Finishing Soccer Camp

It pretty much rained all week long.  This is Ellie, Sophia, and Alex watching a movie and trying to stay dry.  All three of them had siblings in earlier camps so it was hard to keep them entertained.

Leo and Sean on the final day...Leo was the only one there for a while!

Trevor arrived!
Because Leo's camp was so small (there actually were other kids, but most of them didn't come in the rain, which was basically all week, so it was like they didn't exist.) they let him invite a friend free of charge.  I figured Trevor would love it... and he did!

not quite so sure soccer is Leo's "thing"

at least Sean is happy! :)

Sophia's turn!

You can't stay with us and not take a trip to Murray's, c'mon! :)
Luckily Sean loved ice cream so he was all too happy to oblige.

The kids have done Challenger camps for a few summers now and I really love the program.  This year we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to host a coach.  Sean is from a town north of Manchester, England and this is his first year with the program.  Plus, we were his first host family as all the camps start up Memorial Day week.  He had been to America once before when he was 11 to go to Disney World so we kind of considered this his first time.  He was so sweet and amazing with the kids.  If you know Sophia, you know she was enamored by him and wouldn't leave him alone!  He also had quite an extensive game of superheroes going with Leo and played with them at the pool too!  He only stayed a week and is moving along throughout the Midwest.  We know that he eventually will fly out of KC in August so we're hoping to see him again before he goes.  It's possible he may return to our area to coach more camps, but as of right now he's in Nebraska.  Everyone was a little sad when his departure time came and I told him that if he came back to OP, he'd have to come over for dinner!

Getting Summer Started Sporty Style!

 Sophia started swim team the day after Memorial Day.  This is her first year and she is the youngest on the team.  She is doing Pre-Competitive this year which I think is the right fit for her, although I'm not entirely sure what the difference is, she doesn't need to jump into all that just yet.  Plus they still have a few meets throughout the summer and I think she'll really improve her skills.  The bummer was that the weather hasn't been all that great, but she's been a trooper and is just fine getting in the water every morning!  She only has to go a minimum of 3 days out of 5 but it is still hard when she has other camps or activities later in the day (b/c swimming starts at 7:45 am UGH!) because she gets worn out!  I'm really proud of her though and I can't wait to see her progress!

They don't really care for parents lingering too close to the practice so I wasn't able to get very many pictures!  But this top one is pre-warm up and the bottom is post practice ready for a shower...too bad the showers weren't warm either!

 After swimming we had to do a quick change and get ready for soccer!  Thank goodness for good friends and Charlie's ability to drop off Leo because his camp started at 9 am and Sophia and I didn't get there until at least 9:30 each morning...but luckily Leo was taken care of by Sean and our good friend, Jane.

soccer girl!

now...what'd you say I 'posed to do, Mom?

Oh yeah...run!

and kick!

and climb trees!

Memorial Day

Leo and Jacob...really ready for the show to start 

Sophia, Sean and Charlie

Stacy, Mer, and Andrew trying to hide

I tried to capture their awe, but every time Leo saw the flash of the camera he would turn toward me!

I didn't even know we had Memorial Day fireworks, but it seems we do!  Meredith had let me know about it and mentioned they might be going so since we had our British soccer coach, Sean, visiting we figured why not show him a "proper" Memorial Day!  The show started later than advertised, which I suppose I should have expected, but it was really late and I was seriously annoyed (with myself) that I had decided to let my kids stay up so late.  But once the show started, both Sophia and Leo were so much in awe, it might have made it worth it.  When it ended Leo jumped up, hugged me and said...Thank you, Momma for the BEST DAY EVER!  Adorbs.  

The next day we decided to have a small BBQ at our place and introduce Sean to some of our family.  But...then the rains came and this was no light rain.  But since Charlie and I had prepped our chickens the night before with a homemade spice rub and let them marinate, Charlie was not about to settle for putting these babies in the oven.  Plus, this was his first use of the rotisserie we bought for the grill.  The rain finally did stop and the chicken tasted great!  Plus I had made some fresh strawberry pies from our haul previously in the week.  Plus Sean got to talk soccer with Nick, Charlie's nephew, who is a very good soccer player himself!  

Here's Charlie, dedicated to making it work!
This picture really doesn't do the conditions he's working in justice, it was a literal downpour of cats and dogs!

Pool's Open!!!

We pretty much count down the days until the outdoor pools are open and no matter the weather we are there on opening weekend!  It wasn't too bad this year and at least the pool is heated, plus we got cute pictures...of course!!  Leo went down the big slide for the first time this year and he was so excited!  Luckily it's not too deep so that he can pretty much walk out of it.  His swimming is progressing nicely but he's not great at hitting the water fast and then swimming out...we found that out this week at a different pool when he tried his hardest to make it off the slide there but had to be rescued both times. :(  He was majorly bummed, but he's practicing as best he can.

Strawberry Picking Time

Our littlest picker, Alexa
She's adorable and so is her Cabbage Patch Hair Hat! 

off we go with our baskets!

Leo got right in on the action

Isaac was very helpful too

Lisa and her two boys

Jonah definitely won the award for best eater!

Hmmm, where to next??

Ashlynn and Sophia

Kaylee has her eye on the right one!

Kate searches the rows

Kaylee loved the berries so much she kissed them! :)

working on filling up the tote!

Soph adds more to the pile!

good little migrant workers!

a two-fer

I just love all the pics of Ashlynn and Sophia hard at work!

Strawberry picking is over?! :(

that's one crazy berry!

our picking crew!
(minus Isaac who never voluntarily poses in a picture)

This was our first year Strawberry picking and I'd say it was a raging success!  The kids look forward to blueberry picking each year and both my kids love strawberries (although of course Leo seems to be on a temp/permanent hiatus from them at the moment) so I figured this was a no-brainer!  The patch isn't too far away and it's super easy to pick!  You park very close to the fields and don't have to walk far at all to get to your spot.  The staff was friendly and helpful too.  Sophia, Leo, and I managed to pick 13lbs of strawberries.  Yummy!  So far I've made 2 strawberry pies, one quart of strawberry chocolate chip ice cream and 24 strawberry muffins.  Plus Sophia probably ate her weight in berries at least twice and we have a few left over.  We will definitely plan on this in future years and we will visit this orchard again next month for peach season!  I love summer!!