Mommy's "big" run!!

Since I've been training for the Race for the Cure coming up this fall, I thought I would try another 5K just see how it goes. So I signed up for the Maumee Rec 5K, since it was cheap ($8) and close to my house. I was actually nervous about running a race, I only ran one in my life and it was a long time ago. Also, I am not much of a morning runner - but I do run this same amount of miles when I train, so I knew I could finish it no problem.



Gotta stretch!


I'm surprised Alan could even catch me in this picture - I am a blur, running SOOOOO fast! (haha) Seriously though, I did run much faster than I anticipated. I finally realized that this really was a "race" and not just a "run" like normal.


Ok, and as I approached the finish line, I started picking up the pace - however, I soon noticed that some guy had come out of nowhere and HE was picking up the pace too... the faster I went, the faster he went!! Dang, I can't let this happen... so I sprinted as FAST as I could.


...and I didn't let him win! But I did give him a high five at the end for a good race :) and then I went in the shade to hyperventilate and almost pass out from overexertion!! whew!!

Here is what kept me going - my cheering crew! Thanks for the support guys xoxoxo

and a side note - later that day Alan went to the park and ran 13 miles, with no headphones, cheering team or anything. He's the TRUE runner in this family!

No Pico!!!

Once again, it seems as though we ended up picking the most mischievous, playful kitten from the shelter. Pico is always getting into something. We must say "No Pico!!" a million times a day. We still have not broken her habits of climbing the screens, and jumping up on the kitchen counters and table. I can't imagine what she gets into when we are not home! Here she is taking a sip of water from the leaves that are supposed to be for the caterpillar! yep, on the kitchen counter.

A day at the zoo

I was originally going to take the kids to the neighborhood playgroup today, but there wasn't one! So we scheduled a trip to the zoo with Jacob & Kendall instead. I had forgotten it was a free zoo day for city residents, so it was packed! I now know why I don't go on Mondays :) It was a good time though. The kids had a lot of fun going down the slide in the new area. Here they are surprising Sydney! Note the sandals that Sydney has on - she swore up and down that they were "comfortable" sandals. Within a half hour of arriving at the zoo she complained that her feet hurt. By the time we left the zoo she had a raw spot of skin on each of her big toes! We both learned a lesson that day - 1) don't trust the kids shoe choices no matter how confident they are, and 2) always bring flip flops when in doubt!!


here are all of our cute kids! I'm sure we will have years of fun in the new kids area, they did a great job building it.

Happy July 4th!!

It was an action packed 4th of July camping weekend at Maumee Bay State Park. Grandma & Grandpa camped right next to us (much to the kids delight, they had brought cookies AND suckers along!). We took several walks by the nature center and checked out all of the critters.

Here are some of the animals we saw on our walk. The baby deer and racoons were soooo cute!

We walked up the "big hill". It was pretty darn big, and it offered a nice view of the campground and lake. For July, it was surprisingly chilly - felt like it was late September. I can't remember the last time we wore jackets and long pants for the 4th.

Alan also enjoyed watching the kites flying. Hey, is he actually napping??

Alan made us a delicious breakfast outside one morning. On another morning we had cereal - and the kids informed me that they didn't want to use their bowls anymore, because they were "baby" bowls! what?? waaaaa I guess they are growing up. :)

One of the best, most anticipated (at least in my opinion!) is the ice cream social that the park puts on. Where else can you get an enormous ice cream cone for $1? Yummy!!!

Here's the whole gang.

The park also had a bike decorating craft, and then a bike parade. Zack shows off his patriotic spirit on his decked out bike.

Sydney tells Daddy how it should be done! ;)

That night there was a concern down by the lake. The kids had fun rolling down the hill, again and again.

As it got a little later, we decided to bust out our "fireworks". We had some party poppers, which ended up being harder than we thought to fire off. But somehow Zack got his to go...

Sydney needed some help with hers.

Next came the sparklers.

And no burned hands!!

For a treat we cooked some Jiffy Pop out on the camp stove.

By the end of the night, after treats and watching fireworks, the kids were exhausted. In fact Sydney fell asleep on Daddy's lap.

By Sunday it was finally warm enough to go down to the beach.

A shrewd marketer has given all of the kids in the campground a ticket for a free ride on the slide. It was so much fun, who can go down just once? So of course we bought more tickets for the kids. They had such a great time on it.

On the day we left the campground we found this caterpillar. It will eventually be a monarch butterfly. We took him home and it him in Sydney's butterfly house. Within a day it turned into a chrysalis and we are now patiently waiting for the butterfly to emerge!

Zack's special weekend

Since we ended up going to Cedar Point on Sydney's birthday, we decided to take Zack to some special places too for his birthday. The weekend of festivities started out with a trip to Red Robin for the free birthday burger. Yummy!! (uggh, and how stuffed I was!!)
When they sang Happy Birthday to Zack, he turned the other way so they wouldn't see him :) Big sis Sydney of course helped him finish the sundae.


On Saturday we went to the new area at the Toledo Zoo - Nature's Neighborhood. It was really cool, and big!


The kids can climb all over the place and go down a secret slide.



There is even a shallow stream for the kids to wade through and catch foam fish and frogs. Zack was very proud of his haul.



We had a picnic lunch at the Zoo, and then it was off to the local water park, Rolf park. Even though it's kind of small, it's big enough for a fun afternoon (oh, and it's about 10 minutes from our house!!)

Zack loved controlling the water flow.

Both kids loved going down the slide.

Us big kids even got to get in on the slide action. Wheeeeee!!!

As you can tell by this smile, it was a great summer weekend.

Happy Birthday Zack!

Today is Zack's 4th birthday. Wow, where have the last 4 years gone?? Seems like just yesterday he was the cranky kid waking us up in the middle of the night crying! oh wait, that *was* just yesterday... I guess some things haven't changed much at all. :) Well you are now a confident, and inquisitive little preschooler - soon to be in "Pre-K". You want to know all of the answers and "Why?" is probably your most used word.

This is one happy boy opening his presents. It was also PJ day at preschool so it was a special day for you. Oh, and the first of the caterpillers that Sydney had gotten for her birthday decided to turn into a butterfly on your birthday, so that made it extra special! You got a t-shirt from Grandma W that has Lightning McQueeen on it, and it lights up. Too cool!

It was hard to think of some presents for you as it seems like out house is already busting full of toys. However, you did need a new camping chair, so that was one of your gifts. And what a great gift it was - especially since we'll be camping again soon, you will get a lot of use out of it. Too bad it makes your sister jealous and she wants a new chair too!

The things you asked for as gifts were socks and lip balm - no kidding!! Well everyone needs soft lips right? And running socks?, well they are just cool and who doesn't want to be like Daddy these days?

The cake was yummy (see the lip balm in front of the cake??)

Look out!! Can't wait until he gets to use this to torture us around the pool!

A Monster of a Cake

For Zack's 4th birthday he wanted a monster truck rally, so I came up with this design. The dirt is graham crackers and the grass is just frosting. My decorating tip make such great grass I try to use it as much as I can. I mean, who doesn't need a furry cake for their birthday??


I even found a place for "thumbs up" guy - who is often used a stunt man, but today he gets to rest and enjoy the festivities :)

oh, and I put this cake into our bathroom for the night so that it wouldn't suffer the same fate that Sydney's did (frosting melting when the dishwasher ran in the middle of the night).

Thomas, for Sydney?

No, it's not Thomas the Train - it's Sydney and she was telling us how she is going to marry a boy named Thomas in her school! What the heck? That came out out of nowhere - I hope this doesn't mean she's going to start getting boy crazy - she's only 6 years old! Luckily we haven't heard anymore about this. :)

Slip and Slide / Pool day

I spent the entire weekend in my house, sulking in pain. I had a sore throat and a fever, so when Monday came around and my meds were kicking in, I was more than willing to host the playdate I had planned before my sickness. The pool was a tad chilly for me, despite the temperature reading telling me it was 81 degrees. But the kids didn't mind much and had a lot of fun playing it in. Then we busted out the Slip and Slide Sydney had gotten for her birthday. It was quite enjoyable since I mixed in a little warm water with the cold :) Well, I didn't really get to enjoy it, but the kids had a good time. They each had their own unique style of making the journey down the long slide.


Some walked cautiously...

Zack geared up and did a crazy run, and slid into the puddle of warm water that was forming at the end.

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The bigger kids took a running start and slid on the body board.

Jacob had to show us how it was really done.

This picture of Jack was my favorite though. He was just so darn happy!! so cute :)