Random! We have been keeping busy over the last couple of weeks. We had more grad parties to attend, shopping for school things for college, volleyball open gyms and tryouts, and lots of other things. I have been very bad about taking photos lately, so here are some random ones.

When it was 115 degrees outside - we tried to not go anywhere and instead entertain ourselves in our house. Lucy decided to make a whole obstacle course for our remote controlled cars. It was actually a lot of fun and challenging! I wish I would have taken more pictures of the whole thing but we were busy participating too! It is ok, I have a feeling she will build another track another day this summer.

The 4th of July weekend was extremely hot for us and none of our friends were having people over - I'm guessing because we have all had to throw our own grad parties as well as we are all experiencing fatigue to parties. We instead played a bunch of games, board games, card games etc and had a great time just hanging out as a family. Even Heidi and Noah joined us. 

Let's face it, there has been a tremendous amount of attention towards Heidi recently and Lucy has been doing better at handling it more maturely. While I was out dorm room shopping with Heidi, Chris surprised Lucy and finally getting a skateboard that she earned during volleyball. He took it further and actually got to design her own wheels and she got to pick out the design of the board etc. She was thrilled. After the 4 hour event, here is the 1 photo was have from it. Lucy petting one of the shop dogs. :) 

Heidi and I while they were away shopped for basically everything else she needs for her room and then we also assembled everything. Things are coming together and Heidi is getting really organized. We just have the last wave of items to arrive from online shopping (Not everything is available in the stores - annoying) and then we can say we are ready for college. Heidi's goal was to get everything purchased and ready by the end of July. I think she is going to beat that goal. She said, that way the rest of the weekends and weeks are just seeing friends before they leave and enjoying her free summer.

Lucy was very excited to show her new skateboard. Lessons are being arranged and we could see her skating down the sidewalk soon!

Guest what? We had another grad party! This one was thrown by our good friends and they did a great job. Lucy played ping pong almost the whole time in the garage and was having a blast. 

That evening, Chris and I stayed at the party, while Lucy joined the Belciks to watch Nicholas in the musical Legally Blonde. Lucy just loves to attend whatever he is doing. 

This weekend is the last grad party weekend for us - with just 3 more parties! Poor Heidi still have them all the way into August. She is definitely over the parties. We will hopefully finish gathering the last few dorm room items and then the full attention to Lucy's birthday coming up in about a month. The summer is going fast! 

Another Grad Party

It was the Belcik's turn to have their grad party. We went over early and stayed late :) It was beautiful weather again and we had a blast. 

Lucy & Heidi!

Some Karaoke...

The rest of the weekend was running errands, getting things done around the house and relaxing! We have no plans heading into the 4th and we are all excited about it!

Low Key Weekend

After the last few weeks, a calmer weekend was needed. We celebrated Father's Day and Chris' birthday by enjoying the nice weather and just being around the house.

Lucy was officially offered a contract to play volleyball again. She was very excited and signed right away. Looks like we will be traveling for volleyball again next year!

The weather was perfect - so we played some games outside and just hung out. 

I'm not sure why he is pouting, but we tried a new, highly recommended place for lunch and it did not disappoint! We ate at their patio and will return! Two Bucks in Avon. 

The weekend was filled with relaxing, movies, snacks, games and recovering from the whirlwind of graduation for sure. 

I also snapped a couple of photos of the basement. It is definitely more usable. The poker table is very nice and fun to use.  

And Heidi gave Chris this amazing shirt for his birthday. 

This week is about the same. We have several grad parties to attend this weekend, Lucy has volleyball training, and Heidi is living her best summer. It actually feels like summer now. 

A Graduation Party

Holy cow! What a weekend! 

We are just blown away from the support and help we have received from our family recently. It first started with Virginia and Tone coming to support Heidi for graduation and now it was a whole crew - Val, Matt, Christina, Carter, Grandma Babs, Grandpa Darrell, Grandpa Jeff, Nana Bev and even Bob make the trek to Cleveland to help with the graduation party. 

Not only did everyone travel up, but then they jumped in to work! It was a LOT of work to throw this party and I know 100%, we could not have pulled it off without all of this help. 

We want to thank everyone so much for their time, effort, expenses to travel and stay, and their support. 

The crazy weekend started on Thursday with Val arriving. We ran some errands a did a little hang out with margaritas to help prepare us for the mountain of work ahead. 

We baked, created decorations, lots of food prep, set up, ice runs, meal runs, and organizing in order to pull off this event. 

Centerpieces for the tent tables were made

Photos were printed and gathered

Chris and his meat - we served brisket, pulled pork, sausage, mac n cheese, creamed corn, buffalo chicken dip and a whole amazing grazing table you will see!

We have several projects from photo holders to a poker table too! The decor was slowly coming together. 

We rented a tent which turned out really nice and almost everyone hung out there all day and night.

People were working!

The magician, Christina, took on the balloon decor for the photo wall. Including ordering a balloon blower last minute and winging it. 

Next challenge was the giant charcuterie and dessert grazing table. I didn't know what we were going to do - I just bought a bunch of random items and hoped for the best. Val and Christina took on the challenge and produced an amazing table. People thought it was catered. - Nope - you just need two talented people up for the challenge.  More pictures to follow. 

Meat!

These awards and photo displays turned out cute! 

The table...

My coworker made the sugar cookies. They were cute!

Heidi was blown away

We lucked out and had beautiful weather!

We managed to get some family photos but I did fail at getting other guests photos. Chris and I were both busy making the rounds and trying to talk to everyone. Lesson learned that I should have taken more pictures of our guests - oh well! Also, I would not have any photos if Grandpa Jeff didn't run around and take them too!

The dogs had their little matching collars on. As barky as Rizzo can be - for the most part during the main party, he did ok and was allowed to hang out. As the party got later and I assume he got tired - he had to leave the party because he wouldn't stop barking. Remy was just happy to be there. 

Yes, Jason jumped in on the family photos. :)

Jason got Heidi a hilarious present. It was very popular as the night went on...

Almost 40 hot dogs were consumed...

I have gathered photos from a variety of people and some are out of order. 

Not pictured is all the work we did on the basement and Chris' new poker table. Our basement is emptied out and I will take some pictures of it for the next update. We had a great crowd show to the party and just appreciated everything. Heidi's friends came later and ended the night with us and most of the local neighbors. We are exhausted but so happy Heidi was able to have the party she wanted. 

Just a HUGE Thank you again for everyone who traveled and helped. We feel loved and loved having family and friends around us! Happy graduation Heidi!