Catch-up: Running club

The girls school started a new after school club this year that the girls were really excited to join: running club. Every Tuesday and Thursday after school the girls go run 1/8 mile laps for about 1/2 hour. Each child has a large popsicle stick with their name on it and every time they run a lap they take it to one of the parent volunteers who add another mark to the stick. After they get 20 marks they get a new stick...until they get to their 9th stick which is red and when you've done 13 laps (or something) you've run a marathon. The girls grandparents run marathons so the girls were really excited to run a marathon just like them and they love going to running club.

On good days I get out with them and walk with Mg and A and some of our friends...And finally the day came for E to run her marathon!!!! She counted down the days until she ran her marathon for weeks and was SO excited!!!! However when the time came she got a little overwhelmed by all the crowd cheering her on and...grrr...some of the big kids got int he way and broke the tape JUST before she went through! Ahh!! I was able to hold it up but as soon as she went through the same kids grabbed the tape and took off...poor E was absolutely DEVESTATED!!! I was able to go after the kids to get some of her tape (she had been wanting to hang it on her wall...I can't tell you HOW excited she was about running this marathon!!!) Mommy's surprise jamba juice helped a little, too but she didn't want to talk about it for a few days. Thankfully after that she returned to her happy little self and was so excited to tell people that she had run a marathon!!

(We tried to take the picture at the next running club so we would have a picture of her running through the tape (I missed that picture since I was holding up the tape!!) and although she agreed she was a little less than enthusiastic!)

The next running club after E ran her marathon it was M's turn to finish hers! Here's the group of kids lined up to cheer M on...

Here she comes!!! (and yes, she was LOVING every bit of attention!!!)

YEA!

Here is E on the actual day of her marathon (holding on to the recovered tape!!) with Mr. Yeaman, the teacher in charge (poor E just wanted to go home!)

Daddy was able to make a quick stop over at the kids school to watch both of them run their marathons!

I'm so proud of my girls!!

Catch-up: Jump rope assembly

The girls were SO excited about their jump rope assembly...they've been going to the jump rope club during recess once a week and having a great time...jump rope had definitely become a favorite activity of theirs and they are both REALLY good. They both had routines with their friends and were counting down the days until the assembly...and poor E had the stomach flu and a fever that morning! It was so sad...although the poor thing was so sick and miserable I'm not ever sure she realized she was missing it :) M had a great time and did a great job...she did a Chinese jump rope routine with some friends (thanks mom for the rope!) and then some tricks with her rope... (she's in the middle)

and then later she did a double dutch routine with her friends!

New bikes, cont...

Yes, there is more to our bike story :) So awhile back we found a bigger bike for M that just needed a new seat. We took the seat off her old bike and life was good. Then we decided to move Mg up to M's old bike and went hunting and found a fabulous bike store that gave us a free used post and we bought a seat, put training wheels back on the bike and she was set and ready. Then our neighbors gave us a bike that E loved and it was a little bigger than the one she had and the new one fit her better...it of course needed a new tire and a new seat...we went back to the bike store, got another free used post (I love that place!!) and she and Daddy spent the morning putting together her new bike...

Needless to say she was quite excited and LOVED being Daddy's helper (that's my girl!)

And, of COURSE, little A had to imitate all that they did...

"Take my picture, Mommy!"

She was so excited when Daddy let her put the bolts back on by herself, true to her nature she took it very seriously and worked hard and did a great job and we were off!!!

Um, I don't think it's your size!! (but thanks for straightening the handlebars!)

So now the girls are all on new bikes...Mg had a 16 in, E has an 18 in and M has a 20 in. I am still using my 10 speed I got when I was about 12. Little A is happy in the trailer and we are really excited because a long time ago Daddy found a bike rack that was supposed to work on our van and it didn't use a hitch post...he tried it out on Saturday and it works!!! So we're really looking forward to Saturday when we'll put Mommy, Daddy and M's bike on the back of the car and put E and Mg's into the trunk of the van and we're looking into getting a seat for the back of Daddy's bike for A (our trailer won't fit in the van) and we'll take this show on the road!!! I'm excited to try some of the riverway bike paths...with the whole family!!! Too cool!!!

Hooray for Daddy!!!

So officially Daddy is totally done here! He did an excellent job on his exit seminar (if I do say so myself!) and his paper was officially accepted for publication in the journal of his choice with minimal revisions required....YEA!!!!! We're so happy and SO very proud of him!!! Unfortunately we don't have any answers yet on the job front...the job in Utah is not ready for him yet and we're still getting more info and looking into other things...maybe one day I'll have an announcement but apparently we still have lessons in *patience* to learn. Thankfully we're happy here and grateful he can continue to work in his lab. Here he is before his exit seminar...Daddy and his professor...she is AWESOME!!! We couldn't have asked for a better person for him to work with.
His current lab buddies
Daddy and A after his exit seminar. An hour or so before I had to leave to go hear his seminar little A came down with a fever and therefore could not go to our friends house so the sick sweetheart came with me. I brought lots of chocolate chips and books to keep her happy and she did pretty well, all things considered. We did leave for awhile (the seminar was an hour) but she was a trooper. After we came home Daddy and A completely crashed on the couch for a good hour...he worked hard and celebrated with a nice nap :)

YEA Daddy!! We love you so much!!!

Ashes ashes (d)own!

Little A is too cute. She has been much too busy climbing to bother speaking, and with so many people to talk for her why bother! She knows Dadda and Momma and Nana (banana) and up and meow for her kitty...what more do you need! Last week though she started spinning in circles saying "ashes ashes"...I finally figured out that she wanted Ring Around the Rosies and now it is by far her favorite game. Lucky for her the big girls love it and are happy to play with her! After a few times she added the "own" (down minus the d) in an excited voice for falling down...I love it! She's also just starting to imitate some other words...here she goes!!!

Light sabers and princess dresses...

Only in my house would a title like that make sense :) On our Disneyland trip last year Daddy fulfilled a childhood dream and bought himself a light saber...more technically a spring loaded one with lights and sounds :) Since then he has used random things around the house as a light saber for the girls to use and he teaches them the ways of the force. So for Christmas we got him another light saber (complete with lights and sounds but only Daddy's has the springloaded action!). Since then we have had many evenings (and many family home evening activities) centered around lightsaber fights, much to Daddy's joy!Ah ha...he cut off her arm!
They each try to "cut off" the other persons legs and arms and once that's done the fight finishes off with the belly button. ("The force is strong with you young Jedi")

I believe this is the first (and only) time that Daddy actually won! ("I am your father")
Sweet little A (who imitates EVERYTHING she sees us doing!!) had to get in on the action (I usually sit on the couch with her and the others waiting their turn to keep people away from the danger zone!)

("You don't know the power of the dark side")Usually the girls only get to fight Daddy but A insisted on taking Daddy's light saber and going after E and now everyone gets a short turn to play with A...I love this family!

Random Catch-up

As usual I'm playing some catch-up...stayed tuned for the light saber fights...but until then here are some random photos of the last few weeks...the girls talked Daddy into turning some of our "moving" boxes into dog sleds for their animals...
I love evenings at our house...they have such a great Daddy!
And of course the little one imitates all that her sisters do so every night when they run to grab their scriptures she follows them over and grabs a book and sits and looks at it just like her sisters do...she is such a sweetheart!!!
We had ice cream for dessert (we haven't had any in a long time while we dealt with her milk allergy but she seems to have grown out of it...YEA!)...she wanted EVERY last drop!
I love Walmart clearance! The girls found a 300 piece kitty puzzle for $2 so we decided to try it out...I was amazed at how long the girls really stuck with it! It took us a few evenings but we did it!! E especially would sit for a long time and work on it!
We finished!!! YEA!!!
Fun times...I love these girls!!

My latest purchases

Some women buy shoes, some can decorate a house, I buy books. I don't have to try them on, color shade doesn't matter, style is not an issue and they won't make me fatter.

Every March I go through the same thing...a mega trip to the library to get books on butterfly gardening, vegetable gardening and insects. Yes, insects. And you wonder where my children got the idea to start a bug collection. Somewhere there is a picture of me about kindergarten age lining up snails on the fence for a race. It wasn't a one time thing!

Anyways, on our bike ride last week Daddy found a caterpillar on the slide and we lovingly carried it home and tried to identify it. No luck. I wasted way too much time on the internet trying to figure out what it was...so I could give it the proper food so it would turn into a butterfly :) Eventually I ended up at the library but there aren't very many books about caterpillars. Instead I came home with dragonfly and butterfly books and books about butterfly gardening and garden crafts for kids...the same books I check out every year. But I was still upset about not being able to identify my caterpillar. So it was time to move on to the bookstore.

This is not a good thing. I LOVE THAT PLACE!!!! I need a huge monthly allowance to keep me happy. Thankfully it's like childbirth...I only do it every so often and then I forget about it (that was a random comparison!). As long as a I stay away I forget the temptation. I sat on the ground checking every insect book for my caterpillar...couldn't find it. Instead I found over $100 dollars worth of field guides and butterfly books I really wanted. Sigh. Then I started the rationalizing...I'm very good at that!!! Thankfully I was on a time schedule and ended up writing down the titles of the books I wanted and escaped with the two cheapest but FABULOUS books I could find...rationalizing that we're just starting in on bug collecting season this year and I really want to the girls to learn to identify and know all about the bugs they collect and it would be nice to have a small book in the car to help with identification. Although they have been catching all sorts of bugs, dragonflies and butterflies are by far their favorites, hence my purchases. I came home with slight buyers remorse for just a few minutes (I RARELY buy stuff other than a few craft supplies here or there) but woke up so happy to see them on the counter in the morning and to know they are MINE! Life can be so simple, and I am happy :)

New Bikes, part 2

Since M had a new bike we decided to move Mg up to M's old bike. However, we needed a new seat and post for it. We found a post at the bike shop but the smallest one didn't fit. Grr. We took the bike in to the shop and they happened to have a used post that fit perfectly that they just gave us! Hooray! So we bought a new seat that just happened to be pink and white and life was good. On Saturday Daddy put training wheels on it for her and we were off!

I can't believe how much they have all grown!!!!
We decided to ride to the closest park to try all the new bikes out. This is one of our favorite parks called the "tire swing park" since, believe it or not, it has a tire swing. Brilliant name :)

One of their recent favorite activities is playing tag with Daddy...the taunting begins (way up high where they're safe!)
And Daddy gets my favorite little kid grin and takes off (I think he likes it as much as the kids!!!)


I think he likes the fact that he can climb up and jump down and climb around the playground faster since he's bigger...although isn't there are rule about only going DOWN the slide!
You have to click on this picture...she is so cute getting away from Daddy!
His favorite waiting spot, can you believe he fits!! (sortof)
And although I keep little A out of danger's path most of the time Daddy always goes after her for a little, too...she's gotten so good at squealing and turning around and running...she is SO cute!
Hooray for tire swing parks, Daddy and new bikes! (and California spring!!!)

Park time

We took a long bike ride to check out M's new bike and went to this small random neighborhood playground and had some fun...E's trying out the different swing...


Mg found places to taunt Daddy..."Niener neiner neiner"M tried out the different monkey bars...
"Help me Daddy!"
And E had fun spinning around and around!
(and A found the bag of chocolates in the bike trailer and stayed there most of the time...see previous post!!)