Boosterthon

Running seems to be an ongoing theme for our family this year.  Every morning, I've been waking up at 5:45 to run before the boys leave for school.  Scott's been running a little, too.  Now, Elijah's joined the Running Club which meets every morning during morning work time, at 7:20.  The kids walk or run around the track, they get marks on their hand for each lap they do and they can earn prizes.  They try to make it fun by playing popular music and having a festive environment.  And, before Running Club, the running theme started for Elijah with the Boosterthon.  This year, as a fundraiser, the school held a Boosterthon.  As with all fundraisers, I was a little skeptical.  But, this turned out to be fabulous.  Elijah got pledges for each lap he ran, and they estimated that the kids would run between 25 and 35 laps.  Keira, Dendi and I came out the morning of the Boosterthon to cheer on Elijah.  As I said, I was impressed.  They made it so fun for the kids.  They played fun music, had themes for the different laps to keep the kids motivated and even made warming up silly.  Elijah ran almost the whole time and ran all 35 laps.  Awesome.

Elijah's First Day of First Grade

It's hard to believe, but Elijah's been in first grade now for more than a month.  Fortunately, he's had a great beginning of the year.  I think his teacher, Ms. Harris, is a perfect match for him.  She's laid back, low key and incredibly sweet.  She even admitted to us parents, at Back to School Night, that she's probably a push over.  All of this is fabulous for Elijah since he's so personally rigid and motivated.  I think his Kindergarten teacher was a little old school, and while a lot of kids need that extra discipline, it made Elijah worry even more.  Elijah seems calmer and happier this year.  It could be that he's getting used to this whole school thing, or it could be that Ms. Harris is a great match for him.  Realistically, it's probably a combination of the two.  Here are some First Day of School photos.  Again this year, I took a few photos of him sitting on a rocker on the front porch.  I plan on doing that every first day as a way to chronicle his growth over the years.

Summer Rain Babies

As my last post about the summer, I wanted to document our kids' love of playing in the rain.  Truly, it's Keira's passion, but occassionally her enthusiasm has rubbed off on Elijah and he's joined in on the fun.  I was about to skip this post as it's so difficult to get good photo documentation, but Keira just came in from playing in the rain a few minutes ago and she happily waited for Elijah's rain delayed baseball game by splashing in the puddles, yesterday.  I realized it's too signifigant of a pastime to not include. 

As you can see from the pictures, Keira is happy to play in the rain, in her kitty rain coat or not.  But, the kitty rain coat definitely keeps her warm and prolongs the experience.  Keira LOVES jumping in puddles, the higher, the better.  Both kids love to play in the deluge that's created by the water spout.  Fun, fun, fun!

Lake House with Everyone, Part IV -- Out on the Town

As the lake house is fairly far away from any "civilization" we rarely venture out, but each trip we usually do go into town for at least on meal.  This time we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant to celebrate Hayden's birthday.  We were all happy with our meal, especially our kids who love any excuse to stuff themselves with chips and queso.  Keira brought Maisy who she practiced undressing and dressing during any down times in the meal.  Grammie took a picture of me, Keira and Maisy.

 

 

Grammie snapped some more pictures of Keira and I outside of the restaurant, while we were all loading up into our respective cars.  Keira was cracking both of us up with the "licking game."  Somehow this game started during our various times waiting at Disney World.  Both kids would surprise me with little licks which I would shriek and say "Gross!" which they loved, they'd giggle and do it again.  If nothing else, the game is good for some good grins and giggles.

 



Lake House with Everyone, Part III -- Boat Rides

While Keira loved the water front, Elijah loved the boats. He enjoyed the water front, too, but by far his favorite way to enjoy the water was on a jet ski or on Babo's Boat. He wanted to go on the jet ski at least once a day, and to his delight I even took him out on the jet ski on this trip. Two parent drivers meant double the jet ski possibilities.  Hayden was a huge jet ski enthusiast as well, so he joined Daddy and Elijah on a couple of adventures.  As for me, it was such a treat to zoom around the lake, squealing with laughter with my boy.  On this trip I felt much more able to leave Keira while I enjoyed some special Elijah time on the lake.  We had a blast!

 

 

As usual, besides the jet ski, Babo's Boat Ride was also a hit.  For Elijah, the highlight of Babo's Boat Ride was riding on the tube.  And, again, I even got a chance to go tubing with my boy.  Although we didn't get any pictures of Elijah and I on the tube, maybe next time.

Keira's favorite part of the boat rides were swimming off the boat, in the middle of the lake.  I had a great time swimming with my silly, squealing, gleeful girl. 

One of the nice things about going on a boat ride with so many family members was that Scottie and I even got a little time to enjoy a cuddle and watch our kids standing at the gate on the bow.

 

 

Finally, for the kids, no boat ride is complete without a trip to the Marina for a treat.  Elijah looks spaced out and tired in these pictures from a busy day on the water.  But, obviously he's never too tired for chocolate!



Lake House with Everyone, Part II -- Water Fun

Keira loved the water front.  Besides visiting the bunk beds downstairs, it was her favorite destination.  She played happily for hours in the water and on the sand, and usually a lot of both.  Once again, she was amazingly independent in her Princess Float.

Besides happily playing by herself for house, she also enjoyed some water time with different family members.  She even got to spend some special time with Uncle Brian in the water before he had to head back home.

 

 

Elijah also got to enjoy some time horsing around with Uncle Brian in the water, too.  They took turns trying to throw each other in the lake.



Besides trying to push Uncle Brian into the lake, Elijah spent many other happy hours at the waterfront, too.  He played in the sand and swam around the swimming area.  Unfortunately, his comfort in the pool didn't completely translate to lake swimming.  But, he loved swimming out to the float and asked Daddy and I to accompany him whenever he got the chance.

Lake House with Everyone, Part I -- Lake House

In the middle of July, we spent a week at the Lake House.  The whole family spent at least a little time up at the lake -- Aunt Seana, Mr. Josh and Hayden stayed up all week, Grammie and Babo left two days before we did, and Uncle Brian and Ms. Kathryn came up over the weekend.  It was wonderful to see everyone -- we had a great time.  I've divided my memories and pictures into four posts: Lake House, Water Fun, Boat Rides and In Town.  First, I'll start with all the fun we had around the house.

As with any trip with that many people, we had no shortage of food.  Fortunately, we used the food spreadsheet that Brian created a few years ago which clarified the meal planning and cut down on the redundancy.  Along with regular meals that everyone chipped in on, as usual, Aunt Seana kept us well stocked in yummy baked goods.  True to form, Elijah volunteered to help with some of the baking.  That's one of my favorite parts of going up to the Lake House with such a big group -- there's plenty of opportunity for spontaneous extended family time.

 

 

With that many people and in this in this day and age of laptops, we had FIVE laptops at the lake house at one point.  When Josh realized that this picture was being taken, he rushed to bring out all the computers to highlight the ridiculousness.

 

 

As usual, my favorite place to be around the house was on the screened in porch.  The wonderful thing about this trip is that the kids are getting older and more independent.  While Keira played next to us on the porch, I was able to play a few games.  Amazing!  My favorite was Rummy-O.  Hayden and Elijah loved the game, too.  It was especially fun to watch them play together since this was the first time they had met.