Owen doesn’t have the best balance or coordination—and doesn’t really like swings—so we didn’t have much success getting him on the rope swing. Until Gramma Jean got involved while we weren’t around, apparently.
And that was it. I tried to get him on it again but he’s just a big goofball and immediately falls off.
Katie’s party was on July 13, but I forgot to get the pictures off my big camera—whoops! I’ll move this post to the right date later.
Once again, we had a gathering/pizza party at the Ramada pool!
I was kicking the ball back into the pool…and kicked my shoe right off! I watched it land on the side of the pool…and tumble right in. 🙂
The cake design Katie picked out!
And then back at Gramma Jean’s to open presents!
And she had to put on one of her new dresses!
We had hoped to go mini golfing or to Hartwick Pines but it was overcast with the threat of rain…so we lunched at Spikes with Papa and Grannie (Spikeburger!) and then went bowling!
Retrieving a Katie ball that didn’t quite make it to the pins. If we didn’t help her, this is what would happen. It might have happened more than once. 🙂
The kids had a blast—here’s Katie in her slippery shoes and Owen getting a spare!
Tom won both games and Grannie came in second—though, to be fair, she was playing on the kid lanes with the bumpers! 🙂
This is the look we got when we asked Katie if she wanted to try the waterslide. She wanted nothing to do with it—even though she went down it before and loved it.
And then she up and decided she wanted to do it—and couldn’t get enough! After the first few times down, she didn’t even want Tom there to catch her. She just swam over to the edge all on her own!
Owen didn’t ride it but liked playing with it.
This year our celebration was at Rose & Jim’s cottage on Houghton Lake. The weather started out a bit sketchy—chilly and windy—but within an hour it was absolutely gorgeous! It was a perfect day with lots of delicious food, fun watching the kids, a fun gift exchange, and conversation!
I’m only posting this picture because it’s the first “in the wild” picture of me that’s been taken and…I had ZERO idea who it was when I first saw it!
Hitting a box of $5 garage sale golf balls into the canal—well, trying to get them across the canal onto the island but not many made it there. 🙂
This happened quite a bit!
Katie wanted to fish…but only for about 32 seconds at a time and then she was off doing something else.
Alex caught the first fish!
Feeding the ducks off the back of the pontoon!
Going out to hunt for turtles for turtle races!
Apparently the tradition is to kiss the first fish you catch… What a sport!
At first, Katie wanted nothing to do with the boat—she didn’t even want someone to set her on the boat! But after the second trip she was jumping onto the boat herself and loving every minute of it! Owen loved it, too!
They caught a previously-caught-and-tagged turtle—no one here is C.B. 🙂
Owen said fishing was boring—we told him yes, it was. He’s used to fishing at the Fish Hatchery where the fish pretty much jump in your bucket. 🙂
Aubrey tagged her turtle!
I lined the kids up for their annual shot and didn’t even realize until afterward—when Aubrey pointed it out—that I did it wrong! She told me “I’m older than Owen!” And I agreed with her and then realized they had been in the wrong order!
Nick is 12, Owen is 7. Nick had the slight edge on Owen last summer and it looks very similar again this year…though I think Owen gained a very tiny bit on him. We didn’t set them on flat ground so we can’t be 100% sure.
In the right order! Katie (4), Owen (7), Aubrey (8), Gracie (10), and Nick (12).
All of the cousins: Jessica (an upcoming senior), Alex (an upcoming freshman), then Nick, Gracie, Aubrey, Owen, and Katie.
Maggie was FASCINATED with the turtles!
Marge gifted all us girls with one of her ostrich eggs!
Turtle races!
Trying to scoop up the golf balls that rolled in the canal!
It was exciting for everyone when Greg caught this huge dogfish! (Katie is still talking about it days later!)
We celebrated Katie’s birthday a day early!
And Aubrey’s two days early!
Uncle Timmy diving for turtles!!
The second run of turtle races (after they went out on the boat to get more turtles)!
Owen’s turtle winning the second race!
And a Then & Now throwback picture:
Grandma Jean bought a swing for the kids and wanted to put it up somewhere in the yard. Unfortunately, there aren’t any good tree branches for it to attach to but we winged it.
Katie was the only one able to swing on it—Grandma Jean and I were going to except it was a little too low and Owen tried but wasn’t serious about it and kept “falling” off.
So the swing wasn’t a huge success…as a swing…but Gramma saw the positive and said “At least I bought them a frisbee on a rope!” 🙂
We’ve been going about 3-4 times a week since it opened. The lifeguards even know us!
Today we got pretty new white and blue chairs (and umbrellas)!
I’m not sure where she learned to do this but I love it.
Trying to get a serious picture.
But being silly instead.
I was cleaning and organizing in Katie’s room and as I was up and down the hall doing stuff, she came out with these shoes. She had seen them in her closet and, of course, wanted to wear them! Yes, ladies and gents, she found the tap shoes borrowed from the Beson cousins! I didn’t want her to wear them with bare feet (what she was going to do) so I dug out a pair of my knee-high stockings and oh man did she LOVE those!
Once I told her that they make noise, she started calling them her clickety clackity shoes. 🙂 (What did I call mine? Tippity tap shoes? Something like that?)
The Pre-K ends one day before the rest of the school and it’s their tradition to have a water day! Katie was SO excited to wear her ladybug bathing suit to school! Tom was home early for a doctor’s appointment so we were both able to attend the event!
Circle time!
Now that Owen will be out of school, we can’t go to the morning 6 and under times, so we went with the neighbors today. Katie has NO fear jumping off the ledge. It used to make me nervous but she’s an old pro now. I love these action shots.
It was crazy hot and sunny for the last game today. Thankfully friends had brought a huge canopy so we all got to sit (or lay!) in the shade!
Owen did super amazing awesome today…unfortunately, I had unexpected phone storage issues (even after I deleted a ton of stuff) so I ended up missing recording a few hits and runs—and a few videos got cut short. GRRR!
And he asked to be catcher today!! He did have some balance issues (see next photo—he kept his feet together instead of using a wide stance so he kept falling over) but he worked through them and did a great job! And looked damn cute!
The coaches actually called the game a half hour early because it was so hot. They had a quick award ceremony afterward.
I had to transcribe what the coach said because it was super awesome and is very hard to hear on the video—the Closed Captions should be turned on so you can read along but here it is just in case:
Due to my phone issues, I missed the first thing he said: I like to call him The Big O!
Come on up! I’ve really seen Owen’s catching progress. Behind the plate as well as catching the ball in the field. Alright, you are certainly catching it like the guys at the next level and very impressive. You’ve had some great hits as well. Alright. I love seeing your enthusiasm out here. Good job, buddy.
Team picture by another mom (since my phone was still acting up):
Then the pizza party!!!
And showing off his award! He had to run and get this T-ball award from last year, too—he was so excited to have two! He said he will put them both on a shelf together! 🙂
I watched a neighbor’s kid while she had an appointment. The girls had a blast.
Katie found a costume right away and wore it most of the afternoon.
We came back to our house to eat lunch.
It took about two hours for them to reach their limits (and mine LOL) before I turned the TV on. 🙂
Katie is LOVING taking her scooter to baseball. This is what she discovered she could do tonight.
Owen did great as the “pitcher” tonight! Normally I wouldn’t record this stuff (because you, in essence, have to record the entire game) but I wanted to try and get some video since Tom wasn’t able to be there. 🙂
It sounds like a bigger deal than it really was—he just “graduated” from his after-school introduction to martial arts class of less than three hours. 🙂
But first, his baseball game was canceled (more rain!) so we had time to go out to dinner first. On the way home we saw a rainbow and the kids were excited about following it so it was great that we had the full rainbow in the parking lot of the martial arts studio.
They had a warm up and then showed all the parents and families what they learned and then they got their diplomas and white belts!
Little sister was following along saying “I can do that, too!”
Unfortunately she refused to stay anything resembling still and was back and forth and up and down and making noise and interrupting and being rude…so in the middle of the video you will see her walk in front of the camera and then you’ll hear a cry because she got in trouble and lost her post-graduation treat (after three warnings).
We are letting him continue for a two-week trial just to see what happens. We really think he could benefit from many of the aspects (focus, self-esteem, self-confidence, and coordination) but it will depend on his attitude…and (unfortunately) the cost and time sink.
Normally I wouldn’t post something shot this poorly or so random but every once in awhile a random video suits the bill. Katie has started making this noise and it was hilarious. Then Owen comes home and she has to hug him—and tell him that she got pudding on her shorts. 🙂
Opening day was the only day we could go, so off we went!
My first carnival ride in who knows how long! It was Owen’s first time on this ride and while he didn’t love it (it went a little fast, he didn’t like going backwards, and he didn’t like the loud siren), he was a trooper!
This is him listening to the ride after we got off:
Katie wanted to do the fun house…amd was super excited ablit it…
Running into it, still excited…
And about 10 seconds later, this is where it ended—when she refused to try climbing up the rope netting to the next level.
So after trying to convince her to just try it, she turned around and walked out. She actually got her tickets back, though, so that was a bonus. Then both kids DESPERATELY wanted to grab the ducks to get stupid cheap crappy toys. Ugh. It was $5 for three ducks, so we chose that—except, of course, if TWO kids want to share grabbing the three ducks, it’s $6. SERIOUSLY? So then they both picked swords. We explained to Owen that this was exactly like Chuck E. Cheese with the dollar store toys that weren’t worth what you paid for them and he could have gotten SIX of the identical swords had we just bought them. Hopefully it sinks in like the Chuck E. Cheese lesson finally did. But they were happy.
Then Katie wanted to go on the carousel. Owen didn’t, of course (they didn’t like any of the same rides), so she did it by herself, sitting on the seat because she wants NOTHING to do with sitting on an animal.
After which we took our family photo:
And Katie’s last ride:
And Owen’s last ride:
Of course they didn’t want to leave, but we had blown through $30 in tickets and games in a half hour so we were done. If they really liked the rides I would be more willing to buy more tickets, but they honestly just want the cheap crappy toys so I’m MUCH less willing to pay for that.
Daddy was tired and took a little cat nap.
Katie enjoyed her scooter.
And posed for some pictures.
And Owen finally played catcher!
And then I pretended I was taking a picture and got this video:
She said she learned it in gymnastics!
She was good while I was shopping so her reward was time at the play area!
Unfortunately, daddy wasn’t there to see it as the garage door broke as we were pulling out of the driveway…so he had to stay and wait for the landlord.
Two of his at-bats (he struck out on his last attempt) and bringing a run in:
And I missed Owen’s best play because it was when he was playing third base and I never record in the outfield… But he caught a pop fly and then tagged a runner out on third! DOUBLE PLAY! The crowd went wild! He was SO excited and so happy!!
Katie was having fun on her scooter—she had never really used it before today and was very tents on it but got progressively better. She’s great about wearing her helmet and puts it on every time!
Apparently we needed the promise of the library park afterward (if she was a good girl)…AND letting her pick which direction to walk on the trail. It still took about an hour but it was much more fun!
That said, she blatantly told me that she liked walking with daddy (or all of us) but not just me. No real reason, that’s just how it is. Thanks, kid. :p BUT! I did get her to admit that she’d be okay doing the walk with Owen along. Which is what I really want—that’s my plan for getting my trail walks in this summer when they’re both home all day. So we’ll see what actually happens.
But she was much more talkative today. She actually reminded me a lot of Owen babbling on and on like he does on our walks. I loved listening to it. Here’s a small sample.
I don’t get as worried anymore that he’s going to drop her.
We took the kids to National Harbor tonight to ride the Capital Wheel. Neither one was too excited at the thought—they were both scared. And honestly, neither Tom nor I were that excited, either, as neither of us loves heights. But onward and upward, right?!
Here are some pics I found online since I didn’t get good close-up pics:
First, we tried to get a family selfie with the wheel in the background. Between Katie being a stink and me not able to get us all in the photo, the first few attempts were unsuccessful. I’m posting the outtakes so you can see it takes multiple shots to get something postable. 🙂
Then Tom took over photo duty (his arms are longer!) and it still took a few tries.
The best we got!
Looking up as we were waiting in line.
Katie was NOT thrilled.
Owen wasn’t, either, but he was being brave. 🙂 (Truth be told, I was feeling VERY iffy on the first go-round—any little swing of the cabin was disconcerting. I stayed calm, of course, but it wasn’t anything I wanted to ever do again.)
And then after the first rotation, everyone was perfectly happy! And I’d gotten more comfortable as well, so all was well. I still don’t need to do it again, though!
Then it was off to dinner. I chose McCormick & Schmicks and…yeah. Let’s just say the one appetizer we ordered (of two) that we actually received was delicious, but overall the whole experience was just bad—completely unlike past experiences at other locations.
But then it was off to the “beach” — a smallish area with sand and a huge sculpture to play on. It’s called The Awakening and is both cool and creepy. These next two are not my photos.
The night was topped off with ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s. 🙂
As a friend commented, What is this shiny bright ball of light in the sky? It’s blinding! Seriously. It’s been raining just about every day for almost a month. So this was a perfect evening for a game!
Pay attention for a Katie surprise in the middle of this video. 🙂