Highlights:
Every year I forget that in Eastern Orthodox churches Pentecost is green, not red. And I forget that in our particular church, entire families dress in green to celebrate Pentecost. This year I remembered around Pascha and bought some green fabric to whip up dresses for the girls. I found some green shirts for the boys and, for the first time since moving here, we remembered green on Pentecost. Poor Jillian was visiting and brought a blue dress instead of the green dress she usually brings. She watched other families come in all in green and thought, "It's okay, Johannah's family will not be matching." ... Sorry, Jillian. Bryan wore red in honor of the Catholic liturgical cycle, despite the fact that their Pentecost was last week.
Have I mentioned puzzles yet? I do puzzles now. I've always been willing to do puzzles, but in February Keshia found a speed puzzling contest and apparently she's always wanted to try one and I was the first team member she thought of. So we found two more teammates (Angelina and one of Keshia's friends) and met up in Columbus to win a speed puzzle competition. The adrenaline rush was real. After collecting our prize, we began wondering how good we we really were. Spoiler alert: pretty average. We looked up puzzle competitions and speed puzzle organizations. I have a virtual speed puzzle that I'm working on that I do over and over (and record with a time lapse video). I've gotten this 500 piece puzzle down to 29 minutes and 18 seconds by this point and am 4th in the competition. I'm not sure it's getting better than that. We joined Facebook groups and learned that there would be a speed puzzling competition in Columbus this month, so we signed up for that. And so, last weekend, Keshia, Angelina, Shantelle, and I competed in the team puzzle competition at Origins Board Game Fair. We came in 9th of 17 teams with a time of 1:06. First place finished in 24 minutes. Also, the puzzle was round, which was an unpleasant surprise. A Ravensburger photographer taught us how to pick up a finished puzzle (even if it's round!) and now I have a new party trick, but no photo because he took the official photo. A few hours later, Angelina and I competed in the pairs competition. We came in 22nd of 44 teams with a time of 1:28. First place finished in 28 minutes. Pictures of that one below. The individual competition was Sunday morning, so I missed it, but the organizer recognized my name from the virtual speed puzzle board, so now we're friends and she is having someone collect my individual puzzle for me to be mailed to my house after the competition.
Pictures:
Green for Pentecost. Dolman dresses are my new favorite.
Bryan, the girls, and I sketched out plans for Matthias's dragon birthday cake. I believe they go Gretchen, Bryan, Olivia, Kaitlyn, Johannah, but I could be mistaken. There is also a list of demands furnished by Matthias. Our visions might not matter, because Jacque is the one making this cake.
The kids built "a rocket ship taller than daddy!"
Kaitlyn and cousins:
Kaitlyn and Aunt Jillian:
Rides from Grandpa's mower:
Olivia and Bryan went to King's Island:
