July

Highlights:

Olivia and I took a trip to the monastery at the end of June. I don't think she cared much about the religious and monastic elements, but she did enjoy having a couple of days alone with me. It's a four hour drive, so we had plenty of time to chat in the car. Once at the monastery there were services, of course, but we also had time to walk around the grounds and to do a puzzle that we found in the library.

Kaitlyn just finished up her CYO kickball season. She was the smallest one on the team (coed 3rd-6th), but she did pretty well once she stopped being intimidated. In the championship game she kicked the ball that put the winning run on third. It was a sacrifice play, so she was a little disappointed that she didn't actually make it onto the base, but was happier once I explained what happened. Her team won the championship, which was very exciting, and she's already talking about playing next year.

Matthias broke his arm getting off the trampoline. Usually trampoline injuries are from falling badly, but he somehow hit his wrist just right on the plastic slide the kids use to climb up and down. We didn't know it was broken for a week because there was no swelling and it didn't seem to bother him after the initial injury. A week later he was complaining about it again, and I decided to take him to urgent care. It seemed ridiculous, though, because he was using his hands to run up the slide as I was grabbing my purse. The nurses at urgent care poked and prodded and gauged his complete lack of reaction and decided they were going to get an x-ray just in case before sending us home with a soft brace for a sprain. After seeing the x-rays, though, they told me that, to everyone's surprise, his wrist was actually broken and we needed to head to OIO for a cast. It turns out he had a small buckle fracture that was placed just in a spot that didn't get much jostling. He has a cast now for the next 6 weeks. It will be off before school starts, but on long enough to keep him from doing much swimming this summer.

We spent a week this month in Hocking Hills with all of my family having a reunion to celebrate mom and dad's 40th wedding anniversary. Instead of one giant house, we opted for 1 large house and 2 small houses nearby so that we were all within walking distances but still had places to take breaks and let babies nap. We had a lot of fun. I cannot currently find all the pictures (most of them not taken by me), so I'll have to create a separate post for that later.

Pictures:

A dress I made for a color party. The hem is a little wonky, so I might need to fix that sometime.

Puzzles in Hocking Hills:

Matthias and his cast:

Kaitlyn's kickball team and their trophy:

Our newly reorganized game shelf:

The monastery puzzle:

Visiting Rudy and August:

A family photo:

June

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 pairs puzzle at Origins:

The kids built "a rocket ship taller than daddy!"

Kaitlyn and cousins:

Matthias and Arlo:

Water slides at a friend's house:

Kaitlyn and Aunt Jillian:

Theodore playing a game at Grandma's house:

Matthias and August went to zoo camp:

Rides from Grandpa's mower:

Sleepy Theodore:

Hot tub and swimming pool:

Olivia and Bryan went to King's Island:

Euphemia and Johannah:

August and Theo:

May

Highlights:

Bryan has claimed the whole garden as his own. This claim went completely uncontested, to the point that there are a few individual plants he attributes to me and I get grumpy when he wants me to deal with them. Whatever farming blood I had was bred out generations ago. Years ago, before my gardening beds were usurped, I planted asparagus. I believe I planted 24 one year old plants (asparagus plants take several years to produce asparaguys). Back then, our garden beds were one cinder block tall, with a corresponding amount of dirt. During the second year of the asparagus, Bryan raised the beds to be three cinder blocks high, again with a corresponding amount of dirt. In the third year of the asparagus, our poor spears had to travel through an extra foot and a half of soil to find the sun. So I have one surviving asparagus plant. It faithfully shoots up whatever spears it can each year, but by the time they are poking out of the dirt enough to pick, they are enormous. Still, Bryan informs me that I have asparagus to pick and I grumpily trudge out there and snap off a spear that is taller than your average 2 year old. It is not tasty.

Pictures:

We went to a bowling and trivia night with Bryan's parents. This is a picture afterwards when the kids were slap happy and waiting for Bryan to bring the car around.

This is how Theodore colors. He holds his marker upside down and only uses one color. This month it's orange. He has been pretty good at staying in the lines, especially considering his form.

Just a 5 year old and his asparagus spear:

This is boys. When asked what they were doing, Theo said, "We're trying to win."

I do not know what Matthias is doing here. The headband I believe is for sweat (it's very effective). And then maybe he's trying to wink?

Blanket forts are a fun thing we've been doing lately. All of our chairs, blankets, and pillows are constantly being hauled across the house to make a new fort.

Bryan at Dawson's first communion:

Swimming after party:

A hide and seek story with Sebastian:

Field day pictures:

Rocket math party:

5th grade spelling bee: