiet make it to the very top before she tore up her hand and scraped her knee so she patiently waited for us to climb to the very top and come back for her. But we made it to the top and it was worth the climb! While we did choose another National Committee at the assembly and attend some wonderful speakers, we also got some pool time and great eats in between.  Seeing John and Julie was a thrill for us, as they were able to chill by the pool for a few hours and have dinner with us in the evenings. FaceTime is great, but seeing and hugging loved ones in person is SO much better. The PRSSA students were so much fun and it was great to see familiar faces at assembly. The last time we got to Scottsdale for assembly in person was 2019, so it had been way too long. It was so nice to be back to normal. 

When we returned from Scottsdale we quickly realized it was back to reality and driving kids all over creation. On Saturday, April 29, brought our first BYAA track meet of the season. Kids did great in the first major invitational of the season. There were over 300 athletes competing, which made for some close fun races. Isaac ran the 100 (3rd)/200 (2nd)/400 (3rd) and the 4x100 relay. Olivia ran the hurdles/800/1 mile. I was the starter and Jeremy is the head timer.  Even with all these athletes and no lie at least 20 heats of the 100, we finished the meet in under 3 hours.  I think that speaks volumes for how well the program is run by the track coach Ryan and his wife Jill and the many volunteers that helped it run so smoothly.  Proud Elida moment 🧡🖤 Here are some amazing photos from Christine Foxvog. Thank goodness she still comes and takes photos, because I certainly can't during the home meets and we get amazing shots of our kiddos. 

The last MAJOR thing of the month took place on the very last day. Sunday, April 30 was SODC's 30th dance recital. 💚🖤 Finally a chance to be back on the stage for Olivia. Since the last two dance comps of the season were cancelled, she had been anxiously awaiting to get back up there. Today was the day, as she had two shows to perform.  Grandma Barb was able to come to the first show with me to watch and Maw, Paw, Sherry, Jeremy and Isaac were able to attend the second show (while I helped in the dressing room). Since the dance comp teams were participating in both shows, it gave Olivia to perform her solo twice, which was much better the second show. She didn't arrive in time to warm up on stage for the first show and she hasn't run through it in WAY too long, so she lost her place a couple of times the first show. But she totally nailed it (from what I watched in the wings) during the second show. I love watching her dance- solo or team dances- 

as she lights up the stage and absolutely loves it. While she didn't do tap this year (her least favorite) she loves dancing with her teammates. She still does acro, jazz, lyrical and her ultimate favorite....hip hop.  Here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures I took.  I narrowed to like 17 and think I'm doing great 🙈