One of my favorite moments of each year has to be those occasions when ESPN rebrands one of their networks to ESPN 8: The Ocho. In case you're wondering, this year it's ESPN 2 and it runs through August 5th.
I think my favorite thing about it is how you learn to expect the unexpected. For example, I've already watched the Savannah Bananas play baseball, a Cornhole championship final, and the Table Hockey championships are next. I even got Bethany sucked into the festivities. I'm not going to lie; she's fairly excited about the Wisconsin Auctioneers Championship which will be held tomorrow morning at 5:30 am.
While it's probably fairly random for me to be writing about The Ocho, it makes sense in my head. That's especially true when one considers how my day today revolved around embracing the unexpected moments that occur and making the best of them.
As I mentioned yesterday, my goal right now is to make the best use of Ellie's and Ethan's last two weeks of summer. That essentially means that we're cramming as many fun activities into that time frame as we can. This morning's event found us heading to Zona Rosa for "The Coffee Club". Unbeknownst to me, Zona Rosa has hosted a weekly play session for kids on Thursday mornings to come and play at the playground on site and also splash in the adjoining splash pad. There's also always an additional activity that changes each week. While kids are having fun, parents are encouraged to buy coffee and make a new friend.
Our biggest reason for checking out "The Coffee Club" was so that Ellie and Ethan could enjoy the outdoor story time that would be held. Of course, I knew that they would have a ball playing on the playground as well. As soon as we arrived, we learned there was another activity: Kite decorating! Both kids picked out their free kite to take home and spent a few minutes coloring designs of their choosing before unceremoniously handing them to me and making a beeline for the playground. Soon though, it was time for the kids to take a seat for story time.
Once story time ended, it wasn't a surprise to see Ellie and Ethan make their way back to the playground. What was surprising though was to see the sky open up shortly thereafter and let loose a total downpour of rain. I asked the kids if they wanted to leave but they really wanted to stay. Therefore, the two of them spent the next half hour flying down wet slides at breakneck speeds over and over again. Eventually though, the two of them wore out and decided it was time to head for home.
Our next opportunity to embrace the unexpected revolved around an unexpected trip to the grocery store to get some salsa for tacos. After picking out all of my necessary groceries, I headed up front to pay and soon discovered that my Sun Fresh account had $5 of free money that was begging to be spent so I applied that to my purchase for the day. Taking into account that I had spent $5 less than I planned, rather than heading home, I instead took the kids to our local snow cone stand to share a Cherry Cola snow cone. Needless to say, they were stoked (and a little hyped up on sugar). While we were putting the finishing touches on our snow cone, yet another rainstorm blew up meaning that it was time to head home.
When we arrived home, I immediately shifted my mindset into dinner mode. However, the kids disagreed with that mindset. They instead wanted to spend some time outside playing in the rain. Since I didn't have a good reason to say no, I abandoned my plan for tacos and instead threw a frozen pizza in the oven and joined them outside for some fun in the rain.
Ellie and Ethan initially had a firm hold on their umbrellas as they splashed around in the driveway and on the adjoining sidewalks. However, they eventually abandoned them, choosing instead to get a second set of clothes drenched for the day. It was pretty fun to watch them play though. For the first time, they discovered that a manhole cover on our sidewalk had a grid pattern on top and somehow came up with the idea to fill each square with a rock. Now, I have no clue why they did this but it was awesome to watch them have so much fun. Not to mention, they were working together well and didn't even scream at each other once!
Now, it's true that very few parts of our day went according to plan. Getting soaked in the rain (twice) and eating snow cones were nowhere on my list for the day. However, much like ESPN 8: The Ocho, having fun was definitely on the list and that's exactly what Ellie and Ethan did.
#DaddyWrite
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