July 2020

 To continue our awesome quarantine challenge list, we decided to make a music video!  We used the song "Different Drum" by Blanca and had so much fun marching and dressing crazy and dancing everywhere!  I have loved that this list helped us do so many fun things that we might not think about doing otherwise. You can watch it here

Our Independence Day was definitely unusual but so much fun!  In the morning we participated in an Amazing Race challenge that a family in the ward put together for 3 families to participate in. We had so much fun driving all around Hilliard solving clues and trying to beat the other families back to the finish line. I definitely think it should be a new tradition instead of watching a parade! In the afternoon, we went to a neighbor's house to let our girls swim in their pool. The girls were in heaven and never wanted to leave! That night, we brought out pop-its and sparklers but we didn't get to do them for long before it started raining in sheets. The weather normally would have been the worst 4th of July weather ever because it was blistering hot super early in the morning when you would normally be at a parade, cloudy and windy in the afternoon when you would be swimming or BBQing and then raining when fireworks should be starting. Good thing all of those things were canceled anyway! The girls danced in the rain and stomped in the puddles as long as they could.  Eventually the rain stopped and I was shocked at how many people in the neighborhoods around us had bought big fireworks to replace all the big firework shows that got canceled.  It was even better than normal because we got to enjoy a super long show right from our bedroom window. 

Our good friends, the Biggerstaff's were moving to Utah and we had to get the kids together one last time.  They played with the Slip N Slide for a little bit and then we had to say goodbye.  I also went out to dinner for a last girl's night with Rachel and Lauren before they moved. 2020 has been doubly awful for us because we lost so many of our closest friends!

I had seen pictures of the Hartman Rock Garden online and thought it looked so cool. Normally I probably wouldn't drive 45 mins to something like this but we have nothing but time right now so we decided to check it out.  Unfortunately, the pictures look a lot better than it did in person... we should have just stuck to viewing it online! The idea of it was really cool and what he built was very impressive but it has not been well maintained and so it made everything just look run down and creepy. We also tried to go to a fun place nearby that had mini golf and a petting zoo but when we pulled up, it was absolutely packed and nobody was wearing masks so we decided to grab some ice cream and head home. Definitely not a trip we will be making again!

The missionaries wanted to make a video of ward members to get to know them, kind of like a mini Meet the Mormons movie. So we filmed this tiny clip for them and they put all of them together to send out to the ward. I thought it was a really cute idea!

Most of our attempts at things on the list went great but every once in a while we had a failure, like the night we tried to take the girls to play kickball.  It was a ridiculously humid night and we all lasted about two minutes before we were ready to quit. We also tried to take the girls to play frisbee golf and this was more of a success but we only had crappy, free frisbees we have gotten over the years and they didn't work very good. They still seemed to enjoy it though! Mostly, I was very impressed with how the girls hung in there. Kaylee and McKenna really wanted to do the 10 mile bike ride and so they spent every morning for a week riding to the park and doing laps around the trail until they hit 10 miles. 

McKenna really wanted a wood project to do like Kaylee did with the bench.  So Richard and her decided to make a cornhole set!

Another fun thing we did was try geocaching for the first time. I think this is something we could do a lot of!  I only took this one awkward picture but we ended up going to find 3 that night and it was really exciting to find it!  Some of them were hidden pretty good.  

We also decided to venture back up to Inniswoods Metro Park, which I have really good memories of. It was another super hot, humid day but we played in the water for a long time to keep us cool and explored some new parts of the trails we had never been on before. 

One Sunday we marked off two fun things from the list: we made scripture story dioramas and we made bookmarks for our scriptures. I thought they all turned out great and it made for a very fun Sunday.

Another park we haven't been to in years is right next to a fire station nearby our old house. It was fun that we ended up being the only ones at the playground.

Kaylee and McKenna started doing sister overall days where they would wear their overalls to match. Brooklyn was so sad that she was left out so of course we HAD to buy her a pair too.  Now they do overall days all the time and it's so adorable to see them matching together! Look at those sweet faces!!

And then they do this... :)

Richard was going to take the girls camping and I was going to enjoy a night at home by myself.  At the last minute, I really felt like I should go and decided to join them.  We first stopped at a beach on a lake that is nearby the campgrounds. After letting the girls swim for a few hours, we went to set up camp. I could not believe how open the campgrounds were and how close everything was. The entire campsite was basically what you can see in the picture, plus a parking spot.  And just past our tents is another parking spot for the campers right next to us! It was basically like a giant parking lot where you could park your car and then set up your tent on the tiny patch of grass next to it. Definitely not my idea of good camping! After we ate, we went exploring in the trees a little bit and came across another small stretch of beach on the other side of the lake. The girls set to work creating a little dam and worked hard at it until we headed back to camp. After getting zero sleep thanks to all the noise and soaking wet bedding thanks to the humidity, we headed back to the lake to let the girls swim one more time before heading home.  Needless to say, I really regretted going camping but the girls kept talking about how much they loved it so I guess that made it all worth it!

We had a party for Harry Potter on his birthday.  I tried to come up with ideas to do different classes with the girls and for the most part, they worked really well. For DADA, we had them pretend a pinata was a dementor and as they hit it, they had to say expecto patronum! We made a rainbow potion for potions class, sculpted things out of Play-Doh for transfiguration, and did a catch game with wands for Charms (the girls would throw a glow necklace to the other person while saying wingardium leviosa! and they would try to catch it on their wand). It turned into a really fun dueling game and they would shout different spells at each other and if the glow stick hit them but they didn't catch it, they had to do whatever the spell meant (freeze or drop their wand, etc.) They ended up playing that so long that we didn't even do any of the other games we had planned! We also had butterbeer and made butterbeer cookies that were fantastic. And it only took me a couple of years but I finally finished the wand I started at the epic HP party Kristi and I threw in Utah!

Brooklyn and I were so close to getting 200 on the challenge so we worked really hard the last couple days to get there. The last things she did was make something out of wood and pick up trash around the neighborhood.   I was very proud of Brooklyn- she had to work right up until bedtime on the 31st but she made it! We were really sad to be done with the challenge.  It really did save our summer and helped us be so creative and challenged us and helped us have some really fun, quality time together instead of just waiting for the summer to be over. It will definitely be a summer to remember!

June 2020

I was looking forward to the girls being done with school but at the same time I was dreading summer. We have gone to Utah almost every summer, and we've moved twice in the last 3 years.  Plus we couldn't be with friends or go anywhere!  Luckily, Julie had a brilliant idea that completely saved our summer. She created a list that had ideas for things you could do and a point value was assigned to each one. Mom and Dad said they would give a prize to anyone who reached 100 points and it just filled our summer with so much fun and creativity!  My kids shot out of the gate like rockets and Kaylee reached 50 points before the first week was even done! It was fun to see her enthusiasm for it.  It filled our time with puzzles, kite flying, flower arranging, marshmallow temple building, chalk, learning to draw, yoga, and much more.

 

We also had our first Battle of the Books with the Andreasons.  Emery was supposed to go to a state-wide competition after his team had already won at their school and at district but it was canceled.  So we decided to do our own!  We read the book Inkheart and made heart cookies and heart-shaped chocolate covered strawberries. It ended up being really fun and the kids wanted to do more battles. 

One day when McKenna and Brooklyn were wrestling, McKenna said, "Let's fight for real".  She sat on top of Brookly and pinned her down so Brooklyn reared her head back and slammed into McKenna's eye.  That real fight ended pretty quickly!  McKenna's eye immediately swelled up and turned blue and over the next few days it turned all kinds of bright colors.  It was so bright, that most people thought she was wearing makeup only on one eye.

  We had the unfortunate pleasure of having our A/C stop working in the middle of a sweltering heat wave. The first night everyone but me decided to try sleeping in a tent in the backyard because it seemed like it would be cooler than inside our house.  It might have been slightly cooler but with dogs barking, A/C units turning on and off, the heat, and cicadas/birds, I don't think anyone slept much!  We tried our best to survive our very very hot house for the next few days until our landlord found someone to do a temporary fix on it. I need to be much more grateful for a usually cool house; it made such a huge difference in all of us!

We also had to say goodbye to the Solanos as they moved to Florida. They made us feel like family right from the start and made the last 3 years so much better. We had a farewell BBQ in our backyard and were so glad we got to hang out with them one last time. It was incredibly hard to say goodbye!

Kaylee was supposed to get her braces off in March, the day before her birthday.  But that was the week that everything shut down and she had to wait 3 extra months! She never seemed to mind them too much but I am glad she doesn't have to worry about them anymore. And she looks even more gorgeous without them!

Some days we seemed to be handling everything just fine and other days the anxiety and stress would overwhelm us.  I desperately needed something to help my anxiety and we decided to go walk through the Park of Roses.  It was so peaceful and beautiful and just what we needed!  We went at the perfect time to see most of the roses in full bloom. 

We continued exploring different Metro Parks around Columbus and went back to one that I loved going to with the girls but Richard had never been to before. They have a zipline that is really fun and the girls will do over and over again. They also have a natural playground where everything is made from wood, including this giant seesaw. We spent the most time at this little creek where the girls collected slate and had fun breaking it up and wading up and down. They finally only got out because we dragged them away for lunch. 

Remember how I said Brooklyn started to love makeup?  Sometimes she will ask if she can use my makeup on her own.  One day, she came out like this and I was laughing so hard that it turned my sweet little girl into a punk rocker. I kinda loved it though!  Ha ha ha. 

Another thing we did from the list that ended up being really fun was a fairy garden.  We all worked together to make different things for it and I thought it ended up so cute!  We made a hammock, clothesline, seesaw, firepit, a river and lake, and multiple houses.  

One of the girls' favorite things we did all summer was go to Lake Eerie on a quick day trip to Cleveland.  They actually stayed in the water for most of the time, which surprised me, but they had fun digging in the sand too, especially Brooklyn. 

One of the ladies in our ward had been in the hospital for months and was slowly getting worse. Her friend had the idea to have all the Primary kids made cards for her to hang up in her hospital room to brighten it up. We had fun one Sunday making colorful, happy cards to hopefully help cheer her up. 

Another thing on the list was to learn about a temple and then visit it.  I knew there was a story about  the land that the Columbus temple is on but I couldn't remember it and neither could Richard. We searched everywhere online but couldn't find the story or hardly any details at all.  It made me really sad that we couldn't share some great stories with the girls about the temple but we decided to go see it anyway.  We pulled up and there was one other car in the parking lot. Someone from our first ward was there and he had just randomly decided to go water the plants in the garden outside the church building and just happened to be there right when we came (he was only there for about 15 mins total!).  We asked him if he knew the story about the land and he launched into the story plus a bunch of other details that he knew after being in this stake for 30 years or so.  I thought it was so cool that we had that little tender mercy from the Lord that he sent this man to help teach us what we couldn't find on our own about His House.