The Goblin Gallop

The kids and Dave ran in the Goblin Gallop race this weekend with Tara's family. The kids ran a 1K (about 1/2 a mile). We were excited to see Brendan close to the front of the pack - he finished 3rd. And, then Rachel came in shortly thereafter (10th, I think).



Here's Alex, not that far behind. Check out the size of the kids he was running with.




Then, we've got Zack and Dave.




And, finally, Ryan and little Lauren.




Dave and Tara ran the 5K, but I didn't get any pics. The kids were too busy in the moonbounce, so I missed Dave and just barely saw Tara finish. Oh well. It was a fun race for the kids. Brendan's ready for the 5K next year!

No school -- better find something to do

We had a day off, so I decided to get the kids out of the house. We went to High School Musical 3 at the theater. The kids really enjoyed it, even Matthew. Zack especially enjoyed the popcorn, which he kept eating from the spilled masses on the floor. I hear the "eeewwww", but this is better than some of the things he's eaten off the floor.

Then, we headed to a small farm with a hayride, slides, swingset, animals, and a fire pit to roast marshmallows. The kids had a great time with very little complaining or fighting. It was definitely one of those days I just loved my kids and having the chance to do that with them.

The best pumpkin

Zack brought home about the cutest pumpkin I've ever seen from school today. I just thought I'd post a pic.

Our new neighbors?

Alice and Chris spent a long weekend with us for Alice's reunion and a little house hunting. We're getting hopeful that might be making the move up here this summer. While they were here, Chris got to enjoy having boys around to play and watch football with.



Alex with Baby Ella






My crazy children went in the pool even though the water was in the mid-60's.

Matthew's First Accident

So, Wednesday morning Matthew was helping me make eggs, like most mornings. After I took off the hot pan of eggs, he reached over and smacked the burner with his hand. He immediately started screaming. He cried and cried for the next hour and a half as we sat with his hand under water. I had to go pick up Zack, so I had to lug him with a bucket of water for his hand to school. We kept his hand under the water for a total of 5 hours before the pain seemed to go away. He even fell asleep sitting on my lap with his hand hanging into the sink. He would instinctively put it into the water stream if it slipped out. It was so sad. It was so pruney from the water that I could not appreciate how bad it looked until I decided to take these pictures. Now, we're trying to keep it wrapped - difficult task for a 2-year old - and hope the blisters don't get infected when they pop.

Sports, again - this time softball

So, if it seems like all I write about it sports, well, that seems to be the biggest part of our life. We've finally gotten Rachel's softball season going after the rain that ruined the fields. She had a great game this past weekend. She got two great hits and got the game ball from her coach. We were very proud of her. Her team fought back from a big deficit to win 8-7 in the last inning. It was actually very exciting.

What a Great Sports Day!

Well, this was such a great day for sports in our family. Grammy and Papa drove all the way up here just so they could watch the kids play, which the kids were so excited about. They even seemed to understand the significance of them driving so far just for them. So, naturally, I was hoping for a good day.

It started off with Alex's game. Although his team was the better team, it was a close game. Alex (aka Raz - his chosen name since there were 2 Alex's on his team) played really well and scored his first, and the team's winning, goal in the last few minutes of the game. It was very exciting.

Unfortunately, we did miss out on Rachel's game because her field was too wet to play on. But, we took the kids to a pumpkin patch to entertain them.

Then, we headed to Zack's game. It was a romp. They won 13-1. Zack scored 4 goals pretty quickly, including this one and had to be held back a little to play defense.




Then, just to make it really exciting, UVA, despite being the big underdog, pulled off a 31-0 win. My parents headed down to the game that day, but we had to just follow it on the internet. But, boy, that was exciting. I wish we could have been there.

10 years and going strong

Well, even though this is a post mostly about the kids, I will comment on our 10 year anniversary. We actually got some portraits done for a picture frame that Dave put together for me. We didn't get to go away for our anniversary. We did that in June when we went to Vegas, but we enjoyed a relaxing evening out without the kids. I'm loving having a regular babysitter finally!

Different strokes for different folks

So, I was thinking about something that I wanted to remember about Alex, and as this is pretty much my journal, here goes...

I don't know if you've heard this story (no idea if it is true or not). A couple was having breakfast on their 50th anniversary. The man made toast for them and gave his wife the end piece of bread while taking a middle piece for himself. The wife asked him why after all these years of giving her the end piece, he couldn't even give her the middle piece on their anniversary, of all days. He replied that he always gave her that piece because it was his favorite.

When I heard that story, I thought it was crazy. Who would want the end piece? Well, apparently Alex. He gets excited when he gets that piece. It's cute.