I just finished Peyton's birthday blog, so now it's time for the annual Waterstraut Olympics, which started way back in 2012 (and then in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 , and though a bit belated--since we were in Hawaii on the 4th of July--- , also in 2017) That's right people, I can link back to EVERY. SINGLE. WATERSTRAUT OLYMPICS! The whole thing started the year after we went to Alaska over the 4th of July holiday, because I wanted to start some sort of tradition for our 4th of July. After all, I had my childhood tradition of spending the 4th of July's at Devil's Lake in Michigan with my Sattler family.
My boys are not huge fireworks fans. You know, growing up Disney kids, when you can see an impressive display virtually whenever you want (or at least you could before blackout dates), it's just not something they're super into. And pile on top of that, we all hate crowds. So, I thought about what we could at home, more than a cookout or something and I came up with the idea of the WATERstraut Olympics. You know, where every event is water related.
But before we get to the Waterstraut Olympics, we spent our morning on July 4th with Peyton over at the Wiregrass Barnes and Noble. He's super into his manga (Japaneese comics) and while Asa and I got him some books for his birthday we also got him a $50 giftcard, because I am all about giving gifts that involve books. Most of his manga was on a Buy Two Get One Free Sale, and he also had some money from some other family to spend as well, so he went a little crazy.
Then we stopped by PDQ to get the BOGO platters of tenders. We put them in the slow cooker so we would have food out all day and people could graze between events.
Now, there's ALWAYS the Frozen T-shirt Contest, where I fold up t-shirts, stuff them in ziplock bags then freeze them for a few days, and then cut them out of the ziplocks making a huge ice cube of a shirt. . The idea is to thaw your block of ice and and be the first one to be able to put on your t-shirt. That event remains the same every single time. The boys often say 'everyone knows the Frozen t-shirt contest is the only one that matters'. Trash talking for who is going to win goes on for weeks before hand, people. It's kind of a big deal. It's also the only one I have to make official medals for (the candy kind will not do for the Frozen T-shirt contest, my friends).
But the Frozen T-shirt Contest is always the very last event. In addition to that, we have two or three or sometimes even four, events beforehand.
This year for our first event we brought out the tarp, and soaped it down and watered it down to make it slippery.
On one end there was a baby pool full of water balloons.
On the other end, three measuring cups. The first kid to fill their measuring cup by bringing water balloons over, and breaking them over their cup would be the winner.
I really soaped this one down, thinking they would slip on it, maybe break a few balloons in the process and it might take a minute. But turns out they have pretty stellar balance when candy medals are in play.
They filled their measuring cups pretty fast.
But Calib won the gold (Reese's Peanut Butter Cup), Peyton took the Silver (Three Muskateers) and Hayden took the bronze (Kit-Kat). For my non-chocolate lovers (ahem, Peyton), they were able to trade them in later for the large sour patch kids, but I didn't want Calib to feel left out, since he can't have those with his braces.
Next up we brought back a game from the 2016 Rio Summer Olympic Games, where we played 'Handball', or really, just Bucketball, which is for real like $50 bucks at least. Here's the deal with this one, you set up two triangles for 12 buckets (six on each side), you fill them with water (if you're so inclined), and then you take turns trying to throw your ball into each other's buckets. When you make a basket, you take the bucket away. First person to get rid of all their buckets first wins. It's basically kid friendly beer pong, because there's no drinking of beer, obviously. (Plus beer is gross, I'll take lemonade and vodka anyday over beer). But, point being, you'll be helping your kids learn an important college skill with this one while not promoting drinking. You can even add a variation of when you get the ball in a bucket, you get to dump that water over your opponents head. Oh right, and forget that $50 price tag, buy the buckets and the balls from the dollar store. You come in at 14 dollars, and it's the same freaking thing.
We set up the game tournament style. Mom played Hayden, and mom won (it was close though!)
Then, Calib played Peyton, and Calib came out victorious.
So Hayden and Peyton went into the losers bracket for the bronze medal match.
And Calib played mom in a hotly contended gold medal match.
Calib was victorious, so while he got the gold, mom had to settle for the silver and Hayden came in with the bronze.
Next up was the obstacle course of sorts. It began with having to dress in the hula skirt, shell bra and lei (which all came from the dollar store).
Then you were pitched water balloons and had to break one with the baseball bat.
Next you ran over to the baby pool from our first event and had to make a basket with the water balloon in one of the buckets from our second event (see how I'm re-using materials here!)
And finally you had to hop in the inflatable pool and find the letters to spell 'Winner', again, I just picked up some pool noodles from the dollar store (that place is my friend for the Waterstraut Olympics!), cut them up and wrote letters on them.
You then had to place the letters to spell 'Winner' on the bamboo stakes. We timed the whole thing to see who did it in the fastest time. Peyton went first.
Hayden was up second.
And Calib went last.
Calib came out the winner in this one as well, Peyton was less than 10 seconds behind. Hayden, well, he got the consolation bronze.
Then it was time for the much anticipated Frozen T-shirt Contest. Mom has never been here for the event (though she has watched over Skype before), so this year when I found out she was going to be here for it, I decided I would freeze a shirt for her too. Personally, I've never done it (someone has to watch and facilitate), but Asa takes part every year. He isn't eligible for a medal, but he plays anyway, so we did the same with mom.
I gave them their shirts, and off they went.
Everyone has different strategies, and they used to really like throwing their shirts against the concrete of the patio, but we don't have that in the new house, and you aren't allowed to take your shirt out of the backyard, so there's no running to the front for the sidewalk or anything. But this year, that tarp was used quite a bit. It was a really sunny 4th of July for most of the day here, and the tarp was in the sunniest part of the yard, so it was HOT.
But also just submerging your shirt in the baby pools was popular.
I never quite know what Hayden's strategy is, he's sort of all over the place.
So everyone worked away while I watched from the comfort of my adirondack chair.
Asa was the first one to free his shirt and put it on.
So he was rewarded with a drink and some pool time, while everyone else kept working.
Calib was the next to put his on, winning the gold medal of the Frozen T-shirt Contest.
He joined Asa relaxing in the pool, while everyone kept working away.
Peyton got his on next, winning the 2018 Frozen T-shirt Contest silver medal.
And then there were two.
It didn't take long before Hayden was putting on his t-shirt.
But mom wasn't too far behind. She didn't give up, and eventually got her frozen t-shirt on too.
Our Frozen T-shirt medals were given out a little later, so everyone could hang out and enjoy the sunshine.
That inflatable pool out there was actually pretty popular for lounging too.
Since (stop me if you've heard this before), we weren't home last 4th of July, this was our first 4th of July at our new house, so we weren't sure what would be going on around the neighborhood. But they had snowcones and watermelon up at the lodge, so we did go up there to take advantage and take a quick dip in the pool. There were lots of people on the pool deck, but the pool itself wasn't too crowded.
We also don't live on a large pond anymore, so there's not really a good place to set off fireworks, but I collected a few little things to do.
So we went outside and did some snakes and pop its on the front lawn. We had to wait for Sparklers, though, since it wasn't dark yet.
We killed time with some drinks and cards in the blanket fort.
And once it was dark we did some Sparklers. You could actually see quite a few big fireworks from our backyard. We might not live on the water anymore, but lots of people around us do, so we got to see their pretty fireworks.
Jobs are still an ongoing thing around here, even though the whole last week and a half has been kind of crazy, but per mom's pushing we let Hayden's be the teacher's assistant, and while he hasn't had to do much- he did manage to cram in a piano lesson, and he did flags with everyone else. Calib's been doing ok at groundskeeping, mostly making sure the trash is taken out (I've yet to see him mow the lawn and he leaves on Friday).
And Peyton has helped where he can as the Sous Chef, but with mom here and his birthday and the fourth of July, we've gone out to eat a lot lately. One night mom took us all to Moe's because she wanted Peyton to have a little more birthday magic.
It was all fun and games until Calib slammed her leg in the car door, running from the rain. Luckily, after a few rounds of frozen vegetables, she didn't have a big bruise.
She recovered enough to go to the pool.
And to teach Hayden chopsticks on the piano.
And then on Saturday we all went to the beach (minus Peyton who HATES the mid-summer Florida sun). It was the perfect opportunity to use my new Costco Froggie Float. I just needed someone to blow it up for me. Husband to the rescue! There's nothing he won't do for me!
And then we all took turns in the Froggie Float. It was so worth the 10 bucks!
The water this time of year at the beach is just lovely.
It was a nice trip to Honeymoon Island in Dunedin, even for a Saturday. There were lots of people out, but we easily found a parking spot and a spot on the beach for our stuff.
But while we were there, Asa checked the nest temperature on his phone and he was like 'why is it 83 degrees in the house?' I was like, 'I don't know, maybe Peyton let the dogs out and left the backdoor open too long or something.' I mean it was REALLY hot out. Asa gets real paranoid about stuff like that not working, but then he kept watching it go up, and I agreed something was wrong. We called Peyton and he was like 'why is it so hot in here?' He told us the unit was running, but nothing cold was coming out of the vents. We had just had our air conditioning serviced the day before, so we called them back up and they came over to look at it.
So we had to crank the 'cool set to' way up so the unit stopped coming on. It was costing electricty and not doing its job. Turns out, when they thawed the unit, it exposed holes and rust in our coils, and that was the end of our-original-to-the-house-air conditioner. I mean, this thing looked rusty and old when we moved in, and our house turns 15 this year, so I guess it makes sense.
The bad news was we needed a whole new unit, the worst news was that they couldn't do it until the next day. So, Saturday night here kind of sucked. It was so hot, and I was most worried about the dogs. I guess I should consider myself lucky they do installs on Sunday, because the only thing worse than not having air conditioning for one night in the Florida heat, is not having it for two nights.
The next day, Asa and Hayden stayed at home while they installed a whole new unit and mom, Peyton, Calib and I went off to run errands in air conditioned stores (You know it's bad if Peyton agrees to go to Kohls!) But, by the time we returned you could feel cool air coming out of the vents! The house had gotten up to 89 degrees though, so it took hours to get it back down.
But look at my pretty new air conditioning unit outside and in the garage. My ducts are all cleaned and retaped too, and that should hold us for another 15 years or so! (Also this new one won't leak and I can paint my garage wall and have it not look so gross, so there's that).
We decided since we were missing mom's birthday next week we better celebrate it now, so we did get her the famous coconut cake.
And we finished the evening with the bean game.
Monday I was off to take mom back to the airport. No worries, she'll be back in a month for my birthday, and we also booked our trip to Ohio in August for another Cedar Point trip and the fair (so we'll see her twice next month).
But while I was dropping her off Peyton was at the foundry making a tic-tac-toe board. He and Calib got wait-listed, and then only one of them got in and Calib gave up his spot so Peyton could enter his board in the fair, what a nice brother!
This week we're also watching a neighbor dog, so the boys have enjoyed spending time with him.
And while I was over with one neighbors dog, another neighbor's dog ended up in a yard for a visit. Beagles sure are diggers! So we had to take her home too.
Speaking of dogs, Calib finally had enough hours at the shelter to get his t-shirt (or rather, he had them awhile ago- but he just now got the certificate to get it in the mail).
And our dogs at home are doing the same old same old. Being cute and annoying all at the same time, but we sure do love them.
(Asa claims he doesn't like all these pets. I think he's lying!)
Etta even got to sleep with us the night we didn't have air conditioning- instead of in her crate, because I was worried about her in there with the heat. (This picture isn't from that night- we look much to happy to be without air conditioning-but the sequence is pretty funny!)
That is it from here. Calib is leaving Friday for something like 10 days in Ohio, so were gearing up for that, we also have to reschedule the annual Waterstraut All Nighter (since we thought we'd do it Saturday but bailed when the air conditioner went out).
Next Up: The dreaded Calib-less week (and a half).
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