They have a rock climbing wall at the rec center and Owen wanted to try it during Katie’s hip hop class. Of course he says he hated it (because he wasn’t perfect the very first time he tried) but he did GREAT for his first time.
Category Archives: Firsts
We did a four-mile family bike ride today!
We went to a really popular local park today and took a great bike ride around a lake. Katie did great!!
And then the playground afterward. 🙂
This is inside a faux stump—they get to it in a cave!
Our first successful Roar Run!
The Roar Run is a PTA-Sponsored fundraising event in its sixth year. We are hoping it’s on a weekend next year—it’s a bit difficult getting there to enjoy the other events when the kids don’t get home until 4.
Katie is becoming a master hula hooper!
Stretching before the race!
We were watching the relay races and Katie wanted to try the wheelbarrow.
Neighbors!
Nine minutes until race time!
The group of neighbor kids running together! (Tom was taking the pic down at the fun run starting line.)
Katie came in a minute or so behind Sophia—but we had seen her on daddy’s shoulders for a bit!!
And the same pic close up as she crossed the finish line!
More neighbors!
Love a family photo!
Stacey and Lorenzo, Sophia and Enzo
And I had to try a selfie. It’s a bit more difficult with six people!
We had the results as they were happening and these were the finals (Katie missed a medal by one place—Sophia came in #3):
Our first Parents Night Out was a success!
I walked in to pick up the kids and this was happening!
Both kids had a blast—bounce houses, art projects, and pizza for dinner! They can’t wait until next month!!
Six Flags here we come!
We bought 2018 season passes and they came with passes for the remainder of this year so we decided to take a few hours to check it out and see if the kids might like it. Of course it happened to be unseasonably hot—low 90s and humid—but we powered through.
Looking fresh-faced as we were leaving… (The decision was kind of spur of the moment. We had planned on going Sunday.)
Just minutes from home!
They loved the blood pond. Or whatever it was called. The park is set up for Fright Night after 6pm.
We rode the carousel first. As usual, Owen wanted nothing to do with sitting on a horse so we sat together on a bench.
We ran into kiddie rides first. Owen was able to ride these (height-wise) but he didn’t want to. He’s not a huge fan of rides. Not even these little ones… On the other hand, Katie didn’t want to leave.
Then we passed the Viper:
And the sign said it was a 5-minute wait so I had to go. Of course no one else was going to go so they went to wait for me. I left my phone with Tom, but this was me after, totally excited about my first roller coaster ride in 20 years because I can now fit in the seats!!
We had forgotten a family selfie up until now so…
Katie looks like she does because 1) she had wanted to go on more of her rides and we had said no and 2) she had wanted ice cream for lunch and we said no. It was also a million degrees.
So then we stopped for lunch—and the food was actually pretty good. (We also bought the lunch package so we get free lunch every time we go.) And we put the kids in jail.
Then we found more kiddie rides…and again Owen didn’t want any part of it. Katie didn’t know this one went in the air but wasn’t scared and loved it!
Do you see Tom and Owen down there?
And then Tom said he’d go on the Fiddler’s Fling. I was surprised because he doesn’t like rides.
But Katie wanted to go. And Owen wasn’t sure but eventually said yes. I double-checked that Tom really wanted to and he said yes, so…here we are!
Katie liked it once I assured her she wasn’t going to fall out. Owen didn’t love it but he was okay. But poor Tom… He was nauseous and could barely walk off. He said the ride was way worse than it looked. (Later he said maybe some of the issue was due to an ear thing he had. We’re not sure.)
We were almost done with the park anyway so headed toward the front.
And then we saw the small “family” coaster and both kids wanted to try it and the wait was only 15 minutes so us three went while Tom tried to recuperate.
Tom made it to the exit by the time we got up there so he could take pics!
As we were coming back to the platform… Katie really liked it, Owen said he liked it, but Katie was the only one who said she’d do it again… But I think we’ll be able to convince Owen.
So the kids had a great time and want to come back for sure. So hopefully we’ll get our money out of them. 🙂
Our little hip hopper!
Katie and Sophia are taking Hip Hop and are super excited about it.
Warming up!
Owen loved watching Katie!
Freestyling at the end of class!
Katie is pawsome!
And this was in the class’ weekly newsletter.
Owen is trying archery!
We let him choose what class he wanted to take at the community center and he decided on archery!
I think he loves his ATV.
Remember me saying we wanted to try to give the kids experiences instead of stuff? Yeah, well, we also agreed that bigger things instead of lots of little junky stuff would be good, too…so we let Owen decide if he wanted to spend his birthday money to pay half of an ATV. (We had wanted to get them the power wheels but Owen is too big. A neighbor has an electric ATV that Owen loved so that’s how we got the idea.) He immediately agreed so he gave us all of his remaining birthday gift cards and still owes us about $100.
He was ABSOLUTELY GIDDY.
Unfortunately, it arrived like this so Tom had some work to do.
The besties are home again!
Just as with Owen I have to physically get Katie off the bus. The bus driver called their names over the radio/intercom and then they have to tell her their name and I have to give her my name and she checks the list. I’m assuming this will get slightly less involved as time goes on and the bus driver learns who we are.
As soon as they got off the bus they crossed the street together (holding hands).
I didn’t get much info out of her about her first day before she was asking if she could go play at Sophia’s house (yes, after she got play clothes on) so I sent over this craft project:
She did say it was fun. I told her she would have to tell us more about it later.
Katie’s first day of Kindergarten!
This is an idea I saw somewhere and decided to do for Katie…she will wear this shirt on the first day of school until she’s a senior in high school!
BESTIES!
There are only three kids at the bus stop!
Katie is in the seat right above SCHOOL.
Katie’s kindergarten open house
Mrs. Valentine
The huge playground (one of three!).
Getting to check out a bus!
She went straight to the very back seat!
That’s a “bike path” on the right. The raised circular structure on the left is for a specific game (Owen’s school has a smaller one).
Back inside to check out the cafeteria (no pics) and the gym! She made a beeline to the rock wall!
Owen’s first day of 3rd grade!
I had to go in and wake him up at 7:30!! This year he gets on the bus at 8:25—that’s a half hour earlier than what we were used to in Virginia!
Katie holding Owen’s hand as he was waking up.
Owen and his bestie, Nate (2nd grade):
They are the only two at their bus stop!
Blue Man Group in Chicago!
I’ve always wanted to see Blue Man Group and when I mentioned it to Grannie she said they’d like to go, too…so it was off to Chicago!
Photos weren’t allowed during the show so this is all I got beforehand.
The kids absolutely loved it and they immediately asked if they could see it again. 🙂
Edited to add some googled pics of what we saw:
We met Owen’s principal and teacher today!
This morning was a “meet the new principal” playground playdate—that I completely forgot about until it was almost over. It’s a good thing we live three minutes away so we were there in a hot second. We met the principal (he seemed very nice) and the kids played and had icee pops.
This is one of two playgrounds at the school (this is the one for Owen’s side). It’s nice but seemed a little small for as big as the school is (comparing it to his last school). They do have a huge grassy area and a huge blacktop area as well, though.
As things were wrapping up, I asked the principal if there was any way we could take a quick walk through the school or schedule something and he offered to take us through right then! So we walked the halls and even met Owen’s teacher!! She’s really nice and I have a good feeling about her. Yay!!
A few minutes at the mall playground.
The kids had to run an errand with me and the mall playground happened to be right outside the store I was at…so I let Katie play for a few minutes. (If it looks somewhat familiar, it’s because it’s the same parent company as the mall by us in Virginia.)
Owen’s first time shooting!
Owen was so excited to go shooting! He’s doing pretty well with remembering the three rules (generally speaking he knows them but had trouble repeating them) so we’ll keep working on that. (If he can remember 632 things about Pokémon, he can remember the three rules about gun safety.)
His shots were all in the black!
Last trip to Burke Lake
Probably our last trip to Burke Lake with friends…we visited our usual playground and we finally rode the train!
They did this all on their own… (That said, Katie says Jackson is her boyfriend. Jackson says AJ is his girlfriend.)
The kids loved it. LOVED IT.
Owen’s first big league baseball game!!
Lisa and Lori are huge baseball fans and Tom has wanted to take Owen to a professional baseball game since we’ve been here, so it seemed fitting that they all go together while Katie and I stayed home. I wouldn’t have minded going, but I know Katie would have gotten bored (she’s used to being able to run around and play with her friends during Owen’s SHORT games, so I couldn’t imagine her sitting for a three-hour game) so I kept her home and took her to the Friday Night Swim instead.
Owen even had the right cap to wear as one of his previous baseball teams was the Nationals! (He thought her had a shirt, too, except we determined that was the season they only got plain red shirts with logo caps.)
They got home about 11:30 (there was an hour metro ride home after the game) and Owen was STILL excited when he walked in the door. I’m so glad they got to go and he got to see everything!
Our last bingo night—and we won two baskets!
Headed off to our last PTO Bingo Night! 🙁
We actually donated a big snack basket this year (I’ve been wanting to donate one for awhile now) and I debated buying raffle tickets because we don’t need anything… But it was to benefit the school so why not?! I bought 20 and gave each of the kids five tickets to put in whatever they wanted. Katie put all hers in the Emoji Basket and Owen put his in an Art Basket. I spread the rest out between some Chocolate Baskets and the Art Basket.
Owen wanted to sit with his friends…
So the first bingo game starts and Katie literally had every single number called and we were sure she was going to win…but she didn’t. But imagine our surprise when they brought up the first basket—one of the chocolate baskets—and we won!! Woohoo!!
Soon the Emoji Basket came up and I happened to record it just in case…
All night Katie kept saying “I can’t believe we won TWO baskets!” 🙂 This makes up for three years of winning nothing!
This was the kindergarten chocolate basket. We really really lucked out—everything from M&Ms to s’more fixins to brownie mix to sandwich cookies to truffles to camel milk chocolates!!!
And enough emoji stuff to choke a horse!!
What little girl wouldn’t want unicorn lips?!
Let me just tell you how excited Katie was when I told her she could wear mommy’s lip stuff and that I had unicorn gloss for her! (It’s LipSense Opal gloss.)
Ice cream truck!
The kids have been bugging us and bugging us and bugging us about getting ice cream from the ice cream man ever since he started coming around this spring. We promised them we’d do it once before we moved—but the timing would have to be right since he usually comes to the playground after school and that is right before dinner. So today we were at Julie’s and she was going to get something for Kayleigh and offered to get something for Katie… Well I couldn’t very well have Katie telling Owen she got something so I texted Tom and had him send Owen out. They were thrilled.
She finally went across after two months!
We have been trying to coach her over the top for two months now… She will get to the top and just stay there, then claim she’s too scared. Today she finally did it!! And then did it again and again like it was nothing!
She figured this out on her own.
Our friends bring this little car to the playground and mostly it goes unused. But today Katie realized they could do this. 🙂
Garden stone Christmas present
I finally decided to do this project today.
A boy and his umbrella.
I usually take Owen down to the bus stop when it’s raining so he doesn’t have to deal with an umbrella on the bus and at school. But today he wanted to go himself so I let him.
Guess who got the game ball tonight?
The game ball is a VERY big deal to the kids this year…and Owen was VERY upset that he didn’t get it at the last game where he had some good fielding plays (it actually was between him and someone else, but the coaches went with the younger player because he had shown more overall improvement). So, we had our fingers crossed that he would do well this game…and he did. He did AMAZINGLY well. All the moms in the stands even said he should get the game ball! So when the game was over, Tom motioned to me to come video…so below, you can see Owen being presented the game ball! And here he is, proud as ever. 🙂
The game ball, for awesome fielding, including two great outs playing first base!
He was also two for three (I guess in baseball that would be .667!) batting tonight!
And me and bug during the game:
Katie’s first lipstick!
Since she’s been seeing me wear lipstick almost every day, she’s been asking to wear it, too. I told her one of these days I’d put some on her…but today we were at our friends’ house and the girls had a cheap lipstick they were playing with… Needless to say we wiped their mouths off at least four times.
What Katie won’t and will do.
She won’t go over the top of this:
But she’ll do this:
We all flew at iFly!
Today was the day I got to cross something off my bucket list—skydiving!! Or at least a close enough approximation of it to satisfy me!
We had about a 15-minute prep class where we saw a video on the basics, saw a brief demonstration of proper form, and learned the hand signals that they would use (since you can’t hear anything in the chamber).
There were only a few hand signals and basically you relax in the tunnel while bending your arms and legs a little and keeping your chin up. Easy, right? Of course! (Until you step into the tunnel, but I’m getting ahead of myself.)
After the class, it was time to get suited up. We all got jumpsuits, plastic goggles, ear plugs, and a helmet. I asked how to best wear my hair and was told braided or in a low ponytail so I took the easy way with the ponytail (I actually tried a quick braid but it wasn’t working and we didn’t have THAT much time to suit up). And I have to say: What a joke. They really should have stressed wearing a braid, wearing a cap (which I would have gladly done), or at the very least putting the ponytail inside the helmet. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
We were each slated for two one-minute flights, plus Tom and I had added a “high flyer” package which meant the instructor would take us up higher towards the top (instead of staying at or below chest/head level); it also came with a photo.
There was a group of about 10 of us and we filed into the chamber. Katie was the youngest and there were a few older than us—and everything in between. A set of grandparents and a granddaughter went before us. The granddaughter was a previous flier because she started out with a bit more advanced moves which was fun to watch. Soon it was my turn—and as soon as I stepped foot into the wind tunnel my mind kind of went blank. How was I supposed to bend? What were my arms supposed to do? What did the hand signals mean? It’s amazing what 120-180mph winds will do to your brain as you’re being blown around like a leaf! 🙂 (I never once felt unsafe—the instructor is RIGHT THERE with you and your jumpsuit has handles on it for the instructor to grab—but it was FREAKY.) It probably took a good 20-30 seconds to calm down (maybe less, but time almost has no meaning in there) and start thinking more clearly, but by then you’re on the downswing of your allotted time. Needless to say it was VERY, VERY cool and I had A LOT of fun and my first minute was over too quick.
Katie was next and HOLY COW she REALLY flew around like a leaf! (They can adjust the wind speeds on the fly, so they probably calmed them down a bit for her once she got in, but she took off like a shot!) She did very well and appeared to be having a good time…but after her turn was over, she said she didn’t want to do her second flight, so I would use her time instead and get a two-minute flight for my second time!
Then it was Owen’s turn. He actually did better than I expected, considering he’s generally afraid of anything out of the ordinary.
Then it was Tom’s turn. Then it was time for the second set of flights. And let me just say that two minutes practically feels like an eternity in the wind tunnel! But, since I was now somewhat experienced and was getting the hang of it, the instructor let me do some hand movements that made me spin around. It was completely amazing how the tiniest of finger tilts could send you spinning around and around—tilt to the left, spin to the left; tilt to the right, spin to the right. It was also super cool to be zoomed to the top of the chamber with the instructor—we did that two or three times in fairly rapid succession (as seen in Tom’s video after mine below).
Then it was Owen’s turn again, and he didn’t have as good of a time on this go-round. His legs were like spaghetti and he just couldn’t seem to get them under control. Again, there was no danger and he didn’t seem concerned or scared, but the instructor pretty much had his hands on him the entire time.
Then it was time for Tom’s second flight. This is a picture from his instructor-assisted high fly as they came down to the bottom of the chamber:
So, you may be wondering why there is no good picture of me. Funny story, but I’m getting ahead of myself. 😐
So after all the participants were done flying, we filed out, received our certificates, and eventually disrobed.
We also took some pictures. 🙂
And it was at this point that I realized my hair had a big knot in it—I had tried to take out the ponytail to wear my hair down (we had plans to meet friends for lunch afterwards) but it was nothing I could fix with my fingers so I just put it back up in a pony tail and honestly didn’t think much of it.
Of course they had a sales pitch at the end as well, offering more flight time at a pretty good discount. With the assurance that we could use it at ANY location…and since there are three in the Chicago area…we went ahead and bought it. The kids aren’t interested, but I certainly am. Tom might or might not—he enjoyed it, but it really messed with his back (though he thinks that if he stretches out more ahead of time it might be better).
So we left and I was excited to get home and check out our photos and videos—remember, our package had come with one video for each participant plus Tom and I each upgraded to the high fly which came with a photo. But first we had to go meet friends for lunch…
And you will have to keep reading to find out what happened with the photos and videos…