Basketball Mostly

Hannah had her birthday party at Sky Zone with year. She went and jumped around with several buddies and had a blast. 

We made rainbow fruit kabobs for her end-of-the-season softball party. They were delicious.

Hannah made friends with a big fluffy.

Ozzy turned 5! He's happily eating his doggy ice cream while Rue gets impatient.

Zane and I drove to KC for a basketball tournament and saw a fire along the way. It was a building.

There was some serious weather in KC! 

That same weekend, Hannah got invited to go to Collecticon in KC with a friend. Here they are with all their Splatoon (a video game they play together) stuffies.

I got a new job! I'm not the Fine Arts Secretary at Rock Bridge High School. There's a lot to learn but the people have been positive and supportive! Here's a pic of my office before I rearranged and cleaned everything.

Hannah made me art for the office.

Just hanging out eating chips...

Hannah painted this!!

Zane's last basketball tournament with his PBA Elite team spanned 3 days and I managed to take some pics with my big camera.

Hannah is 11!

Our baby girl is 11!! We did a photoshoot with her new skateboard and outfit. She already has a longboard but is interested in more than cruising so we'll see where this new hobby takes her! I'd like to add that she would normally be wearing a helmet and pads...but not for the photoshoot.

It's a fun journey to watch her style evolve as she gets older, but one this is still true - her style truly her own and she couldn't care less what other people think about it. I love that about her. We hope her confidence stays strong throughout middle school.

She is a fun loving, adventurous kid. She's always down to try something new, whether it's parasailing or a new recipe. She is determined to succeed and sometimes needs to lighten up her expectations and realize that she's not always going to succeed on the first try...but that attitude keeps her working hard.

She is an artistic being. She hasn't done any acting with TRYPS in awhile, but she rocked her school play as Wednesday Addams. We're hoping she tries out a theater class at school at some point next year. She'll be playing the cello in the school orchestra and is still taking guitar lessons with Uncle Chris via Zoom once a week. Her creativity in art is astonishing! This summer she took a Fiber Arts Class through the Columbia Art League and created works with crochet, felting, weaving, and embroidery (and the class was taught by her Kindergarten teacher!). At home she's been painting with watercolor quite a bit and I'm always amazing at how quickly she gets an idea and puts it on paper and they're gorgeous!

Hannah is a kind friend. She attended 6th grade summer school for the month of June to get used to the school and meet new people. Kids can be mean to each other. Hannah has the ability to not take most of it personally and she'll stand up for others, even if she doesn't know them. She accepts people for who they are and doesn't judge. The world needs more people like Hannah.

She has a great sense of humor and likes to joke around and be silly. She wants the dogs to snuggle with her always, loves her room and making it hers, Mario Kart, Fall Guys, and Splatoon are her favorite video games, and she really wants a phone (it's coming soon since she'll be riding the bus to and from school). She is a lovely tween and we think she's great!

Fireworks in Iowa

We took our annual trip to Sun Valley Lake to play at the lake and light off fireworks for the 4th of July. Of course, we couldn't shot up empty handed so we stopped at our favorite tent in Moberly to stock up first!

It was cool that Adam and Kenz were able to make it down for a few hours to say hi! We tried so hard to get Kenz to take Ozzy home, but it just didn't work out. They could have been very happy together...

Rue gets some attention from Hannah and Coodle, her new noodle cat stuffie.

No visit is complete without throwing stuffed baseballs at each other.

Ozzy was content to prance around on the dock rolling in snail shells.

Rue would like to jump in the water now please.

We took the boat out to watch the Association's firework show.

Hannah caught a fish while we were waiting.

Hannah says she likes this one because it looks like a heart in the air.

Dad was on the board early the next morning in the fishing derby.

The dogs just wanted a lick.

Mom and I were not involved with fish in any way.

Getting ready for some lake fun!

Swimming, kayaking, water mat...all the fun!

More fish!

It's hard to look graceful on the water mat...I think Zane executed pretty well!

Rue was constantly checking on people in the water, hoping back up onto the dock, checking the other side of the dock, and going back to the water mat. She had a continual loop going.

Ozzy does not like the water. He would get on the water mat, but only because he needed to bite Rue's ears when she climbed back up. Twice he misjudged he leap from the water mat onto the dock and ended up frantically pawing at the water whilst wearing his life jacket. He thought he was going to die. 

Rue's toxic trait is caring too much. Every time someone would jump into the water she would leap after them, sometimes landing directly on them, and clawing them with her nails. We're all covered in Wolverine-like marks and bruises from her love.

Zane took Ozzy on a ride in the kayak. He didn't totally hate it.

We set off our own fireworks at night!

Mom, Hannah, and I started in chairs at the end of the driveway and gradually moved back. Hannah ended up in the car with the dogs. 

We got one more water morning in before we headed home. Hannah likes the kayak.

Zane got up early with Grandpa to fish.

After an uneventful drive home, we had bomb pops after dinner and lit a few small fireworks off in our driveway before calling it a night. Happy 4th everyone!!