Hamilton!

I've loved the music from Hamilton for quite awhile now so when we found out the show was coming to Cleveland we knew we wanted to get tickets. Unfortunately, a lot of other people love Hamilton too so we couldn't get tickets when they released them and I moved on, thinking we had missed our chance. Fortunately, they released more tickets and Pat told me he was taking me for my birthday present!! Yay! We were getting some work done in our basement that day and we were literally waiting around in our dressy clothes for them to connect some pipes so we could be on our way. While we were waiting, the plastic bottom on the heels I was wearing started to disintegrate! That's what I get for wearing 20 year old heels! :) Finally, we were on our way and made it to the show with just a few minutes to spare. And the show was amazing!! I was worried after all that build-up that it wouldn't be as good as I had heard/hoped but it met every expectation! Partway through the show I was already wishing I could see it again! Thanks Pat:)

My Birthday!

It's kind of a joke now about how there's always something happening on my birthday but I don't actually mind. It's fun getting to see people and we always find a little bit of time to celebrate which is all I really need:) First up, we went to a tea party for Paige's friend's birthday! I stayed and had tea with some friends so we both had fun hanging out. Next up, was Owen's first travel game of the season. They won and he scored a goal! I like to think it was a birthday goal for me:)

We went home for a bit to get cleaned up and eat a quick dinner before we went to Mason's creamery. It was sooo good. I got an egg waffle with Mocha Oreo and Peaches & Cream ice cream. Paige got a Peaches&Cream waffle cone, Owen got Sweet and Sour Hawaiian Plum, and Pat got...? I don't remember. After ice cream we went home and hooked up the Nintendo! I crushed everyone at Dr. Mario. Such a good day!:)

Visitors!

We had some special visitors last week! My aunt and uncle! It feels like it's been quite awhile since I saw them last so I was pretty excited when they asked if we wanted to join them for lunch before they headed to Browns training camp. We walked up to Boca Loca and got way more food than we could eat and then looped around past Coe Lake and back to the house before they had to leave. It was nice getting to show them some of our town and getting to hang out too!

Surprise-ish!

Jamie knew we were going to be celebrating her birthday but we wanted to make it extra special this year! We chose a theme (Leo/galaxy) and had a fun time figuring out decorations, food, and crafts to go with it. We ordered Aladdin's for our meal, made twinkle-light lanterns, drank color-changing lemonade and then ended the visit with a walk to the playground!

I was worried how the frosting would come out for the cupcakes but I think they ended up looking great!

Jamie and Kevin mid-craft 

Final product!

All the adults, kids came later...

There are some kids!

glitter hands!

So strong

The lemonade didn't taste super great but it looked awesome!

Cupcake close-up

Gift time!

This might be kickball?

Walk!

Playground!

Sand Soccer

I thought Owen had covered all the different versions of soccer-futsal, indoor, outdoor...but turns out there is sand soccer! Owen's club team participated in a sand soccer tournament and Pat was also asked to play on the adult team. The game actually looks pretty difficult to play, you can't really dribble in sand and passing is hard because of how uneven the sand can be. But! They persevered! They had fun! They won some! And lost some! Paige spent the entire time playing in the sand with friends. I even got to "coach" a game with a couple other moms when the coaches weren't available because they were playing their own games!

Pat in action

Beach gymnastics

Owen's team

Exhausted!

Mom coach selfie:)

Owen in action

Adult players

Fan club

Owen, Jalen and Trevor watching their parents play

More action!

Katie, Jaci and Paige

Art Show!

We don't get to nearly as many of Jamie's art showings as I would like so I was  determined to get to her most recent one at a bookstore. It was a bit of a drive and we headed out early so I could show the kids this playground with a two-story slide. Unfortunately, Owen went down a wet slide and even though he did his best to avoid the rainwater...it didn't work:) After a quick wardrobe change, Pat met up with us and the kids had a bit more playtime before we met my parents at Tommy's for some dinner. The kids ordered their own milkshakes which were actually big enough for two people but soooo good. Then it was time to head to the bookstore! The bookstore was a very interesting space with lots of details but the best part was seeing Jamie's work up on the wall! We got to see the new pieces she'd been working on specifically for this showing too! We all had a different opinions on favorites but really, we liked them all. 

Parade, Pool Party, Indians

We had tickets all summer to go to an Indian's game but when Paige's dance pool party got rescheduled because of weather for the same day, she had a tough choice to make. She went back and forth about which event to do and then when the day turned out to be extremely hot, she chose the pool party! We were ok with it being her choice because Pat and Owen brought friends to the game and I joined some friends for dinner during the pool party. Everyone had a good night! Paige won a special ballet award at the party and had a blast swimming all night with her friends. Owen and Pat loved the club seats and the Indians won!

Bike Aboard!

Apparently we have a lot of summer traditions! This was our seventh annual bike aboard trip but this year we had friends along with us! We started in Peninsula, rode the train to Botzum and then biked back to Peninsula and had lunch at The Winking Lizard. Similar to our trip to Cleveland, we had to adjust our path slightly because they were working on the trail for part of our trip. We had to bike on a street for a short ways and then met back up with the trail. It was fun getting to experience the trip with other people and Owen and Paige didn't try to race each other the whole way because they were busy talking to their friends. Paige did wipe out once, another tradition:)...but no blood this year and she finished the ride without a problem!

All four bikes fit in the back of the van but we did have to take off the front wheels of the adult bikes

Adults are ready!

Kids lined up and waiting for the train

Here we go!

Ready to ride

I had my phone mounted to my bike but it was too bumpy to get good pictures during the ride

Date and Festival!

Pat and I got to go on a date while the kids helped my parents at their church festival! We didn't plan anything so we decided to drive over to Legacy Village and walk around and grab some food. We ended up at a place called Black Box Fix that had amazing burgers. The best one I've ever remembered having! We left in time to relieve the kids early from their 3 hour shift but they were having so much fun that they wanted to finish it out! They did a great job working the Mystery Door game. Paige was begging to go for a ride in the Rocket car and I'm so glad she did because it was so much more fun than I thought it would be! We got to cruise the streets of Mentor while it blasted old tunes. The kids played a few more games and then we headed home!

Date Selfie 

The library had a cart of free books!

Working hard

Owen was playing with a toy he won

Rocket car!