Mother's Day

I have to do a little bragging about my Mother's Day.  It was pretty awesome.  Aaron made me breakfast in bed--a Mother's Day tradition.  It was yummy.  Hannah made me a card.  On the back were coupons for a spa day.  When I finally made it downstairs (Aaron was bathing the kids, no way was I making an appearance until that was over.), Hannah had transformed the backyard into my own personal spa.  First she did an oatmeal face mask.  There was a lot of giggling as she put it on.  Nothing like Mom with breakfast on her face.  Then there was a foot soak with marbles in the bottom for massaging.  Next she gave me a manicure.  She had all the nail polish out and some new nail stickers.  I choose yellow nail polish to match my yellow and pink flower skirt.  Hannah recruited Maggie to do the pedicure.  I decided on a much more muted light pink for my toes.  After this was done, they had prepared me a delicious spa lunch of a cucumber sandwich and chocolate dipped strawberries.  I was really impressed with Hannah's forethought.  Apparently she planned this whole thing back in April.  She made a list of the spa activities, a shopping list for supplies, and even drew a diagram of how she was going to set up the spa outside.  Aaron took her shopping for nail polish for her Daddy date the day before Mother's Day, and she whipped out her spa shopping list so they could get that stuff too.  My day ended with a delicious chicken Caesar salad and strawberry shortcake.  It was a great day.

I Told You So

Last Saturday was a beautiful spring day--sunny, warm--gorgeous. So, I got out the bikes I had stored for the last few years in our shed. Our kids were pretty sure that riding bikes was scary, stupid, etc. But, I told them it was a skill they needed to have, whether they wanted it or not. I spent most of the day fixing up the bikes. This mostly entailed checking the tubes for leaks (none), my dad greasing up the chains, and adjusting the bikes to fit the various kids. When we were done, every kid had a working bike. Then we went out to the driveway for a little bike riding lesson. After a while, they seemed to be getting it, so we loaded up the bikes and headed over to the local elementary for a little larger biking area. Aaron had to ride his bike over as he and my brother Chris were busy trying to adjust the seat (it was frozen), and cutting off the lock which we couldn't find the key for. When we got to the school, I was prepared for tears, more running after kid's bikes holding them up, etc. But lo, and behold, all of them took off on their own. They rode around like old pros for about an hour. "Bike riding is fun!" they said, "This is great!" We went to Chuck-A-Rama for a delicious and well deserved buffet dinner afterwards. It's been great weather this week and every available minute they've been outside riding their bikes. The most exciting part of the day yesterday was PE. We went out to the trail at the park with our cousins and friends and the kids rode their bikes together. It was awesome.

Weird Science

A while ago, Hannah had to disect a chicken wing for science. She was supposed to observe the joint structure. I think a video would have been helpful here, because neither of us could figure out what we were supposed to do. Anyway, after she grossed herself out, barely touching the chicken at all, Maggie stepped in.

Maggie and Sophie dissecting.

Maggie had no problem touching, cutting and dissecting the chicken wing. She dissected and kept dissecting. Sophie wanted to get into the action too. They had a grand time cutting and moving parts. They must have been at it for more than half an hour.

Who knew you could be this excited about chicken?

Maggie's chicken wing. Note the neat piles of meat/fat and bones.

Sophie's looked the same.

After all the carnage was over, I threw away the carefully dissected parts and made stock from the left over chicken wings. The next day we had chicken noodle soup. Hannah wouldn't touch any of the chicken, though I assured her that none of the meat in the soup came from the dissecting melee.

Best Disneyland Picture Ever

The Best Disneyland Picture Ever

So, four years ago we went to Disneyland with my family. We convinced Hannah and Maggie to go on Splash Mountain. Hannah was 8 and Maggie was 6. Maggie rode with me and Hannah rode with my sister Amy. (Dad, did you ride with Sophie, or was she too little?) We told them how much fun it was going to be. They were willing, if a little nervous. They had fun through the first part of the ride, but Maggie was getting nervous when we started going up. As we crested the hill and headed down into the abyss, she started screaming and flew up out of the seat. I put my arm out to hold her in. The rest of the ride was marked by hysterical crying. After we got out, we took this picture. Notice me and my Dad--grinning like the Cheshire Cat. My sister Amy is sympathy crying. I think Caleb is too. He's got his head buried in my legs. Every time I look at this picture, I giggle. (It's the new wall paper on my computer. The kids want to change it. I can't imagine why. :) ) We're going to Disneyland in the fall. I wonder if we can get them to ride Splash Mountain again. I'm hoping for a similar picture with Caleb.

Singing

"I'm the Queen of Mars, I was invisible on earth, I only took the magic portal to Mars, to give me some self worth."

The girls have taken up singing in the car. It's pretty funny because they like to sing Phineas and Ferb songs. Some of their favorites are "You're Busted," "I've Got a Nemesis," and "Gitchie, Gitchie Goo." It's spilling over into other activities too. We went to the planetarium and were climbing around on the replica of a Mars landscape and they broke out into "I'm the Queen of Mars." Then the other evening we were pulling taffy. We were standing around in the kitchen pulling and the girls were complaining that their arms hurt. Unfortunately, we still had 5 more minutes to go. I suggested they sing a song. They started singing a Silly Song from Veggie Tales about Sport Utility Vehicles. They had such fun singing; they forgot their arms hurt. And the taffy was yummy.

Only Half Crazy

In January, Aaron and I signed up to do a half marathon this August. At the time, I was working on recovering from a knee injury and that eight months seemed like it would be enough time to be healed up and run a good race.

Our training was going along just fine, until three weeks before the race, when we ran in CA with Aaron's brother. It was a pretty run in a canyon, but was harder on me than I thought. The following Wednesday, during a regular run, my knee started hurting in a new and interesting way. When I went to the Dr., he told me that I had hurt my IT band. (They call it runner's knee--a hopeful diagnosis.)

So, not to bore you with the details, Aaron and I did run the race on August 20th. Our longest training run was the one in CA at 8 1/2 miles, not the training I would have hoped for. Aaron took off running with the pacers. He was hoping to finish in 2:15. He ended up at 2:30. I ran 4 minutes and walked 1. It's a good strategy for running with an injury, as it gives you a chance to rest. I did really well up until mile 10, then my body was done. I finished in 2:46 by my watch, which I stopped for breaks. The race clock said 2:55.

We were both rather stiff and tired the next day. Towards evening, I developed a pain in my foot. After a long week of stretching and icing three times a day, it's getting better. I'm hoping we can run this week.

One of the best reasons to run a race is for the t-shirt. Ours have a foot print on them with the words "only half crazy" in it. It pretty much sums up why we run.

important holiday reminders

Today is my birthday. I've always liked my birthday. It's a great holiday. I get to make a cake that I want to eat--peaches and cream with LOTS of cream this year, people wish me happy birthday, and I can talk my kids into doing extra stuff for me. However, I was not aware that I share my birthday with another important holiday until I read my recent issue of Family Fun magazine. While you may not necessarily go out of your way to celebrate my birthday, you may want to make plans for next year to celebrate "Sneak a zucchini onto your neighbor's porch day." A worthy holiday if ever there was one.