The Accidental Boilermaker

Fort Wayne has to have some of the best splash pads around. Technically this park is in Leo and we drove by it every day last week on our way to VBS. Evelyn kept asking to go play at the park so today we went. I thought it was just a normal playground plus splash pad but in addition the park has a river bed with rocks for the kids to climb on.

Yesterday we drove to Whiting, Indiana for Pierogi Fest and to celebrate my mom's birthday.  There was so much food and people!  Lots of different pierogi plus other Polish food.  The traditional pierogi were the best but my fancy gourmet pierogi were pretty good too.  I think Evelyn probably had the most fun because we let her have an ice cream cone and a popsicle.

Kids camp (our church's name for VBS) is over!  It was a long week, but most important, Evelyn seemed to have a great time.  This was our first experience with VBS at our church and the church's first time doing an all day VBS, so I will try not to air out all my frustrations because any church program will have its highs and lows.  I volunteered under the impression there would be child care for Jameson.  This turned out not to be true (my guess is not enough parents volunteered who also had children under the age of 3) and so I was in charge of twenty 3 year olds and one 18 month old, from 9am to 3pm.  The church, I believe, anticipated that with an all day schedule, there would be fewer adult volunteers, so the VBS was more or less run by middle and high schoolers (the youth actually spent the night at church, giving them somewhat of a camp counselor experience).  So I had 6 youth leaders who technically were supposed to be charge of the 3 year olds and ...

Jameson is 18 months old. He is a wild and crazy kid, but also has a sweet side. Like when he dances around with Evelyn's light up Elsa Barbie. Yesterday he pulled out a Tupperware container that I use for all kinds of food items and was genuinely disappointed when I could not make cupcakes appear in the container. In church last week another nursery volunteer mentioned how well Jameson plays by himself which surprised me a little. Sometimes I find him playing nicely by himself, but usually he's doing something he shouldn't like trying to climb on the table or standing on the leaves of the futon.  Evelyn is signed up for her first kids run. Between now and September 29th she is supposed to log 25 miles.  Then on race day, the kids run the last 1.2 miles so it's like they complete a marathon.   Today there was an event that allowed kids to bike and run and log some miles. Evelyn got to try out the mountain bike trails in Franke Park. This ramp was easy ...

We don't often go to the zoo on the weekend, but we had no other plans and it sounded like a good way to spend the afternoon.  It wasn't too hot, but many animals were not very active. Except the Tasmanian Devils, they were running around and chasing each other.    Evelyn and Jameson's love for the Komodo dragon continues.  Evelyn made me be the small butterfly.   Cheese!

Currently we have been watching a lot of the Tour de France and Evelyn is convinced that Nate is riding in the race. So today when she comes downstairs from nap and sees the tour on tv she asks what country are they racing in and I answer France. Her response, is Daddy biking in France?  No Evelyn, your Daddy is biking in Ohio (he is at a time trial in Dayton today). Bubble story time was a huge hit today.  Kids got to make their own bubble wands with pipe cleaners and beads. I wasn't sure the pipe cleaners would be strong enough but they worked really well. 

As a family, we don't spend a lot of time in downtown Fort Wayne.  But we were there twice this weekend.  Saturday while I ran, Nate took the kids to the Three Rivers Festival parade.  He said both Evelyn and Jameson loved it and that Jameson given half a chance would have just walked off and joined the parade. On Sunday we went to our first Tin caps game.  Evelyn got a free ticket and meal voucher through the library's summer reading program.   It was a great day for a baseball game.  A little warm in our seats and once our row filled in, Jameson and I went for a walk around the concourse. Evelyn did not want her picture taken with the Tin caps mascot, Johnny, but Jameson didn't seem to mind. We also had really good seats, right behind home plate.  After being down 0-4, the Tin caps scored 5 runs in the 8th to win the game.  And then Evelyn got to run the bases!

Another weekly trip to the zoo.  We renewed our membership and bought a ride pass because boy does Evelyn love the carousel. Instead of the carousel today, Evelyn and Jameson got to feed the giraffes. And they got to play in the water stream (which is free, but is over in Australia and if we are short on time Australia is the first exhibit to get cut).

Nate and Evelyn continued their tradition of backyard camping over the holiday.  The weather only sort of cooperated. It rained early in the evening so no sparklers or catching fireflies but Evelyn didn't really seem to mind. Jameson must of realized he was missing out on something but he was not happy about sleeping in the house with me. Today we made red, white, and blue fruit pizza.  And finally got to do some sparklers!

Nate left for the national amateur time trial race in Louisville on Wednesday and I took Evelyn and Jameson to Chicago to visit Katherine.  It was rainy when we arrived so we went bowling.  Jameson did really well for his first time. Evelyn has lately been interested in dinosaurs and fossils so on Thursday we went to the Field Museum  Sue was fun but I think Evelyn and Jameson enjoyed the toddler play area the best.  We also saw the animal dioramas, the dinosaur hall, and the hall of gems. They were a lot of other exhibits that Katherine and I would have enjoyed but Evelyn and Jameson were ready for something else after a few hours at the museum.   So we went to the beach! Jameson was hesitant about playing in the water probably because it was cold. He mostly loved having a big open space to run around  We were fortunate the weather cleared up for Friday and we were able to go to the beach again in the morning....