Quick Trip to Florida

I get to travel less and less nowadays, but occasionally someone asks me to do a certain type of event that we can’t send anyone else to do. This was one of those times, and it ended up that I would be in Sarasota, Florida.

So Sunday I flew to Tampa and had a lovely drive down the West Florida keys to Sarasota. I took my time and stopped whenever something looked worthwhile and I was ready to walk around. There were huge lightning storms on Sunday afternoon, and so I watched lightning streaks in the sky from either side of the bridges as I drove across!

I was hoping to see a Manatee or two. 😉

I stopped when I was hungry and saw a restaurant that looked fun… this is from The Freckled Fin in Brandenton. I tried the key lime martini, just for fun!

I walked on the beach for awhile before continuing the last twenty minute drive to my hotel. Usually I am so rushed to get in and out from training events, so it was nice to have a few hours to slow down a bit.

The highlight of the evening, however, was Skyping with my family from the hotel. 🙂 JT always makes silly faces at me while Haley is telling her looooooong stories.

I woke up on Monday, trained for four hours, attended a sidewalk meeting, and flew home. I was back by 9:30 PM!

Game Night

My brother recommended we start a family game night once a month. We’re on month two and we’re having so much fun. We meet at my brother’s house for “Substantive Snacks” and a game selected by a family member (we all take turns).

This month we played Taboo. The kids and I worked on kid-level Taboo cards and I was really impressed how well they did! Preston made it to game night this month because he’s done with college for the year, hooray.

Haley’s PPL

Haley had her PPL this week! (Reference on PPLs – JT already did his.) Her topic was flowers. That is a broad topic so we had to work on narrowing it down to several questions she wanted answered about flowers.

She started by explaining that we planted lots of bulbs last fall, and they grew beautifully this spring. She said that she started thinking about how plants grow and what types of flowers were common based on that. It was a good start!

So here we are again, sitting together in the back of a classroom to watch our child up front. It’s pretty wonderful.

To view Haley’s presentation, click here.

P.S. Jim taught JT to take a selfie secretly when he is asked to take a phone photo. He’s getting pretty sneaky at it… I found this on my phone later that day!

Jim’s 38th Birthday

Jim had a birthday again! We tried to make his big day pretty special. It started with a cinnamon roll breakfast before church. The kids gave him their gifts at breakfast as well.

I enlisted JT to take Jim’s birthday photo. With me. 🙂

After church, we took the boat out on the lake. Haley was so excited to get a tube ride in, and Jim volunteered to go with her. JT stayed in the boat with me as flagger! That’s because he was chilly after taking a break from the boat at his baseball buddy’s house. They live on the lake and invited JT to come swim in their pool with friends while we skied on Sunday. Lucky boy.

Haley also helped Jim get the truck to pick up the boat at the launch. Doesn’t she look cute in the back of a truck?

We came home and played basketball, grilled hamburgers, and ate Jim’s requested Oreo Mud Pie for dessert with family.

Haley also got to give Jim his mud pie with a candle. She sure loves her daddy!

Lake Wilderness Tri 2017

Jim and I are signed up for three triathlons this summer. Our first one was this past weekend at Lake Wilderness. We both have some work to do to meet our goal times for later races, but it was a good first race. The weather was perfect and we had all the right gear. My knee (the other one, not the one I got fixed) hurt so badly on the run. Good thing I have an appointment with my orthopedist this week!

Haley’s Mini Olympics

Haley had her year-end gymnastics event called the Mini Olympics over the weekend. She got a chance to show her progress on all four apparatuses and go up to the podium to receive a medal and certificate. She had all four grandparents, both parents, and an aunt and uncle in the stands cheering for her at each apparatus. She was definitely the most cheered-for athlete.

I took video of each event but did not get a good shot of the vault… she started from underneath the bleacher loft and we didn’t notice until she had finished her first vault and was running toward the second.

We are so proud of Haley’s hard work this year at gymnastics. She is doing great in level two and progressing a LOT. She is excited to work toward level three!

JT’s PPL: Grade 2

JT had the opportunity to present his PPL (Personal Passion in Learning) Project last week at school. He has been working with Jim and me since early April on all of the components, so this was quite the culmination. His essential question was, “How do aerodynamics affect the speed of a derby car?” Other second graders had topics like “How to make popcorn balls” and “Types of Dogs” so this was a little bit more in-depth! Jim and I were both able to attend his presentation, and Haley joined us from down the hall.

To view his presentation, click here! Haley’s PPL is in a few weeks… her topic is Flowers.

Empathy Heros and Terrific Kids

Last Friday, Haley and the other kindergarteners performed at the school assembly. They were empathy super heroes. It was pretty cute! Haley had a speaking role as Narrator #4.

We recorded the entire assembly because Jim was travelling for work and missed the show. He watched it with Haley over the weekend. I’m only publishing the clip with her speaking part. You’re welcome.

Haley just happened to be seated next to her friend and neighbor, Jozie, and they were so cute together on stage. We had a cookie reception afterward in Haley’s class as well.


Also at the assembly, the principal announced this trimester’s Terrific Kids. This award is given to one student per class each trimester, so students only have three chances per year to earn the recognition. Haley was selected during winter trimester, and JT has been hoping to be selected all last year and this year as well. He finally worked up the courage to ask his teacher what he could do (differently) to earn a Terrific Kid award! He was recognized at the assembly as a Terrific Kid, and he was positively beaming about it. The best part was when his teacher let him know that when he asked her about it, he had already been selected. It was great for him to see his hard work got noticed.

Basically Baseball

We basically have three days off from baseball a week: Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. On Wednesday, we get caught up on homework and housework. On Fridays, we get to have a little fun. Last week we went to a craft night at the kids’ school. They made jewelry boxes for mother’s day, which was really fun.

We spent eight hours of last Saturday at baseball. It was a nice day and Jim even got a little sunburned! JT got his first hit – it was caught but he still felt really good hitting the ball.

On Mother’s Day, I woke up with JT’s cold. And Jim left for New Mexico for a work trip. And by mid-afternoon, I just really wanted to go to bed. I did get a Mother’s Day pedicure, and then I dropped the kids off to have dinner at my parents’ house provided by my lovely sister-in-law, who swooped in with amazing Chinese food when our first plan to go to a restaurant fell through.
And now we’re back at baseball… tonight JT’s team beat a team that they had lost to earlier in the season, so that was exciting! He is starting to be more comfortable playing minors (lots of older boys so it’s been slow going this year). We could tell he really wanted a hit tonight… but he only got pitched one strike, so he got walked all three times he was at bat. But his OBP is very high!