Half Marathon

Our YMCA started a Half Marathon for kids annual event last year.  Basically, the kids participate in enough activity over a about a month or month and a half to equal 12.1 miles.  Then they all get together and run the last mile together.  So, this year Connor decided he wanted to do it.  Last night was the night that they all gathered together at the local university and ran together.  It was so much fun.  Connor loved it!  The YMCA did a terrific job with all of the activities.  Here are some shots from the final mile.

Sporting the official t-shirt

Official start line --the finish line was a little farther down with balloons

AND HE'S OFF!!

Aaron ran the last lap with him.

Just crossed the finish line

Loves his new medal

He was so hot and sweaty!!!

He had such a great time.  Nashville also has a kid's 1/2 marathon the day before their Country Music Marathon.  So, Connor is hoping to do that one as well. 

All I Want for Christmas...

As I was putting dishes in the sink, Blake wanted to sit on the counter.  He immediately spotted a toy catalog sitting up there.  So, he started flipping through.  Then he stopped and just took it all in.  Check it out...

I figured he would just flip through it.  No, he looked at each page for a LONG time.  It was the cutest thing. 

Fun on the Square

Last weekend, our town had its annual Fall Fun Fest.  We always have a lot of fun.  We go on Friday night and enjoy some great barbecue.  This year Aaron decided against the barbecue and enjoyed a nasty polish sausage with all the nastiness put on it.  Definitely a guy meal.  Can't say I've ever seen a girl eat that before.  Then he decided as we were leaving he needed some fried oreos.  I had no intentions of eating one.  But, then I decided to just try it.  OH MY!  I really shouldn't have tried that.  I'm almost certain those will be in Heaven one day.   Aaron's mom went with us.  She loves kettle corn and found some there to get.  It appears I must be the only strange one in the family because I just don't care for kettle corn.  Just not my thing.  But everyone else just loved it.

Saturday we went back because the entire square downtown is dedicated to kid fun.  Tons of groups/organizations set up stations for the kids to do activities at.  Of course, my kids can't go anywhere that has balloons without gets one...or two...or what the heck...let's get as many as we can hold...

There is also a local pumpkin patch that has a corn maze, hay rides and all that fun stuff that always comes to the festivities and sets up a mini-maze.  Usually it is made out of hay, but this year they brought in corn and made a maze.  Here are some shots from that.

The kids always have a great time.  In fact, Connor asks throughout the year when we are going to the square to play.



Cougar Run

Friday was our first experience with the annual Cougar Run at Connor's school.  It is the only fundraiser for the year, which, of course, I am thrilled about.  Basically, a couple of weeks before the run, the kids ask for donations, either a fixed amount or a pledge based on the number of laps they make.  The school ropes off the front of the school (an 1/8 of a mile) and the kids run/walk for 30 minutes.  They have music playing during the whole run.  It was lots of fun.  Nana came for the weekend.  So, Nana, Blake and I went to watch.  Here are some shots from the day.

Connor lined up with his 3rd grade assigned buddy. 

All of the kindergarteners had "buddies" that

walked the first lap with them.

Connor with his buddy.

Blake with the cougar mascot.

Thankfully, he's not typically frightened by

dressed up big animals.

Here he comes.  He was so fast!

Look fast.  Lightening Fast!!

Class picture

Connor did great.  He did 13 laps!!  Yep, that is 1 5/8 miles!  GO CONNOR, GO!!!  Later, everyone was invited to grilled hamburgers, hotdogs or PB&J for lunch.  What a terrific day!!  Watching him have so much fun at school just made my heart smile!!

Tie Dying

This week has been Spirit Week at Connor's school leading up to the Cougar Run (which will be discussed in a blog in a few days).  Tuesday Connor wore school colors, Wednesday was flip flop day and Thursday was wear anything and everything Tie Dye.  Well, this family doesn't own anything tie dye.  So, what would one do?  Well, in this family (or actually should I say, if you are Aaron), if you don't have it...just make it yourself.  Well, Aaron didn't realize tie dye day was Thursday until Wednesday night at church supper.  So, we decided that he and Connor would go ahead and leave church to make a tie dye shirt.  Well, they went to Hobby Lobby and bought a kit and 2 t-shirts.  I had told him to get a small or a size 4T.  This is very important to know for later.  Anyways...I get home at 7:45 from church only to discover that they had not even started on the shirt.  The shirt had to be washed first.  Waiting until the last minute is so not the way I work.  But, it is apparently the way Aaron's side of the family likes to do things.  Aaron and his sister are a lot alike in this way.  But, we love them anyways.  The rest of us just get a little stressed while their last minute projects are getting completed...and they always do get completed on time.  Don't know how they do it. 

So, by 8:00 the shirt was ready to be dyed.  I guess I'm just not very well-rounded because I've never made a tie dye shirt.  So, it was very entertaining for me to watch them make these shirts.  They did two different designs on the shirts and decided to make the decision Thursday morning as to which shirt Connor would be wearing.  Here are pictures of the progress.

After the shirt had been made, it had to sit for 6-8 hours and then be washed!!!  Well, at this point it is 8:30.   Well, you do the math on that one!  So, Aaron decided he'd just stick it in the washer he went to bed around midnight because according to Aaron "that is almost 6 hours" (humm...not in my book, but oh well, how can you mess up a tie dye shirt??).  Well, he ended up falling asleep on the couch and not waking up until 2:00 am, so it worked out okay anyway.  He washed it then and I put it in the dryer when I left for the Y at 4:30.  Well, when I got it out of the washer I looked to see what size he ended up getting because it looked a little small to me.  Ready for this one???  Our 5 year old kindergartener was going to be wearing a XS/2-4 shirt!  I about died.  I was so worried that all of this work was going to be for nothing because it would be too small to even wear!!  I did tell him size 4 and this shirt did have a 4 on it, so I guess he thought that was normally what Connor wore.  Oh, well.  When I got home at 7:30, Blake and Connor did a fashion show for me so we could decide which one for Connor to wear.  And the winner is...

Good thing Connor is a small fry! 

It fit pretty good.

Kids Just Wanna Have Fun

Here are a few shots of the kids just having fun.  We are just so blessed with our little guys.  They make me laugh so much. 

This is Blake doing P90X with Aaron. 

See those muscles forming??

The birthday party that Aaron made the Batman cake for was a lot of fun.  They had decorated their play gym up like a Bat Cave.  Here are the boys coming down the ramp that looks like a cave.

Blake checking out how far it is to the ground.

Oh, the Things Children Say

On our way home Monday from seeing family, we stopped off for an early supper about 40 minutes away from home.  Before we went inside to eat, Aaron put the iPad in the trunk.  Well, unfortunately when we got back in the car we forgot to get it back out.  So, there we are about to get on the interstate and Connor asks to play on the iPad.  I told him we were only 2 Dora shows away from being home and he could just entertain himself until we got home.

Well, this did not go over well with Connor.  So, I proceeded to tell him that when Mommy and Daddy were his age we didn't have a Game Boy, Leapster, iPad or DVD player to use in the car.  We just had to entertain ourself or just sit there.  I then gave him a toy magazine to look through to keep him preoccupied.  Then, Connor says "Hey, Mom?  Did you and Daddy have magazines when you were growing up?"  Oh, my.  Too funny.

Weekend with Family

What a weekend!  We traveled to Aaron's parent's house on Friday night to spend the weekend with them.  Aaron's dad was building a hanger and needed the boys to come help.  It was the most perfect weekend for it, too.  The weather was amazing.  The first of the trip took much longer than it should.  We've typically gotten very lucky with Nashville traffic, but we weren't so lucky this time traveling through.  It set us back about 45 minutes.  Thankfully, the boys did well.  You never know with Blake. 

Saturday morning the guys got up and going pretty early to get started on the hanger.  After breakfast Connor decided he was going to go with them.  So, he went out for a while while Brenda and I sorted through pictures we had ordered.  As we are sitting there sorting, Aaron comes to the door and says "It's not as bad as it looks."  Not words you want to hear...especially when you see that he is carrying your 5 year old little guy!!  Connor is holding a handkerchif on his head with blood running down!  We take it off his head and his hair is just covered with blood.  I actually held it together very well.  I never would have thought I'd be able to keep my composure given what Connor looked like.  But, he wasn't crying.  He said he felt fine.

So, I get him to the bathroom and set him up on the counter to try to figure out our plan of action.  My MIL and I decide we need to get the blood out of his hair so we can see how bad the cut really is because we just couldn't see anything except blood.  So, we stuck him under the bathtub faucet and got as much out of his hair as possible.  Once I finally got him cleaned up we only found a cut about half an inch long.  Took a while to get him all fixed up, but he did so good.  He only let 2 tears fall when I put alcohol on it.  But, never said a word.  He is so tough...and doesn't want anyone to see him cry.

We made him play a lot more carefully the rest of the weekend with the cousins after that.  We sure didn't need that cut opening back up again.  And, even this morning as he was getting ready to leave, he asked me if he could play on a certain piece of playground equipment.  He wanted to make sure he didn't break it open again. 

We then headed to see my grandparents at their new assisted living facility.  We sat on the porch with them and visited and had lunch with them.  They sure enjoy seeing the boys.

The rest of the weekend was full of cousins playing together, the women sitting around talking and the men out working on the hanger...good times!

Lots of heart smiling times!