We continued our intro to D&D campaign today and it was the best part of the day for everyone. Isaac and Joshua have dreams of DMing their own campaigns and we've barely started this one. Honestly - that could be really fun. They often make up games that somewhat work, but if they can make up the game within the framework of the D&D rules it could be fun.
Over the summer, we put together puzzles. Let's be honest, it was mostly me putting together the puzzles and the kids helping with the last few pieces. (Isaac helped a few additional times too.)
Today we laid them out:
I was a hot mess today. I had eight appointments/classes today and I managed to be late to four of them. At least they were all with different people and the ones that mattered the most had kind people. I managed to pick the kids up on time.
It'll get better; there were just several things about the meetings today that made them weird.
I did chores today. They were the boring chores too - the ones that need to be done every week. I mean, I'm glad that I did them because I had a clean kitchen for about an hour and I like having a clean kitchen.
I was refilling my vitamins and found an army man. Isaac put them all over the house and hid them in really good places. I find about one every four days.
Today was the first day of classes. I don't enjoy the first day of classes. It's probably the second worst, only behind the day before the final exam. I talk so much. It's about boring stuff too. Half the class is completely bored and the other half is overwhelmed.
I got home and Cheryl offered to bring over dinner. It was lovely - I'm always so tired after the first day.
Isaac had dev team trials tonight. It was hot. August has been beautiful and then this week has been normal August hot again. But when I picked him up he was all smiles. He thrives doing this.
It was the first day of school!
I spent a majority of the day working on Hope work. I feel like I got a good portion done, but there's still a decent amount to go. I got the "you really need to do this" and most of the "you really should do this" items done.
I got a few things checked off my home to-do list, but not many. As expected. Ben found yesterday's plot hilarious and endearing, so he showed it off at work. <3
I was rather tired after dinner but went to karate anyway. It was a good choice - it was a small class but a good one.
This morning started out with a rock climbing competition! Both kids participated, and I was so proud of both of them.
This was Joshua's first competition. Technically, he did fine. Out of seven routes he topped two and zoned two. I was super impressed with two things though: 1) His perseverance. He took a few breaks throughout the 2.5 hours, but he tried a lot of those routes a lot of times. Over and over. 2) His ability to talk to people. Several people gave him some pointers and he came away with a few new friends.
Isaac did a great job technically! It was similar to the last competitions in that he flashed six of the routes and needed a few tries on the last route. After getting those done he tried some of the other routes. I enjoy watching him because he is methodical. He also got a compliment after falling off the white #3 youth about smiling as he was getting up. I think he was happy that he got farther than the previous time, but it was still nice to hear.
My favorite pictures are when they are both on the wall though.
We had chosen the first session of the day so that it wouldn't be so busy. Probably still a good choice, but it meant we had seven hours before awards. After a snack and a small lunch (because we just had a snack), we went to the botanical gardens.
This was a great choice!! I had read there were tours at 11 and 12:45, but we just missed the 12:45 window. We stopped in the visitor center for a map anyway, and the website was somewhat incorrect. The tours are individual tours whenever you want with a docent. In a golf cart. For free. Sign me up! It was a warm day, so not having to walk the whole thing was nice. The docent was very knowledgeable and was able to tell us all sorts of things we would have otherwise been ignorant of. A kids' garden is going in and so she gave us some plants to taste and smell. We got to go inside the cow barn. It was amazing.
This got us to about 2:30, and we went back to the gym to read and rest. We found a nice cubby and relaxed for a while. We walked to dinner, which wasn't amazing, and then back to the gym. Finally...award time.
Unsurprisingly but still excitingly, Isaac got first place in the beginner category! The others had already left, so he had to stand there by himself.
