Catching Up

I've been a slacker on this blog, but I had a few random good photos from the last few months that I wanted to share.

First, Neil and Martina and family came in early August.  It was a quick visit, but we enjoyed spending as much time with them as possible.  The girls all went out shopping the Crawl - a 30+ mile strip of yard sales along Route 11.  It was a pretty unsuccessful trip for us, but Rachel did talk me into our own chocolate fountain.  It proved a very yummy and messy purchase.  

Here, little Drew (who spent the entire week he was here telling me, "I don't love you" completely unprompted) enjoyed my purchase.  I don't think it helped to endear me to him, though.  

My kids really enjoyed their time with their cousins.  Alex always has a good time with Jonathan.  We took him for a couple days while Rachel remained at Gramma and Paka's house to visit with Ashley.

 

Beautiful girls - Josie, Ashley and Rachel

First Day of School

This is a big year for Matthew - Kindergarten.  I think he was excited.  I know that academically he is ready.  I was a little worried about his ability to sit still and obey the rules of the classroom.  To make it even more difficult, he has his two buddies in his class. While they are best friends, he is definitely the leader of the group - usually getting them all in trouble.  After a couple months, he has managed to not get into too much trouble, so I guess he's adjusting.

Trip to DC

As summer was ending, I was feeling guilty that I had not taken the kids to DC.  We live so close, but I just take advantage enough.  One of the biggest problems with DC is that some of the attractions require tickets, so you need to plan ahead.  I just never do that.  Once again, my kids want to go up into the Washington Monument and there are no tickets available.  It would have been a good day to go because the earthquake happened the day after and no one is allowed in for the time being until they fix it.  But, we still enjoyed a few of the exhibits at the Natural History Museum and walked to the WWII monument.  The kids really wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial, but it is just a little too far to walk.  The trip was similar to previous ones - a little fun, a lot of logistics, some attitude, and leftover feeling of wondering why I try to do this.  Maybe next time...

The attitude begins to show....

Riding bikes in a Hurricane? Only my children.  They had a good time, though. You cannot appreciate how hard it was raining in the picture, but it is pouring here.

The Heritage 5K 

Dave was running the half marathon with Tara.  I saw that the 5K had awards for 9 and Under, so I knew that Alex should run it to get a chance to place.  I thought they had a mile for the younger kids.  But, it turned out that the mile was on the day before.  When I told the kids, they were very disappointed and said that they wanted to run the 5K, too.  I told them they were going to need to run with Daddy to see how far it really is.  I kind of joked with Dave that he should drop the car off at the shop and run home with the kids.  I guess he thought that was a good idea, and so off they went.  I was worried because there was no way to turn around if the boys gave up.  As it was getting dark, I got nervous.  So, Rachel and I got in the car and went looking for them.  I couldn't find them and was really getting worried as we passed our house to go on another loop.  They were almost home! It was amazing - 32 minutes or so for just over a 5K.

I planned to run with Zack and Matthew in the race so that I could help keep them going slow at the beginning and help make sure they stayed on track through the whole race.  I was very worried because I had not run much.  But, I figured that I would be fine.  How hard can it be to keep up with a 5-year old in a 3-mile race?  As we started, Zack took off with Alex.  I tried to call him back, but he didn't want to run with me.  Matthew stayed with me a little bit, but within 1/2 mile, he was gone.  He had weaved in and out of people, and I just didn't feel that I could do that.  I figured I would just stay slow and catch up to them when they got tired and slacked off.  As we approached the turnaround, I saw all 3 of the boys in age order.  It was fun to give them a high five and some encouragement.  I saw that they were doing well and pretty far ahead.  So, I picked it up a little.  But, I could not even get them in my sights.  The finish of the race was around the track at the high school.  As I approached the track, I thought I might get to see the boys finish, but no, they were all 3 done and cheering for me.  

I was so impressed with them for pushing themselves through the whole race.  Alex finished in 26:12 with definite room to improve if he can better pace himself.  Zack finished in 27:20 and Matthew 27:41.  This placed them 1st, 3rd, and 4th in the 9 and Under.  Matthew was the only 5 year old in the race.  They are already excited about the next race!  Me, with a 29:04 time, I'll be happy to video tape next time.  Or, maybe I'll train so I can beat my 5-year old.  It might be the only chance I will ever have to beat him.  

Tara finished the half marathon, as Dave cheers her on.  Both Tara and Dave did well.

A new house?

Not quite a new house, but it's beginning to feel a lot better.  We have FINALLY gotten our carpets replaced.  They were super disgusting, but I hated to idea of spending money to replace them if the kids were just going to mess them up again.  But, it had to be done.  We figured we go ahead and replace the floor in the powder room as well.  And, if we're pulling up that floor, we might as well tackle the whole bathroom.  So, that was my project for the last few weeks.  It was a lot of work but the end result is beautiful.  Unfortunately, I don't have before pictures.  I always forget those, but here are the final results.

Hardwood in the foyer and on the steps...

Laminate all upstairs...

Finally, I have no idea where this came from.  I got back from taking Alex to soccer practice, and Matthew had written me a card.  He was upset that he couldn't spell "very much".  He was so cute, and he is definitely not the kid that writes me little notes.  So, I had to capture it!

A tribute to Matthew

My sister-in-law, Alice, wrote this wonderful tribute to our "baby".  He just started Kindergarten without even looking back.  I think she really sums up what makes Matthew so wonderful.  If you're interested in what makes him exasperating, you probably just need to watch the blog for some of my stories.

http://frodoseven.blogspot.com/2011/08/celebrate-good-times-special-award.html

Alice comments on his attempt to skate.  This video below is of him skating the very next time that I took him to the rink.  Still wobbly, but he can stay on his feet.

Haircuts

So, we decided to boycott haircuts over the summer.  The boys wanted to grow their hair long, and school requires them to have short hair.  So, they had a couple months to grow it.  Alex's was really driving me crazy, though.  It was in his eyes, covering his ears and a complete mess every day.  I did decide that I liked it on the long side.  But, with school just over a week away, we needed to get their school hair cuts.  I made the mistake of going to a new place, a Hair Cuttery that was along our route of errands today (rather than going to our normal Hair Cuttery).  I was very disappointed.  I asked them to keep their hair on the long side.  I'm not sure Matthew's could be much shorter without giving him a crew cut.  Alex's cut required me to pull out the clippers and scissors to fix it when we got home - never a good sign.  Zack's was OK, although I would have liked it a little longer.  Oh well.  The great thing about hair is that it grows back.

Pranking gone wild

In celebration of Zack and Grace's birthdays, we had a surprise party in the pool.  Grace and Zack were thrown in while still in their jammies (with much resistance from Zack).  Brendan then got his Uncle Dave and knocked him in the pool as well.  Dave told him he would get him back, and I guess Dave and Chris were working on a plan to get Brendan.  They finally decided on a plate full of shaving cream.  Unfortunately, Dave took the opportunity to smash it in Brendan's face without than giving us warning to turn on the video camera.  It was pretty funny, though.  And, Brendan took it like a champ.  As we were preparing to take a picture of the two of them together, Alice gave Brendan the plate to hold.  He snatched the opportunity to smash it in Dave's face.  Again, no video camera.  Then, Brendan got Madeleine (not sure what she had done to deserve that), and he tried unsuccessfully to get Chris.  I have to say that I was impressed with the way they all handled the fun.  It definitely provided us a lot of laughs!

Spinning girl

Here is my very talented niece.  This is 5-year old Lauren, Tara's daughter.  She apparently watched a friend hula hoop and then practiced herself to get this good.  We were all quite impressed.

Retribution

My sister-in-law, Alice, has been giving me a lot of grief lately for the lack of new entries on the Kreitzer Kids blog.  So, for her...

A few moments later...

Ahhhh, retribution!