This Week

I'm so excited that fall is officially here!  

Alison asked to buy some pomegranate and searched youtube for easy ways to seed them.  She is now the pomegranate expert and is ready to teach anyone interested how to do it.

 

See the oranges in this picture?  Colin ate 3 a day until they were gone!

We had open house at Alison's school this week and I found out she's in an inclusion class (i.e. there are kids with special needs in her class).  I'm glad she gets this experience, but would have appreciated a heads up a couple of weeks ago so I could be talking with her about it.  So far, the only difference I can tell is that her teacher lets them eat a snack at the end of the day while some of the other students get some extra help on work.  The blessing is that she comes home much happier and not completely starving.

Eli had soccer practice and is learning that soccer is the one place it's okay to take the ball from someone without using polite words.  This week I learned that our kids listen to what I say to others far more than I ever think.  After practice, Eli said, "Mom!  I ran 10 miles tonight!"

Ben and I both ran another 10.5 miles on our own.  That night we were talking about our individual runs and pulled up our running apps to discover that we finished at the exact same time...down to the second!  Guess it's meant to be :)

Ben is taking a class Thursday evenings and after 10.5 miles, I did not feel like cooking.  Thank you Broken Egg for feeding kids for free!  We got there right when they opened for dinner and had the place to ourselves.

 And since the kids ate free and did so amazing at the restaurant, we just had to get a giant piece of cake.

My desperation for new jeans became apparent this weekend.  Eli convinced me he had taken a nap during quiet time and asked if he could join me on the great jean search.

 He lied.  2 minutes into our car ride, he was out.  

To top it off, I took Alison to the skating rink for a birthday party only to find I had the wrong date...so she had to join us.

Good thing Auntie Anne's always cheers us up!

I forgot how long it's been since we've been to a mall!

This morning, Eli looked so cute for church and I asked if I could take his picture.

Suddenly he became Spider Man.

I guess yesterdays pretzel made him grow, because he looks so much bigger today.

Alison had another birthday party this afternoon at the park.  We thought it would be fun to take the boys to play for awhile.

Ben took the soccer ball to play with the boys (Alison's practicing cartwheels).

Which was fun for about 2 seconds until Colin snatched and said "My ball!!!".  Terrible twos are fun.

Ben grilled dinner, the kids rode bikes and the smiles started to reappear.

"Are you coming Sissy?"

We went for a bike ride as a family after dinner and I still can't believe that Alison is riding on her own now.  She's getting better by the day and tonight she picked up some speed.

Alison's 1st blog entry:

(picture and typing all done by her)

 

Me Alison made this and am going to make it for Thanksgiving and I call it banana cream split.

Marathon training

Training for this half marathon has been so different from last year.  I feel much stronger this year and have been focusing more on recovering well.  Plus, it's been huge having Ben train with me.  You can see him running home here:

 

P.S.  I totally forgot to blog about Alison starting Girl Scouts!  She's only had one meeting so there's not much to say, other than she's really excited.

 

I'll admit that my pride was pretty high going into training.  I've done this once before and assumed that Ben would follow my lead on training.  And then I ate a huge piece of humble pie.  I wanted to train for this race because my motivation was lacking.  Without teaching I felt a lack of set plans or direction for my workouts and needed a boost in "you have to do this".  I was surprised when Ben said he would run a race with me and even more surprised when he never once lacked motivation.  He was always ready to run a little bit further and always ready with a route and plan.  He was always encouraging when I wanted to quit and made sure I got enough protein after a long run.  You want to know how spoiled I am?  Ben carries 2 water bottles, 2 gu packs, plays the music and tracks our run.  Do you know what I do?  I run next to him and carry nothing.  I thought I would be the one pushing him and giving him training tips, but it turns out that I was the one who really needed him.

At a Nickle Creek concert

The other day I was thinking how perfect running together is for a marriage.  Those who sweat together, stay together.  Right?  I think that's actually pray together, but I still think it's a good motto.  On every long run, we have some disagreement.  It's always small and usually about distance or pace or water stops and when it happens we start laughing because it's become a thing.  "Long run fights"...it's the way to go.  Why not hash out things while you're stuck together for an hour or more?  You have to choose your words carefully because you only have so many and raising your voice is pretty much impossible.  But, more than little disagreements, you have to listen and compromise and sometimes submit to a plan you did not want to follow.  Then there are spots on the run that are just plain hard and you have to encourage each other to push through it.  It reminds us that we are strong and will stick together no matter what hills or valleys face us.

This week

Saturday, Ben and I ran 10.5 miles...this was the view at the halfway point:

  More on the run in the next post, but it's t-minus 14 days until the half marathon!

Tuesday, I took Colin to the park while Eli was in preschool.  He still does not like being alone and is constantly saying "Go Eli school" (i.e. let's go to Eli's school and get him now!).

Eli came home from school and informed me that he learned about today.  Today it is cloudy (even though the sun is shinning through the windows) because that's where the teacher put the arrow on the chart.  Then he made himself a crown.  This is the first time he's ever made a craft on his own and by his own initiative.

That afternoon he was dying to help me make dinner, but it was only 3:00 so he asked if he could make a sandwich.  I don't like that the first ingredient in Nutella is sugar, but I do like that he can make his own sandwich with it.  Sometimes a little confidence boost is worth a little sugar.

Wednesday, I noticed how long the boys' hair is getting and I love how it kinda swoops over.  I'm really hoping I can keep it looking good longer.

 

Thursday, I told the kids to go upstairs and clean up their rooms and get ready to take showers while I cleaned up the kitchen.  All of the sudden I heard this:

I've noticed that Eli has started singing more since preschool and I love how he joins in this song...you can even hear Colin if you listen closely.  Sorry for the naked booty.  For what the song is supposed to sound like, you can listen to it here .

Friday, Eli helped me make tilapia for dinner.  The best part of him helping me is that it makes him excited to eat the foods we cook, which is a great help for this picky eater.

Yesterday, Eli had his very first soccer game.  He had some tears and frustration that he didn't get a chance to kick the ball.  I finally told him to just run around the field and have fun...it seems so weird to tell him to just go steal the ball from a teammate if he wants a turn, but with 4 year old soccer, that's what it takes because passing is not in their vocabulary.  Hopefully next week so much better.  On the bright side, the score was tied!

Charlie Boy

shaking the dressing

Eli became very interested in helping me cook dinner this week.  He wanted to be involved in every step of the way and I was excited to see his enthusiasm...hopefully it brings many beautiful evenings together in the kitchen.  This particular night, I was making schnitzel, spaetzles and salad.  He mixed up the spaetzles and salad dressing and assembled the salads.  While we were cooking, Ben and Colin were singing:

Preschool

Eli started preschool this week.

This is our very first experience with a "real" preschool, so it was a big day for us.  I've had some reservations on the school and to be honest, I'm still not 100% sold on it.  But, we're going to give it a month and see how it goes.

Eli is so excited to go to school and thinks it's pretty cool that he gets his own school, in a completely different place than Alison.  However, he does not like it that he doesn't get to stay all day...guess that's a good sign.

 

He was all smiles while getting ready for school.  I talked to him in the car about how he needed to say "good morning" to his teacher when she greeted him and he practiced a few times.  When we got to school, he marched right in his classroom, looked at his teacher and said "hello!" with a big wave.  I was really proud of him.

Colin thought he was going to school too.  He walked in with Eli and sat down next to him.  He said, "I go school too" and crossed his arms so I couldn't pick him up to leave.  Eli, however, was ready for us to go so he could have his own thing.  His good friend Nash is in his class, so they started playing together right away.

His first 2 days went well and he has really enjoyed it.

This is his classroom...isn't it tiny?

When we left, Colin asked where Alison and Eli were.  I said they were at school and it was just the 2 of us for the morning...and he said, "NO!". 

He especially did not like being in the car all by himself.

Leaving Eli at preschool was really weird for me.  I've had this little snuggle bug by my side for 4 years and all of the sudden our bubble popped.  I know it's a good thing and it's time, but there really should be a class to prepare momma's for this.

2nd Grade

We've had smooth sailing into 2nd grade.  Alison was so excited for a new schedule and agenda and 2 of her good friends are in her class. 

 

She was so excited to have her very own desk this year.

Dropping her off this year was way easier than the previous two.  It helps that it's a familiar school with people we already know.  I know next year will be a whole different story when I have to leave Eli at kindergarten.  Ben left straight from school to the airport...Colin was not happy about losing both of them for the day.

 

Alison came home excited about the new year.  She finished her homework right away and made up some more on her own.  The only news I got out of her was that they get to go to computer lab this year and she doesn't want to go to gym because she is a slow runner.  I told her that she may not be the fastest runner, but that means she can go twice as far. 

OBX 2014

My parents came to visit and wanted to go to the beach, so we ended up snagging a last minute deal on a house for the weekend.  We were literally throwing stuff in the car as my dad taught Alison how to ride her bike and hit the road not even really knowing what was with us.  It's completely not how we normally roll, but it worked and it was nice not stressing for weeks about grocery shopping and packing. 

Get ready for a ton of pictures.

 We got there before our house was open, so we went to the Wright museum.

 

 Basically the weekend was spent eating on the pier or playing on the beach.  It was fabulous.

The kids were usually exhausted by the time dinner rolled around.

 

We got ice cream to celebrate Alison learning to ride a bike.

 

Pizza after a long walk on the pier trying to wear Colin out

Colin is the master of mooching food.

 

  

Colin took a few minutes to warm up to the ocean, but all of the kids did great this year being on the beach.  I was surprised that Alison and Eli both actually wanted to be in the water.

 

 

Ben and my dad broke out some boogie boards and took the kids for rides.

 

 

Post surfing "I'm cold" snuggles are the best.

 

 

The house was great, especially for one that we got at the last minute.  The kids favorite part was the TV with cable in their room.  It made me laugh how exciting new kids shows can be to kids who only watch Curious George in the morning.

 

Saturday morning Ben and I went for a run...did I mention we're running a half marathon October 5th?  It's been great training together and you can't beat ending a run by the ocean.

 

 

It was hard to leave, but we had to get back for 2nd grade!  And Eli needed to do this puzzle Grandpa gave him about 5,000 times.