OP Farmer's Market Performance

This morning, the O'Riada Manning performance group braved the Ireland-like rain to perform at the Overland Park Farmers Market! They found a dry place to dance and eventually, the rain let up and we had a good crowd watching. Chris performed two solo dances and was part of the group dance at the end...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADpD3aCB-FA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CbunDTyceA

Chris had a great crowd show up to support him too!

Summer Days

Now that swim team is over, our mornings have been freed up a little and the boys have just been playing in the neighborhood. Jonathan, Christopher and I often go for a bike ride on our "Belinder Loop" (a little less than a mile loop starting at our house and going down Belinder Rd). There is a pretty fountain along the way that J likes to stop at so while we do that, Chris rides an extra loop on his own and meets us back at the fountain. J loves wearing his new sunglasses and here he is in front of the fountain with his shades...

Other mornings, we go down the street and play with Tiffany and her kids. Jonathan, Noah, and "baby" Christopher (who is now 4--not really a baby!) have really bonded and enjoy playing with each other!

Movin' on Up

It was an exciting weekend in St. Louis for Christopher! After being sidelined for awhile with a broken foot, he worked hard to get strong again and he earned a first place at the Friendship Feis. This first place moved him up to the open championship level (OC) and qualified him for Mid-America Oireachtas as well as next year's Nationals in Nashville. We are so proud of this boy for all of his hard work! Yesterday was his first dancing day back in competition and he placed 7th in his group. The judges often give comments so the dancers can see what they need to improve for next time. Chris took the judges comments and applied them to his dances today. In his first round he earned a second place overall and then moved up to first. It was a very exciting day for him as well as his fellow O'Riada Manning dancers as there were 5 kids who qualified for Oireachtas and several more who are really close. Here are some more pictures from the weekend...

 J felt like posing for a picture too...

Oh and, lost in the rest of the excitement, Chris wore his new solo vest made by one of the moms at the dance studio. He only got to wear it yesterday as today's feis was what is called a "blackout" and the kids just wear plain black clothes...

Finally, and fortunately, Christopher's belt broke after all of his competitions were done!

Birthday Boy!

Happy 11th birthday to this boy! It was a busy birthday for him and it's not even done yet. He had Level 2 swimming champs this morning until about 1PM. He swam a medley relay, freestyle, backstroke, IM and free relay. After all that, he got to come home and basically veg out before we went to Chuy's, his choice for dinner. All that and then he's going to dance in a little bit here. He had a good day and we are so proud of this guy for being who he is! His brother wanted to get in on the action too. Here is an extreme close up from dinner!

This Week in Woglom

This will be a random assortment of pictures because our internet has been down (once again) since Friday. Many things have gone on this past week but here are some of the highlights...

On Friday, Chris got his closest friends together to celebrate his birthday with Go Karting, dinner and a sleepover! The Go Karting was so much fun--the kids had a blast...

The kids had a blast together and these kids really know Christopher--they got him books, a nerf gun and a drone! Cameron and Jahan stayed over and Sarina (who lives two blocks away) came back over to play in the morning. They had sword fights, played board games and fully entertained themselves considering there were no movies to watch! They stayed up nice and late and we were all wiped out the next day. Despite exhaustion, Chris always finds energy for dance. While he was at class, Jonathan held his own dance class in the back room of the studio (J stayed at Grammy's during Christopher's sleepover so he was well rested)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DMtiVW4c2U&feature=youtu.be

Yesterday, Chris had his first day of swim champs and he did great! He swam fly in the medley relay, individual medley, fly and breaststroke. He swam well and moved his IM up to level two, which he will swim tomorrow. Here is a video of Christopher's fly...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHXz_lXTK90

Last weekend, Brian got to go to Lake Tahoe for an American Century event. They host a celebrity golf tournament every year and this was his first visit out there. The pictures he sent were beautiful!

He also got to see a Blake Shelton concert (right up Daddy's alley, lol)...

Ran into Charles Barkley wishing a 90 year-old lady a happy birthday...

And also ran into Carlton from Fresh Prince doing a little karaoke...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D25GGIrlJnY&feature=youtu.be

While Daddy we gone, we also met Danna and Lahna at Meadowbrook Park and we did a little rock climbing...

Hangin at the Pool

Well, between Google Fiber outages and power outages (and just life in general), it has not been easy to get this blog written! Anyway, Jonathan had a nice play date at the park with his friend Benny today while Chris was at swim practice. Then the boys went up to practice (Benny's brother swims in the group after Chris) and hung out in the comfy swing chairs...

After some very muggy days recently, it was nice to have a little relief from the humidity!

Blue Angels

The Blue Angels are back in Kansas City! We ventured over to the Liberty Memorial where we got a great show without having to be at the actual Kansas City Air Show in the sun and heat. We found a lovely cool tree to sit under and watched the Blue Angels from a distance and it was so cool as usual! Here is a video of one of the times they flew over where we were sitting...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL_bNzab6zQ&feature=youtu.be

Last weekend we also went downtown to Union Station where we saw a cool art installation called Reflection in Motion. It was a suspended fabric hanging above the ground and shimmering in the breeze...

We also saw a cool exhibit about Stonehenge in Union Station's special exhibit space. We didn't take many pictures but it was very interesting!

The 5th of July

The 4th of July yesterday was a little rainy and a little rainy but still a lot of fun for the Woglom fam. We had a lazy morning at home followed by lunch at Houlihans as we "ran between the drops" of rain that were coming down. Things finally cleared up though and we were able to play outside a little bit before heading to Danna's for their annual Fireworks Watching party. J still isn't quite ready for fireworks so Chris got to hang with the older kids and I got to hang with the grown-ups! It was a fun evening! This morning, Chris had swim practice and then we wandered out to a comic book store (more on that in a minute) and we checked out Meadowbrook Park. This is an amazing new park with a cool playground (almost geared more toward older kids) and lots of green space and trails. The boys found a huge hill too!

We explored the park and will definitely be back with our bikes, scooters and rollerblades (and Grammy too!)...

The boys have been really into this show I used to watch as a kid called "Voltron" as well as superheroes of all kinds. Chris requested a trip to a comic book store and we found a good one! The boys picked up some Voltron comics as well as Spiderman (and Mommy may have gotten an X-Files comic too!). They have been checking them out this afternoon...