Football Game!

We finally made it to a high school football game! Paige had to come late, straight from dance, but joined up with some dance friends there and Owen went on-time with Pat and spent a lot of time playing football down on the track. So we didn't spend a ton of time actually watching the game but from what I remember, that's pretty typical:)

Zoo Field Trip!

Paige's class already had a field trip and I was able to join in on the fun as chaperone. It was a super hot day so I was a little worried about the stamina of 7 and 8 year olds but I had a small group and a friend was chaperoning too. These kids were easy! The time went by really quickly too, we didn't even get to see everything.

Flamingo pose! (like last time!)

Waiting for the tram

Tram finally came! I'm in the back next to one of Paige's friends that looks super angry (she wasn't!)

Fish

Plenty of room on the turtle!

The whole class!

School!

Paige and her friend Gabe have big lemonade stand plans and discuss it on the walk home from school every single day.

Paige and her desk buddy, Bryson, working on a science project!

Race!

This post has nothing to do with me except that I was there to witness it:) My parents ran in my most favorite half marathon race the other week! I'm not up to half marathon standards but they definitely are and they continue to be my running inspiration!

Patterson's!

It's pretty much Fall so that means it's time to go to Patterson's! We lucked out and got a beautiful day for it. Not hot, not very cold either and the sun was shining. That's why this post has so many pictures! We hung out by the pumpkins first and even though we weren't planning on getting one that day, Paige found the "perfect" one so we decided it would be ok to change our minds. By that time, the kettle corn aroma was reaching us and we bought some to tide us over until we could get our doughnuts/fritters from inside. The kids spent some time on the playground and we checked out the beautiful view as well. Then we went inside and carefully picked out our apple varieties and got some pastries (fritter for me, apple cider doughnut for Pat, Oreo doughnut for Owen and sprinkle doughnut for Paige).
We went home and immediately set to work on making the pies! Mom had premade the crust from a new recipe and the kids were eager to help with the fun apple gadget so the apple pies did not take very long to make! They were very liquidy for some reason but still tasted great!

Children's Museum

Before we headed home from Indiana we made one more stop at the Children's Museum. I had read that it was one of the best so I had pretty high hopes! There was so much to see that we didn't even get to everything before Owen had tired out and was ready to leave. Paige and I agreed that we could have stayed for another couple of hours though!

Bumblebee (the transformer) in the lobby

Water clock! The water moves to indicate the time

Lots of interactive exhibits

Piecing together replicas of China's terracotta warriors

Selfie, of course

An entire dance section?!

Circus unicycle!

Strongman!

I was a human cannonball

3d tightrope walk

Hula hooping!

Circus hoop tricks!

After the Soccer

The kids and Pat had the day off on Monday so we decided to stay an extra day in Indiana and check it out after the rest of the team left. The kids wanted Jimmy John's for lunch but we wanted to try a place we couldn't go to at home and ended up in this Mexican restaurant that had artwork covering every inch! The food was yummy too!

After we ate, we took the kids to a local playground (5 minutes from the hotel!) that ended up being maybe the most impressive playground I've ever seen! It looked so fun that Pat and I climbed around too! Owen somehow found a soccer ball on the playground and and a little boy joined him and led him around the playground. When it was time for the boy to leave, he gave Owen a hug and said, "see you tomorrow!" So sweet! And a little sad for that kid:)

Owen is all the way in the upper left corner and Paige is lower right

Giant sideways swinging! I think Paige would have stayed in here awhile if another kid wasn't waiting to use it!

My favorite picture that shows off the playground!

Tournament 2!

For Owen's second soccer tournament we traveled to Indiana! This time the team wasn't as successful and lost all of their games. It was a pretty tough weekend in that regard. It's sad to see those kids run so hard and not get the results. One of the things that makes a weekend like this worth it is the people and the memories we make. It's going to sound corny but we spend a lot of time with these kids and their families so if it wasn't fun during the down time, I'm not sure it would be worth it. Owen loves soccer but there's soccer in Ohio too;)

Lining up for the first game

Loved this path in the middle of the giant soccer complex!

Messing around between games. There was talk of a dance-off but I never saw one!

Paige was dooooone by the third game

Owen wore his headgear all weekend!

The rest of these pictures were taken by other people!-

The boys took a break to watch some little guys play. They rooted for blue, of course!

Someone brought an xbox and one of the parents set it up in the lobby for the kids to play (in between rounds of hotel tag!)

Paige loved hanging out with these two all weekend!

The hotel had a great seating area outside so we all gathered around the fire Saturday night!

Someone stealthily took this picture of Pat and me!

And we also pose on request;)