The Accidental Boilermaker

 Well I guess it’s officially summer. The pool in New Haven where we take swim lessons opened today, so we went since it was going to be a hot day. We got there right when it opened and we did have to wait in line, but we got in and it didn’t feel crowded. After the first rest break though, it felt crowded. We stayed for two hours and then left to go home and get ready for soccer.  Jameson is doing a 3 day soccer skills camp at church. It is a nice, relaxed format. They do scrimmage at the end which is Jameson’s favorite part, but it’s important for him to practice the basics too. 

 Another 5K weekend. This was a super small race in a super small town southwest of Fort Wayne. The only reason we did it was my friend Tamber told me about it and it was cheap. Tamber runs it because it is only 5 minutes from her house. Evelyn and Jameson ran the 1 mile fun run. Last year Natalya won because she was the only kid. At least this year there was a little competition. Evelyn took 2nd and Jameson took 3rd. Tamber and I ran the 5K.  We had a good race and finished in 25:01. We basically finished together but the race organizers decided I was ahead of her, so I took second place female and she took third. A high schooler took first and she was way ahead of us. But there were only 8 other females in the whole race, so a very small race. 

 We saw the butterflies at the botanical gardens with Bella and Millie today. The butterflies were so active, flying around and landing on people. It wasn’t uncommon for one of the kids to have three or four butterflies on them.  The butterflies are so pretty, it’s hard to capture their beauty on camera. 

 We did it! Another successful school year completed. Evelyn of course was in tears getting off the bus because she is going to miss her friends and teacher. Jameson has been ready for school to be out for about a week.  Evelyn’s class won a guac-off fiesta by earning the most participating/listening points in Spanish class. So this morning we had to make some guacamole. Finally a last picture from the GOTR 5K.

 Girls on the Run is officially over. The final 5K was today. I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to coach a team of nineteen 3rd through 5th grade girls at the elementary school. The two other coaches were awesome ladies and I really enjoyed making two new friends. All the girls on our team were so sweet and fun too. At the 5K I helped out with the happy hair station where girls could get temporary hair coloring. Evelyn picked purple and Jameson got green. Evelyn also got her face painted.  Nate and the kids got a nice picture at the photo booth.  We had arrived two hours early to be helpful and there was lots of fun stuff to do but Jameson was maybe over it all by the time the 5K was ready to start.  I was a little nervous too. At the beginning of the program, Evelyn and Jameson were really into running laps with the team, which was why I signed them up for the 5K. But as time went on, it was more fun to play on the playground with other kids their age. S...

 We made our first zoo trip of the season. Nate came with us since the Toyota is in the shop and we had to pick him up from work anyway. We only walked through Africa. All the birds are off exhibit due to a strain of avian influenza that has been found in Indiana. You don’t realize how many birds the zoo has until they aren’t there to see. 

 So many fun end of the year things to do. Tonight the second graders hosted a poetry night to celebrate all their hard work in reading and fluency. Each student was paired with a student from another class and they recited a short poem together. Evelyn and her partner did a good job. Evelyn went right up to the microphone so it was easy to hear their poem; some kids were kind of quiet.  The poems followed a season theme (fall, winter, spring) and the night ended with everyone reciting a final summer poem.  Evelyn with her best friend Nidhi. 

 Today was field day. I got to help at the frog pond station. Basically half the kids hopped on the poly spots while the other half ran the spots to the front on the line so the frogs could travel from one cone to another. Then they switched roles. I got to see both Evelyn and Jameson. There were lots of other fun stations. Their favorites were the 100 yard dash, the frog pond and tug of war. I almost didn’t think Jameson was going to make it to field day. His teacher had communicated several times that she wanted the class to wear their lip sync shirt and this morning Jameson did not want to wear his lip sync shirt. I don’t know why but it was rough. He did finally get dressed and matched his classmates. 

 Evelyn had her spring piano recital today. It was a nice, stort program. Evelyn played The Entertainer and a did a good job. She didn’t quite nail   the ending but that’s ok. The best part was Evelyn’s teacher Miss Roth was able to attend. We walked into the room and two other girls were excited to also see Miss Roth. We didn’t realize Mrs Dorian had students who attended the same school as Evelyn. 

 Another first - a school block party! It was a perfect evening to be outside. We actually got in for free! Someone ahead of us either paid it forward or didn’t want to bother with change. The main attraction were the bouncy houses but there was also a fire truck, petting animals, face painting and balloon animals. Evelyn found her friend Nidhi right away and they were inseparable. Jameson saw several friends too. I liked being able to say hi to girls from girls on the run.