For Leah and Julie :)

Dont zoom in too close :) I ran out of thread for my sewing machine and Colin was too excited to see it finished so I hand sewed the bottom on really fast.  But Colin loved it so thats all that mattered.  I learned a lot. This is just regular felt ($0.20 a sheet at the store)  that I doubled with the green and yellow to make it more sturdy but I think next time I'll use that stiffer felt and just use one sheet.  Still need to work on how to do the bottom a better way.  Any ideas?  I added the bottom last but there must be a better and easier way.  Good thing I have another year to perfect it! 

Organization

This was Joel's room this afternoon.  In the middle of getting out his summer clothes and putting away winter clothes I decided to redo his whole closet.  Move his dresser into Colin's room since its bigger than the one Colin has, put shelves back Joel's closet and move Colins old dresser to the garage for now.  It has taken a few days and much longer than I thought.  Mainly because its fun for me to get out all of Colins old clothes and also sad to put away all of Joels tiny clothes :) And also because the only time I have to work on Joel's room is when he's awake.  And Joel is a big helper.  Pulling everything off the shelves, rearranging my piles, getting everything out of the storage bins :)  He wanted to be in the midst of it all until I think he got overwhelmed. 

So he left.  And then I was able to finish and I wish I had a picture of what it looks like now but its all clean and there are just a few things left to sort and put away. 

Pool Party

Its hot. 90 degrees and its only the first week of April.  Makes me really worried about the summer. But when its this hot already there is nothing better than to bring out our inflatable pools and invite some fun friends to come over and help us use them.  Colin has been asking almost weekly since we got these for christmas if we can bring out the pools but the answer had always been wait until its warmer.   

This was Colin this morning at 8:00am.  He was just a little excited about the whole pool party today :)

The kids had fun.  I had fun.  I think other moms had fun. We'll be doing this again until the pools and inflatable toys pop :)  Thanks everyone for coming.

Easter Sunday

This afternoon we ventured out to the Chesapeake Arboretum with our friend Kristin for a picnic dinner.  We had never been and were pleasantly surprised. The weather was beautiful and the walking trails were fun.  Even if we couldn't seem to read the map to figure out where we were half the time :) It was a fun way to spend Easter and we are really glad Kristin could come with us. I think I've mentioned this before but its fun to have Kristin in the area. And she's staying here next year which we're very glad and hope to see her even more (hint*hint)  I think we'll be venturing out to this place a lot this summer for more picnic dinners.

My Boys

Easter Fun

It has been a lot of fun celebrating Easter this year with Colin.  We have made Resurrection Eggs which he loves to play with and tell the Easter Story.  We dyed easter eggs and also had a "Last Supper." Since he was so facinated about the Last Supper, on thursday night we ate bread and drank grape juice and talked about the significance of it all.  Colin really got it and asked so many great questions.  He thinks it is really cool that Jesus didnt stay dead but that he is now alive and is in heaven building him a huge house.  Jesus has super hero powers.  (Although he is also really into transformers and he informed us that he can't ask Jesus to save him from bad guys... Jesus is building him a house in heaven, when he's not in Colins heart... transformers will transform and save him) But in this house Ant Ant will live with us.  He always mentions that part :) Colin is also very into his "inside your body" books and is very concerned that Jesus is covered with blood since he lives in his heart. so he doesn't want Jesus to come out and play baseball with him because all the blood would be messy. haha but we told him that Jesus lives in a special room in his heart that doesn't have blood in it and that satisfied him for now.

Today we went to our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt.  We were going to meet our friends for an different egg hunt but with the kids nap schedules this one worked better.  But thanks Kelly for inviting us!  Colin was very excited about the egg hunt and we were surprised how many people were there.

Before the egg hunt began they had sack races and also the Easter bunny.  Who looked like a freaky easter bunny so i was glad when Colin didn't really want to go see him. When the egg hunt started for 0-3 year olds, Joel cried and didn't want to do it but Colin went to town and got a whole basket full of eggs.  Oh and I made his easter basket.  He was very specific.  A robot, dinosaur, snake, and lizard and to make it square.  So I did and had fun doing it. 

Then we drove over to my parents house for Easter dinner and another egg hunt.  This is a typical expression Joel has lately.

Colin was excited to have Mar-wy there to hunt eggs with him :)  And she is no longer Nana she is now Mar-wy. 

Joel wasn't so sure about this whole egg hunt the first time and he really didnt want to do it again.

But my grandma took him around and kept encouraging him.

Then he realized there was something inside the eggs. And after that figured it wasn't so bad :)

Colin wanted to keep playing egg hunt and would hide the eggs again and make Mary go find them.  Until she got tired of it and then Brent and I would come find them.  I figured it was payback for all those times in high school and college that we would have egg hunts for Mary since she was still really into them. 

A fun day and I have a feeling Colin will want to play Easter egg hunt again tomorrow.

Aquarium

Colin LOVES the dvd set Planet Earth.  He and Brent will watch it for hours.  They have also been staying up late and watching the Life series on Discovery Channel Sunday nights.  Colin's favorite parts are the underwater life.  He talks about sharks and whales all the time and will watch those parts over and over. So when I had a coupon for a buy one get one free admission to the Aquarium I decided to take the boys today.  (Really the price has gone up a lot since last year and I don't really think its worth the money even with all the new exhibits...) But Colin was super excited and he learned a lot so it was worth it to go. He talked nonstop about the sharks and fish we would see and all the questions about sharks that he wanted answers to (since mommy didn't know all the facts)  He even made his lunch to take with us and helped me make Joel's lunch too.  We stayed most of the day and had a great time.

Joel really wasn't as impressed as Colin. He has this expression on most of the time. 

Hokie babies

Remember this postcard of Colin that I sent out?  Well I don't think we need to worry about either boy going to UVA :)

Monument Ave 10K

Two years ago I ran the Monument 10K.  You can read about it here.  But since then I haven't even come close to running that much.  In fact once I got pregnant I was so sick that I didn't even go on walks for several months. Then after having Joel and breaking my tailbone it hurt too much to run to want to do it consistently.  But around Christmas time my tailbone was feeling better and wouldn't hurt after I ran.  So my sisters talked me into signing up for the monument 10K.  I figured it was good motivation to get back into shape and lose the last of the pregnancy weight I had to lose.  Julie was a HUGE encouragement to me the past 3 months (thank you Julie!!!!!!!) And I fell in love with running again. And have been running about 4 times a week the past 3 months.  Sometimes alone but a lot of times pushing 60lbs in the double jogging stroller.  Those days I consider everything I ran counts double, for example a 2 mile run =4 miles pushing the boys :)  I have been running about 3 miles pretty consistently and ran 4 miles a few times so I was in better shape but was a little nervous about doing 6.2 miles today.  This morning I woke up early and drove to Richmond to meet my sisters to run the race.  This year there was 37,300 people running it.  Mary is the fastest of us and Sarah's goal was to beat Mary.  My goal was to finish in under an hour and not walk.  And I haven't gotten the official times yet but I think I finished in 57 minutes.  The last mile was rough but I did it and am pretty proud of myself.  Sarah and Mary took off and we met at the end. And I think Mary beat Sarah.   Its a fun race and had fun spending the morning with my sisters.  I love my sisters.  It was a relaxing morning in a way for me to have so much time in the car by myself listening to my music and not having to worry about the kids.  Although next year I plan on being in better shape and beating BOTH Mary and Sarah!

 While I was at the race, Brent was in meetings all day for work and my mom was watching the boys.  Colin had his first soccer game and Uncle Opie and Aunt Angela came to watch. (they are here for a few weeks before they move to Japan)  When I walked into the door this afternoon, Joel waved at me :)  and Colin met me in the bathroom. At first I thought it was sweet that he missed me so much he had to join me but he immediately whispered this conversation

C: "Ma-ma-maa forgot my soccer ball and water bottle" (the soccer ball was in her car)
Me: oh thats ok. How was the game?
C: "Ma-ma-maa went to the wrong place!There was no game.  My team wasn't there. Me not played soccer today."

He whispered the whole thing and then left.  hahaha So after coming out and getting my mom to clarify, they did make it to the right field and found his team. Only it wasn't where he had practice so he was convinced it was wrong.  And even though his coach came over he refused to believe it was his team and didn't play. He told me later that he'll play when mommy and daddy are there. And they have only had 1 practice so he was very confused.  So we'll see how the rest of the games go.  He is very excited for practice on Monday at the RIGHT field :) My boy who thrives on routines...He didn't seem bothered by the fact that he didn't play and even refused the fruit roll-up and juice box they got at the end.  I think my Mom, James and Angela had a good time watching the kids play. They will have to come to a game later in the season to watch Colin actually play (maybe) Thanks mom and James for hanging out with the boys the entire day.