Birthday party

I'm not the best at planning birthday parties for the kids. But the mommy guilt got to me this year since I was running a marathon on Norahs birthday. So this year Norah got her first friend birthday party.  We planned it for sunday afternoon at one of our favorite parks.  Its tucked away, private and has a basketball court for Colin to play on. 

Norah invited 5 friends to come to her party.  Our neighbors couldn't come because their 7th grader had a double hitter game on sunday.  Tanner really wanted to come to Norahs party and was praying for rain the whole week before.  Because if it rained we were going to have her party the following weekend and he didn't have a game then.  I told him I would send Norah over to his house Sunday if it rained and cancelled her party. I think he really just wanted to come play basetball with Colin but Norah felt so special that he really wanted to be there at her party. 

I'm so glad Joel and Becca have stayed friends.  They basically have no choice because their mommys are great friends but it helps when they like each other.

Norah begged for a pinata after Charly's birthday party.  We found the cutest cupcake at walmart and Norah helped me stuff it full of candy.  Thankfully she got the first hit because as soon as she made contact with the pinata it broke.

This girl needs to play softball next year!

Norah LOVED her party.

 Last weekend was a super busy weekend with our trip to DC and Norahs party (also throw in a long swim team board meeting for me and we were all ready for bed easily sunday night)

Wizards Game

This past friday we took the boys out of school a little early and headed up to DC for a Wizards game.  

Just the boys went to the game, Norah and I stayed at the hotel and swam in the pool.  

Before the game we showed the kids the White House.  They weren't too impressed because we saw it from the back.  Norah thought almost every old man walking around was the president!

The next morning we went down to the mall to see some museums and monuments.

It was a beautiful day to walk around and see everything.

Norah and Joel have been mining rocks in our front yard.  The neighbor kids come and they take big rocks and crush smaller rocks to find diamonds and crystals. I made them all wear sunglasses and they have spent hours finding treasures.  Until they started smashing bricks on our front steps and then I had to put a stop to their mining operations for a while. So Joel and Norah loved seeing rooms full of different types of rocks.

The Hope Diamond

We had heard the cherry blossoms were all damaged in the winter storm they had but they were really pretty. Probably not as pretty as they could've been but we enjoyed walking around seeing them. I told the kids that Isaiah was seeing the same type of trees in Japan.

It was a very quick trip but we all had a great time. The kids cant wait to go back and see some more.

March Madness Game

Colin was very excited to make the school 5th grade basketball team.  The school has a huge fundraiser with a 5th graders vs teachers basketball game each year. Colin was nervous he wouldn't make it but he was so excited when he came home and said he was on the team.  He has been going into school at 7am every morning to practice and they have had 3 after school practices.  

The game was last night at the high school and we had so much fun watching.  I just think what a great experience it was for Colin to play in front of such a large crowd.  They had bleachers on each side and the side we were sitting at was completely packed.   

 

 They raise money buy selling raffle tickets for different themed baskets.  Joel and Norah picked which baskets they wanted our tickets to go into.  And we won a baking basket! Basically because of all the sprinkles.  Norah thought it was the best thing ever.

It was a really fun night and fun to cheer on Colin. I told him if he keeps playing in a short few years he will be playing on that court for high school games. 

Another Marathon

Bethany and I have run 5 half marathons together.  She's a great running partner.  She was signed up to run with me two years ago for the Shamrock Marathon but got bronchitis and pneumonia right before the marathon so she couldn't run with me. You can defer your spot for two years.  So this was the year to do it.   

I debated about running this year but Brent and the kids said to go for it so I trained all winter.  It meant very early Saturday morning runs  And it was really nice to always come back to a clean house after a long run. Brent and the kids cleaned while I ran.  It was a nice trade off!

The kids sent me this video during a training run.

 Bethany and I met in Richmond for our 20 mile training run.   It was the weekend before Joel's surgery and I think for my anxiety just what I needed.  Everyone needs a friend who encourages you, challenges you, and draws you closer to God.  It was just what I needed that weekend.  Sarah was in Japan so she left me her key and we stayed at her apartment.  We met another friend Molly for dinner Friday night and then on Saturday went for our run down Richmond's Capital Trail. It was a beautiful day and the trial was really pretty to run on....however it was 80 degrees and we had a hard time finding water to fill up our water bottles.  Richmond - you need water stops along the trail!  Bethany joked that she'd rather run in snow.

Well..... maybe we should've have joked about the snow because it actually happened!  Snow, sleet, torrential downpour, and worse was the gale force winds! 

Bethany and Kristofer came down Friday night and stayed all weekend.  We spent Saturday night looking up how to survive a marathon in the rain. We wore large garbage bags for the first 16 miles! They worked great but then they were slowing us down since we were running right into the wind and it ended up pushing us backwards because it made its own parachute.  So we had to take them off. 

Miles 8-11 were the worst.  Heavy sleet and the gale force winds along the boardwalk kept pelting us and it really hurt. We had to stop to walk a lot because we had to brace ourselves against the wind.  But in some ways it helped the miles go by fast.  We were so focusing on getting through it that we didn't think about the miles. 

We had our own cheering section around mile 19.  

Those hugs were the best! 

Colin ran me across the finish line again.  He said he will always run me in.

I told Bethany I was so glad she didn't want to  give up.  A lot of people were dropping out and a lot got carted off in ambulances.  But after all the training I'm glad we did it. 

The birthday girl got her huge medal! 

The kids made signs. I loved them!

Not the best beach day but a fun experience. We came home and right as we were pulling into the driveway the sun came out. Go figure.  Ma-ma-maa and Grandpa came over for dinner to celebrate Norah's birthday with cake and presents.  Bethany and Kristofer left Monday morning and Norah wants them to come back next year for her birthday weekend.   Despite the weather it was such a great weekend.