Check out my live videos I did today for a group sale. I’ve done live videos before but this was my first group sale experience—and I don’t think it went too badly, even considering the two product fails I experienced!
Category Archives: Videos
Owen is trying archery!
We let him choose what class he wanted to take at the community center and he decided on archery!
Braving Chicago, Day 2: Shedd Aquarium
Starting the day with bear hugs.
Going into the pool (aka basement) for breakfast.
Arriving at Soldier Field after parking in the garage (it’s kitty corner from the aquarium).
Waiting patiently while we get our free (!!) tickets!
Getting ready for a 4-D movie short.
Do you know what these are?
How about now?
Shark eggs!
We got a stranger to take our group pic…
But of course I had to do a selfie!
After a somewhat agonizing drive home through rush hour traffic, we arrived to this:
I’m glad we got to see our friends, but after two full days in Chicago I cannot understand how people there don’t go postal. Between traffic, bikers, and congestion, I had a headache almost the entire time I was in a car plus I got stuck in rush hour coming home today so that made it a sucky ending. I understand there is a crap ton to do there but it’s just not for me. So I was right, I will be visiting even less then I visited DC because at least DC was only 20 minutes away. Caitlin, I love you, but next year you’re coming to the ‘burbs. 🙂 :heart:
I was fascinated watching ants devour a piece of biscuit.
Without really thinking this morning, I tossed a half-eaten biscuit out of the car, assuming some animal would come by and eat it. Later that day Katie came back to tell me there were lots of ants on her biscuit so I had to check it out. This is what happened.
No more training wheels!
He’s been going out biking a lot with the neighbor kid and he said he was finally ready to take the training wheels off. Tom had moved them so they were still on but up high enough where he couldn’t really rely on them. So we made him ride down the street and I followed him to see if the wheels ever touched. They didn’t, so Tom took the wheels off! Then it was time for the first real ride!
And of course sister was with us, too, because she is a bike riding fiend.
And getting his reward for learning to ride—his new (adult!) bike!!
It’s so nice when he pushes her and we don’t have to.
We always do fireworks at Gramma’s!
The crazy ladybug!
S’mores and silly string!
Man this is an awesome adventure!
The kids were good on our errands and it was hot out so we surprised them and stopped at the water park by our house to play in the free splash pad. While they were playing Owen said “Man, this is an awesome adventure!!” 🙂 Luckily I had old towels in the car.
Water fun with neighbors!
Julie had promised the kids they could do water balloons and we were running out of time so tonight was finally the night! Of course it took longer to fill up the balloons then it did for the fight, but the kids had a blast.
They wanted to do more balloons but we convinced them that playing in the water wind be more fun!
The last time at the pool
We were going a bit stir-crazy at the house, so I decided to take the kids to the pool. Little did I know at the time it would be out last day there… 🙁
Of course, Katie made fast friends with some little girl there and they played and played.
Celebrating Katie’s birthday with the neighborhood gang.
iFly again!
Today is the day I redeem my free flights from them messing up me not getting any photos the last time! And what better lipstick color to wear for flying than Fly Girl? (Though it’s a tiny bit too deep for me on its own so I layered it between Cocoa!)
Since I missed out on any pictures the last time, I made sure to have Tom take a ton of them this time around—which he certainly did!! I had about 100 to sort through! Here are the best of them…I am making excited faces in most of them because I was smiling and making faces for the kids when I flew around by them. (Click on any of them to see a bit bigger version!)
The instructor knew I had flown before and had told me that we could try a new move or two, but since I only had short flights (two one-minute flights instead of the two two-minute flights I had the first time) we wouldn’t be able to do too much. That said, almost as soon as I got in, I flew way above her head! I could sense she was a bit nervous (they generally keep you at chest level or below so they can grab you if they need to) but she saw I was okay so she let me go!!
Taking me up for the High Flight!
Owen was the videographer for these! He did a great job!!
And the actual pics they took! The instructor said she put me in front of the camera A LOT to make sure I got a good photo!
Post-flight success pics!
It’s funny. While I was waiting (and it was a looong wait today) I was like “Ugh. Is this really worth it? All the travel time and all the wait time for two silly minutes in the chamber…” And then I did it and YES, it was totally worth it. It’s SOOOO much fun. I can’t wait to use my 10 minutes in Chicago!!
Who knew rain could be so fun?
It started raining harder and I wanted the kids out of the house for a bit, so I suggested they go play in the rain. Katie immediately thought that sounded good but Owen wasn’t convinced. And then I said they could put their suits on…and he got interested. They had a blast.
The kids went to a new pool!
Heather and Eric invited us over to their pool today, but I had a LipSense party scheduled and Tom really needed to work in the garage…so they offered to take the kids for us!! And they had A BLAST! The pool is much bigger than our AND has a real deep end with a diving board so Owen was THRILLED—he’d never been on a diving board before! Heather said he was so cute—he must have gone on it 30 times!
These are some of the friends we are REALLY going to miss…
We got rained out at the pool!
It was so hot and humid at Owen’s Field Day that we had decided to take the kids to the pool when Owen got home. Tom was home as well, so we all went down…and it started sprinkling almost immediately. It was fine for a bit and then it started raining harder. Tom stayed with the kids as they were already in the pool while I went to sit and wait in the car (it was chilly in the rain). They didn’t last too much longer. These are the pics (and video) I snapped before the rain started.
Last day of school: Field Day surprise!
After Owen gave me the yes/no business about his end-of-year grade party, I decided to surprise him and just show up at the whole-school field day event. (I had asked if he wanted me to go and he said no again.) He was happy to see me and eagerly let me take pictures of him with his friends. 🙂
The school as I approached.
Mohammed, the kid Owen ran around with the whole time.
Every kid wore one of these. They got a sticker each time they completed an event/game/activity.
I get kind of choked up when I see this. I don’t want to leave.
Racing off to the next thing.
I was surprised when Owen wanted to do cup stacking—I wondered how he knew how to do it because he’d never mentioned it.
And then I watched him do it—ahhhh, he has NO idea how to do it. (I later showed it to him on YouTube and of course he loved it.) You can watch it in the video compilation at the bottom of this post.
We saw our friend Gavin and he wanted to give Katie a hug but she started to be shy.
Miss Christina, Katie’s teacher.
Showing me he can now climb to the top. When we were there for back to school night, he refused because he was scared. We told him he’d be able to do it by the end of the year.
He mastered the rock wall, too!
This is about as high as Katie gets. They don’t play on this playground in her class—the pre-k kids have their own smaller playground.
Waiting for face (or arm) painting.
Finally getting over her shyness with Gavin.
Katie wanted to get her face painted but the lines were pretty long and I wanted to be able to follow Owen around, so I told her not unless the lines went down. I turned around to talk to someone for a minute and when I turned back, she was getting her face painted by Miss Anne (our friend and Katie’s teaching assistant). I asked Mrs. Stuhlman (Owen’s kindergarten assistant who I had been talking to) how that happened and she said she just took her over and sat her down—the privilege of being a teacher! So Katie got to cut ahead of like five kids!! Mrs. Stuhlman asked if she might get Katie in her class next year…and I had to give her the bad news that we were moving. 🙁
Owen getting an alien on his arm.
I let Katie do some of the games that didn’t have big lines. She was waiting to throw baskets (video below).
Katie with AJ, a neighbor girl who is in first grade. She’s a tiny thing.
I’m not sure I’ve ever gotten my face painted (that wasn’t a thing back in the day) so when the grades were switching areas and there wasn’t a line, I sat down to get a quick flower to match Katie’s. Gorgeous work as usual by Anne and her daughter!
Lining up getting ready to switch to the fields for flag games and kickball.
I may have to redo this photo, but you can see three tiny black dots in the sky. They were dragonflies! The field was swarming with hundreds of them! It was the strangest thing!!
After flag games were done, Katie and I left. It was HOT and we hadn’t planned for it (I was in jeans and a black tee shirt and we hadn’t brought water—and we hadn’t thought it was going to be so hot and humid). Thankfully our neighbors stayed and got a few pics and videos (see below).
Owen waiting for kickball.
Having a BLAST in the water!
Me and Katie back at home…
I am SO glad I went and was able to take lots of pictures. We are going to miss this school so very much…
Songs from Pre-K
Pool, Day 11: Pizza dinner
Everyone at the pool is really nice—everyone plays catch with Owen (we have no idea who this is but it wasn’t the first time he’s played with it Owen).
Owen pushing a bunch of girls around the pool. 🙂
Playing with Daddy!
Proof I’m actually there!
And tonight we surprised the kids and ordered pizza for dinner at the pool. We do it once a summer…so we had to get it in quick this year.
The final 2017 Angels baseball game!
Father and son before Owen’s last at-bat (where he got a slamming base hit—watch in the video below)!! We joked that we should have taken him to a big league game earlier because it obviously affected his game play!
Sidenote: just look at his face! OMG, I didn’t even see it when I took it because their faces were in shadow. I finally saw it when I edited the photo! He is such a hoot!
During the game, the kids signed frames for all four coaches:
The coach got each player a holder for their game ball:
Swarming the food table like ants!
Tom getting his thank you:
And we got the team and player photos:
Of course we had to pick a position early in the season…had it been later, we would definitely have picked first base.
Pool, Day 7: The jumping begins
Owen’s Game Ball #2
Owen totally rocked first base today and earned another game ball!!
And WOW did he earn it. He was amazing to watch—he totally looked like a pro out there with one foot on the base, arm stretched out, catching a throw from third base like it was nothing and easily getting the out. Or leaving the base to catch a throw and easily making it back to base for the out. I think he got all three outs one inning! We are so proud of him!!
I really wish I could get video of him playing first base, but every time I’ve tried, nothing happens or it’s a bad play (of course, right?). And I don’t really want to record the whole inning. But we have one game left so I might try…
And this was little sister during the game—such a monkey.
Pool, Day 4: The jumping begins
The weather was really nice so we went down to the pool and had Tom send Owen down when he got home.
Pool, Day 3: It’s still freezing.
The pool is still quite cold so Katie was playing in the puddle. 🙂
Finally getting in.
Close call in baseball!
When calls are impossible to tell the ruling defaults to the runner so Owen was safe, but I’d been recording so I could go back in slo-mo and check it out:
Even with video replay it was super close, but it looked like Owen had his foot on the base and the other guy was inches away from tagging him.
Look at the size of this school!
This is Owen’s school. It’s so big that they divide the kids into East and West depending on whether your address is odd or even. I think it was something like 1500 students and it’s only grades 1-3.
Screeching flying worms!
So, Gramma Jean had these many years ago when Owen was maybe 2-3 and he hated them! She kept them all this time and brought them down. The first one busted as she was blowing it up. The second one made no noise whatsoever. Then one finally worked.
Baseball game with Gramma and Grandpa!
Gramma Jean and Grandpa David came down to watch the kids while we did house hunting stuff… And they arrived in time to go to baseball with us!
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!!
Weeknight baseball!
