I put these pictures in a blog like a week and a half ago, and it's been sitting here ever since. We've gone to Ohio and come back in the mean time, getting back around 11 am this morning...which, meant we flew out of Cleveland at 8:30 this morning, which, doing the math, put us all up at 4:30 this morning. To say we're all tried is an understatement. My eyes hurt. But, I did power through unpacking the bags and a grocery trip to Costco and Publix. I would give up for the evening, but Asa got his project for his next Master's class back while we were gone, and he needs to have it all finished up by the end of the month. While he powers through making his corrections and resubmitting his project, I'm going to try and power through my blogging in solidarity.
I'll get to all of that stuff though, but this blog is all about our Waterstraut Olympics. Now usually this is a thing we do on the 4th of July. But, we were in Hawaii over the 4th of July. I planned to do them on Memorial Day, but then the boys were bummed we wouldn't do our usual Memorial Day True American game. So, we just picked a random day between Calib's two Ohio trips, and made it Waterstraut Olympic Day. This year, with Calib's braces, I had to get creative with the candy 'medals'. Kit Kat became the bronze, Hershey's was the silver, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups was gold. I did make 'medals' they could keep (instead of eat) for the Frozen T-shirt contest, though, because the boys always request them.
I also usually make a sign. This year, I decided to just use the chalkboard, though. I went super easy on myself.
Even the events required very little effort from me.
In their first game, they had to blow their ping pong balls across a set of four cups filled with water. If the ball flew off, they had to put it back in the first cup.
Peyton won the gold in that event, while Calib took home the silver, and Hayden received the bronze.
Next up, we did our 'Frozen Toes' event. We've done this one before (a few years back). Basically, the first kid to get three ice cubes from their plate to their bowl, using only their feet would be the winner. Hayden rocked this event, while Calib and Peyton complained it was harder for them because they had bigger feet.
They played it out, though. I thought perhaps all the ice cubes would melt before either one of them got three in the bowl (two ice cubes stuck together only counted as one).
But, everyone was pretty happy with my choice of candy medals, so they weren't too upset with whatever place they got.
Next up, we ordered 'wet head' from Amazon on a lightning deal, and we had been waiting for a good time to use it. You fill the middle section, then pull the pins out (according to the spinner), and if you pull the wrong pin, the water falls all over you.
Hayden was out first, and then we played a second round to determine first and second.
Calib ended up with the gold, Peyton got the silver, and Hayden got the bronze.
After all that, it was time for the main event: the Frozen T-Shirt Contest. Now, these had been in the freezer since the day after we got back from Hawaii, so they were pretty solid. So solid in fact, they were smooshed together, and kind of hard to get out of the freezer.
Now the boys all had their shirts frozen in their block of ice. But, Asa gets one too. He doesn't play for a medal, though, just for fun. If you haven't seen us do this event before, the goal is easy: be the first to get your shirt out of the block of ice and put it on.
Usually during the summer, we do a backyard water park day too. But we hadn't gotten around to that either. Unfortunately, I missed most of the summer clearance at Target, so I had no slip n slide, but I did fill up the baby pools and make a water blob. They like to use the baby pools to thaw out their shirts, and the boys always like laying on the water blob (it's just plastic sheeting and duct tape filled with water), so they were happy to have that stuff out there.
This was our first Waterstraut Olympics in our new house, and there isn't a patio outside to beat the block of ice against to try and break it up, so Hayden made do with the tree.
I did make him stop when I realized what was happening to the poor tree, though.
Calib, Peyton and Asa all took the same basic strategy of soaking the shirts in the water and pulling it apart.
It takes awhile to get those shirts free from the ice. I will say, I had a very nice place to watch from this year. I really, really love my fenced in yard with my hammock. I cannot wait until it's cool enough outside to really enjoy it all.
Asa got his shirt on first, but nobody was too concerned since they knew he wasn't playing for a medal. Now, I've never actually taken part in the frozen t-shirt contest, but I have heard that the shirt is still very, very cold when you put it on.
While his brothers continued to work on theirs, Hayden tried to get his shirt on, but it was still frozen shut.
It wasn't too long after that, that Peyton attempted to put his shirt on.
I thought maybe Peyton still had a sleeve frozen together, but he eventually got his arms through and was crowned the 2017 Frozen T-shirt Contest Winner. It's very prestigious around here to be the reining champion.
Then there were two...
But it wasn't too much longer before Hayden attempted to put his shirt on.
And we had our silver medalist.
Sometimes, the bronze medalist gives up at the end. But, Calib took it well, and said 'I'm just going to sit back and relax' while he finished up.
Peyton and Hayden stayed outside to enjoy the water blob and the baby pool while Calib continued to work on his shirt.
And he did eventually get it on. He was a good sport about it.
We decided to do our medal ceremony later so the boys could hang out in the back yard for awhile. They enjoyed the sunshine, ate some Popsicles, and spent the afternoon outside. They did miss the slip n slide though, so next year I'll have to get one.
After everyone had showered and changed we held our medal ceremony.
I tried to take a nice picture of them, but they kept screwing around (story of my life). So, enjoy that sequence.
I gave up, but Hayden really wanted an official Frozen T-Shirt Contest Winner picture, so eventually this was the best I got.
I'm sure some things have gotten left out of the blogs the last few weeks. Countries have been few and far between. (I think we've done two in August- yikes!) I do have some odds and ends for you though.
Cort and Holly were at Disney a couple of weeks ago. They don't usually come our way, but decided to make a stop to see our new house. I tried to tell everyone we should take down the blanket fort for their arrival, but Asa sneakily texted Holly about it, and Holly responded with 'My kids would love it if you kept it up', and that was that. We had a nice quick visit with them before they headed home, and Cort didn't even die from his cat allergies.
Calib also delivered on his promise from Hawaii to play one more game of checkers with Garrett.
I had (and still have) a few more birthday rewards to collect on, so Asa and I did go out for my free Moe's burrito for lunch one day.
My days are all screwed up, because I'm tired, and I've been gone a week- but I think it was last Monday that Pasco country went back to school. We did get to enjoy a few days with the lodge basically all to ourselves before we headed off to Ohio. We love that school is back in session, I think we're going to take a couple weeks to hang out, do light work, catch up on countries, and enjoy low crowds.
Speaking of school, we did our evaluations. I still haven't ordered their photo books (although they are done and ready to be ordered), but we do have their cards letting us know they are good for another year.
Besides school work here, we have a kid back in the classroom, sort of. Calib is a college student these days. He has an ID and everything. It took three tries to finally get him registered, but he had his first class at the Community College this past Monday. He's duel enrolled as a home school kid, so basically for the next two years we get up to four college classes per semester for him for free. He does have to buy his books, but I mean, who doesn't want FREE college classes? He's just taking one this semester, to get his feet wet (and hopefully he'll get his license sometime between now and next semester, so we won't have to worry about taking him there and back!)
We also worked on fair projects this week. There was lots of art work going on. Hayden did various paintings.
And a cool pastel project (we did an outline on black construction paper with clear glue and then colored it in with pastels)
Calib did a neat project with paper bags and made a cool tree for the 'paper design' category.
And Peyton, ever the procrastinator, worked on a colored pencil drawing while I packed up everything to take to Ohio. To my Fremont friends: can see all their entries at the fairgrounds until Sunday.
We knew the blanket fort would have to come down before we left. So, the boys had one more sleepover in it before the 2017 Edition of Fort Waterstraut was no more.
Last Friday Peyton, Hayden and I were off to Ohio. Some fair entries had to be in on Saturday, so we needed to be there before then. But, Asa is pretty much out of vacation days, and Calib has class, so they had to stay behind (they did fly up for Asa's weekend). Asa had to drop us off a couple of hours before he had to be in the office, so he killed some time on the lazy river at Adventure Island. Calib, I think, drew the short end of the stick, because he was home by himself all day, taking down the blanket fort and doing all the laundry that went with it.
Forgive me if this blog seems a bit disjointed. I am really tired, my eyes hurt, and I'm ready for bed (at 8 pm). But, I did get it done! Now, I'm just one country blog and the Ohio blog behind, so stay tuned for that in the next couple days.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, Asa has finished up his school work and re-submitted his project, so fingers crossed!
Next Up: Our trip to Ohio
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