Closing Out February

Last day of February over here, since sadly it's not a Leap Day. (You know how I love a good Leap Day) Anyway, I figured I'd package up the last of the month in a quick blog, though there isn't much to tell. Since the Olympics ended a week ago, and then we had President's Day, we've been pretty low key ever since. 

Hayden and I are continuing on with our Black History Spotlight. We did Benjamin Banneker last week.. 

And Gabriel Prosser.. I made him a little sword by wrapping one of those little cocktail ones in foil and cutting it down to size. 

Peyton passed his first class of his new term in three weeks flat. Impressive. But, it was Geography, and as soon as he passed it (with flying colors) he was talking about how he should have taken it sooner. But, he did get his Taco Bell to celebrate. 

With no more Olympic meals, we also got around to a request Hayden made for his birthday: Asa's Five Guys Burgers. He makes them pretty spot on, and even does the fries. Hayden wanted that for his birthday meal, before my mom offered to buy him dinner, so I told him we could have them at a later date. 

Hayden also took his PERT Exam last week. It's basically his college admission exam to PHSC (Pasco-Hernando State College). He passed it with flying colors, even testing out of the basic classes. I knew he would. But then, when he was taking the test, I realized he hasn't taken a standardized test- maybe, ever? I don't know if he had to do any in kindergarten and first grade, but that was the only time he was in a traditional classroom. Still, proof you don't have to take the usual route to get where you want to be. 

Anyway, his first college classes (as a dual enrolled home schooler) start on the 14th. Which means, besides Black History and a couple of other things we've been doing, like Finer Things Club, we're all done with the bulk of Home school work. So, we decided it was time to clean out the Ikea booksehlf/cubby situation that has been called "Home School Central" for ten years. 

It's kind of sad in a way, but you know, things change. And thats ok. Onward and Upward. The boys all do still have one cubby. Calib and Peyton use it to put their stuff for school in theirs- so they can keep track of where their books and notebooks are, and Hayden has one for his college books and one full of his drawing and writing notebooks. Other than that, it's been turned over to more of a Crafting Center for me, complete with my Cricut stuff, some sewing stuff, and all my artsy stuff. Some of my books are there too. 

I even repurposed Hayden's old craft tackle box to make it into a little peg person tackle box for me, and our Black History Stars. I told Asa I was going to put a headlamp in there so I could be like the guy in Toy Story 2 who comes in with his bag and fixes up Woody. 

This weekend, however, was really weird. I didn't know what to do with no Olympics and no Football. Sundays are weird without football. Instead, Calib and Asa played Madden ALL day, and that's so not the same thing. 

To make it up to me, and to get some of the $4 for 10 plants at Lowes, Asa and I ran out, and I was rewarded with All You Can Swirl. It's been a minute. (Also, free coffee is back at Panera!) 

Now supposedly in a couple weeks, my mom is coming to visit, so we've been eating out of the freezer in an effort to defrost before she arrives and inevitably takes us to Costco. Apparently we had a ton of crescent rolls that Asa turned into desserts. 

The good news is, I think my mom might actually come to visit this time. Cases are finally low again! 

Which also, hopefully means Peyton's going to the UK in a couple weeks. Fourth times a charm! It's weird, we actually have things back on the calendar! 

Speaking of which, I flipped the calendar over to March, a few hours early. 

And I've already picked up the Paczki's for Fat Tuesday tomorrow. 

And thats it- told you nothing too exciting. I leave you with dog pictures. 

 

True American: 2022 Edition

The Olympics were over on Sunday. And then, Monday was Presidents Day! Around here, we always celebrate with a game of True American (which I sort of-partly invented years ago), and a special President's Day dinner. It was a good reason not to be sad about putting away the medal stand and clearing the chalkboard. I had another reason to take it down, because I had something else to put up. 

If you click on the True American link, you can see how we play this game (it's changed a bit since it was first invented). But, basically, you have to guess the president that you randomly draw. Listing them out help the boys, since it has been a few years since we all did the President's project (at least for some of us, Hayden and I revisted the project in 2020.) 

But this time instead of just listing them, I made Presidential categories for groups of them. It's more fun than asking number questions. Instead you get to be like 'is this a facial hair guy?' Now, I'm not saying those are the ONLY presidents with facial hair (or lord knows the only conspiracy guys or war guys or drama guys.. but you get the point). 

The top pf the tower was filled with Jones Soda. Apparently, Greenwise has them! I got one of each flavor they carry, so whoever got there first got first pick. 

The rest of the tower was filled with snacks leftover from the Olympics, as well as candy left over from the medals. 

And of course, we all had our buzzers, our headbandz, and our "shots" (prohibition cocktails, aka sprite and cherry juice). Asa has normal shots, and sometimes now, Calib does too. But he had to go to work like right after we were done playing. 

Of course, the dogs love True American for the pillows on the floor, so you don't fall in the hot lava. 

And then we have our corner of shame. It's where you have to go if you can't name two facts about the random president you have on your head, after you guess who he is, of course. Calib was the only one who had to go to the corner this time. But, to be fair, he did have Franklin Pierce. I mean, I can certainly name TWO facts about Franklin Pierce. But, I get it. 

He rallied though. Sort of. He did finish last. Asa, however, started the game, so we did have a rotation. If you finish all four presidents and get to the top in the same rotation as someone else, you have to rock paper scissors for who gets to pick the Jones Soda first. 

But, Hayden finished one full rotation before the rest of us! He was the winner of True American, 2022. Which was shocking. I don't think I've ever been beat before. But, I was one rotation behind him, with Asa and Peyton. 

Still, a fun game of True American, as always. 

Now, we didn't have our usual presidents day meal of Nancy Reagan Mac and Cheese on President's Day, because Calib had to close, and we thought it would be mean to do it without him. So, instead we had our dinner on Tuesday evening. The winner of the President's Day True American game always gets to eat off the one piece of White House china I have. (I would love, however, more! Especially James Polk's- his is pretty). But, a few years ago we found this plate- a replica from the Benjamin Harrison White House- at the state fair, and my mom bought it for me. 

Of course with dinner we also had some more prohibition cocktails. 

Our traditional President's Day meal always includes Nancy Reagan Mac and Cheese, Calvin Coolidge Carrots, Lincoln Apples (I think- lots of presidents had apples as their favorite thing), and white rolls, a James Garfield favorite. 

It was the first time someone other than me, got to eat off the Benjamin Harrison plate (which was designed by his artist wife, Caroline, by the way- and it features corn because Harrison was a big fan- they did live in Ohio/Indiana, where as we all know, corn is everywhere). 

And, that's it for Presidents Day. 

I don't know that I'll be back for awhile. We don't have anything planned for the next couple weeks, because the guys are all going here and there. I was hoping to squeeze in a trip to Universal, or a Florida Anniversary early celebration before Peyton goes to the UK, but we'll just have to wait and see how Calib's days off fall. 

2022 Winter Olympics, Day 17: Curling, Bobsled & Closing Ceremonies!

 Welcome to the last day of the Winter Games. It's been a journey. We began our Olympics in 2014 with the Sochi Games. We continued with the summer games in Rio in 2016. In 2018, we celebrated the Pyeongchang games. And even though I thought those might be my last, the guys were on board for the 2020 summer games, which had to be delayed to 2021 in Tokyo. I thought that might be it. But, at the end of Tokyo, the Winter Games were just six months away, and everyone was on board to do this whole thing one more time. 

So here we are. One last go.  Day 17, of the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. 

If we're going out, we're going out with good food, lots of events, and a look back at all the fun we've had (seriously, I would do this with a group of adults next go around if I thought I could convince other grown people to ride down a sidewalk on a dolly/broken computer chair turned bobsled). 

Our events today included the Curling bronze and gold medal matches, Bobsled, and lots of medal ceremonies, and an unexpected one last event, but I'll get to that. 

We kind of had two spotlight countries. They all found this one in the mailbox yesterday. Hayden easily got Andorra, Calib went with the wrong tiny country (with Monaco), and Peyton didn't even venture a guess. He knew it was a tiny county, but all he could think of was Monaco, Vatican City, and Luxembourg, and he knew it wasn't any of those. So, Hayden continued his tradition of getting the hard ones right, and the easy ones wrong.  

But this morning, I placed one last REAL easy one in the mailbox, and Hayden was sure to get it. I don't know who wouldn't get this one correct, but it's a nod to the next Winter Games in Italy in 2026. 

The last medal event to bet on was women's curling. They got a dollar for each medal they linked to the correct country. 

I'm not sure Peyton knew how the gold medal game worked, so I let him switch GB to silver, and Sweden to bronze, leaving Peyton and Hayden with the same line up. The both got Bronze correct, as Sweden bested Switzerland, but that was it. 

Calib didn't get anything from his last bet, Because Great Britain won gold (coincidentally, it was their only gold of the whole games). 

Before everyone got up, I did an audit on everyone's sheet. Hayden inadvertently got an extra gold medal along the way. And, since the Olympics are technically over in Beijing, I could figure out how many medals their extra countries got. I realized things were looking possible for a tie, but figured there were still a few medals to give out, so I wouldn't worry about it, yet. 

 For lunch, we had an around the world charcuterie. Lots of leftovers from the last two weeks, and this is an easy way to use them up. I did get a few fresh favorites, too though. 

And, we had some mimosas to celebrate too. 

After lunch, we held our medal ceremony for the most bets correct... Hayden took the gold here, with 12. Calib took the silver with 7, and Peyton got the bronze with 5. 

And the largest spotlight country tally (all the countries you got correct, we took their medal count, added it up, and awarded our medals accordingly) went to Peyton with 67 medals from the spotlight countries he got correct. Calib was a close second, with 65. Hayden came in with the Bronze, even though he always chose an advantage in the events over the countries medals. 

In case you didn't notice, I did get everyone to wear their Olympic shirts today too. 

Up first we played the medal matches for Curling. If you missed it, yesterday Asa and Hayden advanced to the bronze medal match, and Calib and Peyton advanced to face off in the gold medal match. 

Asa and Hayden went first...

Ultimately, Asa took home the bronze. 

And then Peyton and Calib vied for the gold. 

I think you can tell by this picture who got the gold and who got the silver. 

Your 2022 Curling medalists... 

But, after this, we knew that we had a tie between Calib and Peyton, and the overall gold medal would come down to the Bobsled. So, to the Bobsled we went. i built this out of Calib's old computer chair that broke a few days ago, some duct tape, and the dolly. We then just made a "track" out of the sidewalk in front of our house. Asa kept time and I took pictures. 

We decided this was the "two man" Bobsled, so you'd pull two different people, and score a cumulative time for your two runs. Best time wins. Oh, and the people you pulled were the two closest people to your weight. So, Hayden pulled Peyton and Calib... 

Peyton pulled Hayden and Calib... 

And Calib pulled me and Asa... 

But then, we ended in a tie. 

So, we sort of kind of decided on one run to decide it. But, Peyton was up first, and got hurt when he took a tumble into the flower bed by the tree. And then yelled at us all, because he said it was dangerous. To be fair, I did make people wear a helmet. But, I was more worried about the person ON the bobsled getting hurt, than the one pulling it. So, then we mulled over what to do. We couldn't end the Olympics on a sour note. (Also Peyton let me take a picture of his hand, so he wasn't THAT mad at me). 

So we decided to give out two golds for Bobsled, and work on coming up with another event, while I double checked the accuracy to make sure there was in fact a tie (which there was!) 

I mean really, out of 17 events, how does this happen?! 

After much debate and discussion, everyone agreed on one more run in Cross Country Skiing. It's how we started these Olympics, and it seemed fitting to end them that way too. Plus, it incorporated both their skis and the flags, and everyone was good with that. So Asa and Hayden helped me set the course back up in the backyard. It was one run, you stopped at each station/continent and named five flags correctly. Once you did that, you moved on to the next continent and so on and so forth. It was a timed event that stopped when your skis crossed the finish line. 

We tossed a coin, which Calib won (on tails), and he decided to go second. So Peyton put on his skis, and headed outside. 

Calib went second (but I only have a video of it), so no pictures for you. But this was a good opportunity to get a picture of all three of them in their shirts, with their skis! 

This event was really won on African flags. Peyton did it faster, and he came out the winner.

 But, Calib injured himself in the process, twisting his ankle as he dashed to the finish line. Which is why he insisted taking the medal stand picture this way. 

Of course, final overall medals had to be awarded. 

You get totals by giving 3 points per gold, 2 points per silver, and 1 point per bronze. 

Your 2022 Overall Winter Game Medalists. 

And this time, thanks to my cricut, they get themselves some real fancy medals. 

Fun fact: Peyton is the all time winningest Olympian in the Waterstraut household. Him and Calib were tied at two a piece going into Beijing, and with Peyton winning this one, he's got three overall golds, to Calib's two. 

They also got their money they had banked, and a basket of goodies color coded with their medal (after this picture, trading was allowed). 

A close up look of the baskets (I took these pictures in my closet after I put them together, so the background isn't super pretty.) 

There was very enthusiastic trading, including with me and Asa. The boys know I have a candy stash for movie nights and such in my closet, so they were wheeling and dealing. 

Hayden was living his best life. While he's never won the overall gold, he's happy with the most money banked, and the Bronze basket, which everyone agreed was the best. So he just ate his pudding and talked about how he felt like the bronze medal winning Japanese skater, who was just happy to have medaled. 

For dinner we had Italian food, celebrating the 2026 Winter games in Milano and Cortina. We had Chicken Valdostana, Rocket Orange Salad, and some basil pesto farfalle pasta. 

We also added in some Italian wine, a small characuterie.. 

And for dessert some tiramisu and canolis for dessert. 

Everyone agreed the dinner was a hit.

 After dinner, we all sat down to watch the Olympic compilation video I put together. It doesn't just feature these Olympics, but there is a nod to them all, since this is our last ones (at least in this kind of form). 

It's nine minutes long. Basically two Olympic fanfares in length. So, I'm not even sure I can upload it to blogger, but here is the link, if you want to check it out. 

And then, of course, the Olympic flame had to be extinguished. And that honor always goes to the overall gold medal winner, so that's Peyton.  Whether we do these Olympics again or not, I'm keeping our Olympic flame and lighting it every Olympics until it dies. 

So there you have it, the Beijing Games are officially closed. I keep saying that's a wrap for Olympics here. But, we'll see, never say never, right. 

Thanks for following along for the last 17 days, I hope you've enjoyed watching all of our shenanigans.

I'm off to play some board games, and catch the Closing Ceremonies in Beijing.