The Accidental Boilermaker

 Evelyn has finished first grade! It sounded like she had a fun last day. Her principal is also leaving for a new school, so there were lots of activities around saying goodbye to Mrs Kennedy.  After a little bit of a rough morning, Jameson and I went for a short run/bike ride and then he helped me tackle the ivy along the house and replant some lilies.  After piano we went to Zesto’s to celebrate the start of summer.  We also stopped by school to take our own picture with the sign. 

 Nate has two co-workers who are really into dirt track car racing and they invited us to a race in Gas City. It was a lot of fun and loud and dirty.  It was also very family friendly. We knew to bring ear protection, but we saw lots of parents who also brought eye protection for their kids. We were actually sitting next to the Speedway promotion girl (I don’t really know what to call her; she’s the one who sprayed the winner with champagne and she wore a sash) and she gave Evelyn and Jameson sunglasses.  It was hot at the start of the races but we were glad we made everyone where jeans. There’s a lot of dirt that flies around when the cars getting going fast.  We watched the winged sprint cars and the midget sprint cars. The NOS car is Nate’s coworker’s favorite team but he didn’t do so hot last night. The winged cars create so much dirt and dust it’s hard to keep your eyes open to watch. The midget cars are much easier to watch but I didn’t get a picture of them....

 Tonight was the Fort Wayne Community Schools elementary track and field expo.  I had no idea what to expect since we didn’t get to participate last year, but it was fun. Parents weren’t really allowed on the track or in the field so I sent Evelyn to her first event and JJ and I watched from the stands. She participated in all four events - shot put, long jump, the 100m dash and the 1600m. She found her friend Eloise from kindergarten and they ran the mile together although Eloise was faster   It was awfully hot, but the event had high school track athletes running with students to make sure they were staying safe. Evelyn ran the mile in 10:07 and she ran all 4 laps without walking. She took third in her heat for the 100m dash.  The plan was we’d go straight to church from the expo (because Nate was playing guitar) but Evelyn didn’t finish quite in time and she was very hot and sweaty. So we decided to go home and shower instead. 

 Last day of school for Jameson! He has mentioned several times how much he will miss school and Miss Stephanie.  When we left the parking lot I said wave goodbye to school and he got all teary which made me sad and teary. Central Christian School was a good place for Evelyn and Jameson. Thankfully, Miss Stephanie attends Friday night church just like us, so Jameson will still see her often.  At drop off Miss Stephanie told me about the talent show at 1:00 and that the preK class was in it.  That was news to me, but I had planned on running and had not showered yet, so I said well take a video for me. But then I called Nate and he helped me decided to go. It wasn’t too hard to convince me; I wasn’t looking forward to running in 80 degree weather. Also, there hasn’t been a lot I have been able to help with or participate in with Jameson’s classes. Part of that is how Miss Stephanie runs her classes which I don’t disagree with, it’s just different compared to Evelyn’s ...

 Jameson graduated from preK! He still has two days of school, but tonight was their graduation ceremony.  It seemed extra special because he didn’t get to have any end of the school year activities last year.  It was a night of big emotions; Preston was especially sad but that was ok. The class recited three Bible verses and sang several songs. Each student got to come to the microphone and say what they wanted to be when they grow up. Jameson wants to be an Olympic runner. 

Evelyn got to return to school in time for the science fair. The science fair is optional; she didn’t participate last year, but this year she wanted to.  Together we thought maybe something to do with worms would be a good idea since Nate has all the worms he uses for composting and Evelyn decided on testing what habitat worms prefer.  She picked the habitats and said she wanted to do a round robin design. Nate helped her with the experiments, but she really did most of it herself. We also helped with the graphs for the poster and some of the typing, but she cut and glued everything on. She presented her poster today to her class. Jameson wanted a picture too.

 We survived our week of remote learning.  Evelyn has had no symptoms thankfully so she can return to school on Monday for the last 7 days of school. She missed all her NWEA testing and will have to make that up when she goes back. There were lots of zooms, but there was also a fair amount of down time where Evelyn could do her own thing. The remote teacher was super nice and very inclusive of Evelyn. In science they made a string telephone.  Jameson adjusted well, but he is used to having Evelyn at school all morning. It’s hard to switch to being quiet and not disruptive while she was on zoom. Thankfully there were no scheduling conflicts that interfered with his school.  Waiting to get on math zoom.  Jameson came home with a stack of optional papers to do over the summer. He told his teacher he was going to do them all in one day. And he did. 

 My Mother’s Day weekend started Friday at 2:00 pm when I got a call from Evelyn’s school nurse saying Evelyn was a close contact of another child with covid on the bus. So I call Nate, call my mom, pick up Evelyn and then pick up Jameson. But as long as she is symptom free she can return to school on the 17th, so just one week of remote learning.  Saturday I was able to go for a run and then help with tennis lessons since Jameson did not want to go without Evelyn. We compromised and Jameson participated in lessons while Evelyn and I had our own lesson on the far court away from everyone else. Knowing the weather was not looking nice for Sunday, we drove out to a new nature preserve to hike and look for waterfalls.  We followed a little creek and found the first waterfall.  Then we found the Salamonie river and the second waterfall.  Not as exciting as the first but we were able to climb right up to it.  Further along the river trail we discovered the third...

 We went to the zoo after school yesterday. A lot of the animals were active. The male lion was walking around and even talking. It’s incredible how loud he is. The leopard was up on a branch; we couldn’t remember seeming him up high like that before. I didn’t take a picture but the gibbons were swinging and jumping around too. 

Fort4fitness started yesterday. Unfortunately, we can’t participate in the fall festival this year. The dates for the kids marathon and all the other races were dependent on the Tin Caps baseball season which released its schedule later than usual (because of covid).  So by the time the dates were announced, we’d already made plans for that weekend in September.  It is disappointing because this will be the third year in a row Jameson has missed the final mile run. But the training sessions are still fun.  Now I just need to think about if I want to find a new fall race.