American Ninja Warrior

Currently, Ellie is obsessed with watching this show.  I mean, she likes other shows, but she loves watching both the adult and junior edition.  Madison and Ellie have used our new swing to create their version of the Ninja Warrior course with the slide as their warped wall. 

Well, we singed up for the Pigskin Pals card in Stark County.  It is a cool – and free! – card for kids 12 and under that has 15 or so locations that offer free (or BOGO) tickets or food items.  It gives the businesses good exposure and allows us to see some new things.  The Ninja Hub Gym was one of those things. 

We invited Cale and Landen (and Steph) to come with us on a Thursday afternoon.  We invited my mom to come, too, because it is up her alley of things she likes to watch.  They were so excited ALL DAY about going.  And it did not disappoint. 

The owner was so good with the kids – patient as they learned, but also pushed them as he saw they were ready.  It really helped build confidence in them.  He went through various obstacles on the course and how to do them before the kids were unleashed to try it on their own. 

     

Madison liked this obstacle:

    

Ellie liked this obstacle:

    

And the warped wall was fun for everyone!

     

And anytime your kid looks like this….

you know it was good.

So Far in June

I figure I’m on a roll, so here is a little glimpse of how our summer has started. 

Zoo Program at the library

    

Basketball Camp.  Both girls went, but I only got a few pictures of Madison.  This is an action shot.

Volleyball Camp.  Only Ellie went to this one.

Date night for Jeremy and me at Perennial Vineyards with live music.  It was a beautiful night and so relaxing.  And it ended with an amazing sunset.

   

Hot air balloon sighting.

Fun with great-aunt Diane at Christmas Run Park and MCC Connections,

    

Grandma Yoh at City Square Steakhouse for my graduation!,

and each other.

Outdoor Service

Every year, Salem has an outdoor worship service weekend at Camp Luz.  It is a great time.  We missed it last year, but we were around this year. It starts on Saturday afternoon.  I usually show up frazzled from trying to get food ready for the carry-in on Saturday and Sunday.  But once there, it is totally fine. 

This year, we played volleyball, canoed, and tried to learn how to unicycle on Saturday.  Oh, and we swam some.

      

The girls and Jeremy stayed overnight on Saturday.  They have tent camped in the past, and the girls look forward to this.  Due to a huge thunderstorm passing through, they went the lodge route.  In the morning, there is some breakfast for them.  I held down the fort.  I finished up my chicken parmesan sandwiches for the crock pot and took care of Pepper. Madison had made a fantastic decorated cake for our second carry-in dish.

Sunday morning started sunny and clouded up, but never rained.  We held the worship service outside on the lawn.  It is a good experience to worship in new places. 

   

Then, we swam (I didn’t, others did), played more volleyball, unicycled more, canoed more, and hung out.  It was a good day.

Last Day of School

And we finally made it.  The last day of school.  The pictures were a little rushed, but it you can’t miss the bus on the last day! 

Here is Madison, Day 1 and Day 180ish.  So long 3rd grader…

    

Here is Ellie: Day 1 and Day 180ish.  So long 1st grader…

    

Both of them: Day 1 and Day 180ish

    

Here’s to a great school year in the books – Thanks, Mrs. Shetler and Mrs. Wenger!

May Mayhem

This is just a round up of May – in June.  I didn’t blog for awhile because I thought I covered everything.  Guess I was so busy, I didn’t realize I was doing things.  (Does that even make sense?) I think my brain was on overload like my house was on overload; actual picture taken in May – no surface untouched:

   

We had a Mother’s Day gathering, dinner at my parents and roller skating afterwards.  It was quite something to skate again after 25 years of not doing it.  The grandkids had fun, too.  No major injuries to report. 

We watched some baby Robins outside our back door – little blue eggs to ugly little birds to more feathered birds to flying.

    

Pepper started his own business.

    

And the girls had some fun.

We got together on Memorial Day weekend.  This time, we played volleyball and basketball.  AND the kids got motorcycle rides.  I told Jeremy I’m worried Ben is going to get them hooked on “motorcycle guys” … not that they are bad, but you know…

    

Ellie’s Friendship Party

Ellie wanted a friend birthday party.  I have a family one for her (and Madison), and it seems a little overwhelming to squeeze in another party for friends in January.  Instead, I told her she could have Friendship Party (think, glorified play date).  And I kept putting it off. 

Finally, in May, I picked up the 5 girls that were able to come.  (It was very hard narrowing this list down…)  They piled in my van, rolled the windows down, laughed, screamed, talked, and had a ball the 10 minutes it took to get to the church parking lot.  (Yeah, I’m smart.  I had it at the church playground.  It keeps the mess outside and out of my house.)

They had a ball.  We started with a snack.  Ellie’s choice: M&Ms mixed with cheerios and marshmallows and Capri Sun packets.  They played some charades.  Then, they just played, found “special” rocks – lots of special rocks, and all got along for the 1-1/2 hours I had them before returning them to their homes.

       

It was good.  I promised Madison one, too.  Still need to make good on that promise.