Saturday, October 27, 2012

E.C.H.O. 5K and other news

Today we got to participate in the E.C.H.O. 5K and kids fun run...ok, Adam sat on the side lines to take care of the kids while I ran. What a man! Though next time he said he'd run with me! The kids costumes aren't ideal to run in, so they wore other costumes. We borrowed a Cookie Monster costumes from some friends. Last night I realized Asa was dressing as Cookie for the End Childhood Obesity race...haha....ok, So instead we are saying he is Veggie Monster...but he did't want to hold the cloth carrots we brought with us. Oh, well. 

 This is about the only picture Asa would let me get of him as he is on a take-no-pictures-of-me spree. The kids fun run had a false start and Asa was a blue blur. When everyone was calling the kids back to restart, Veggie Monster bursted into tears. I think he thought he did something wrong. He was the cutest crying Cookie, I mean Veggie Monster I'd ever seen. He was so upset he wouldn't run the race. But let me tell you, he would have killed it. Now we tell our kids that its not about winning, but then we whisper about their accomplishments. ha. Ava was very excited when she came in 4th {she was keeping an eye on her 'competitors' all about 4 feet and under}.  Now...if she looks like she is wearing lingerie...my sis and I went to an estate sale with tons of 1950's clothing, where I got Ava clothes that filled her dress up box. She thinks its a fairy costume. :) Her Narnia costume is too long and bulky for her to run in.
Asa still got a medal which helped him recover a little bit. Next was the awards, which included best costume awards. I had no idea that Darth Vader, the Cat in the Hat with Thing 1 and Thing 2, among others were runners.





This is my crazy friend chuck....I mean Kris. She dressed up like her running partners husband. I passed by her when we first arrived because I didn't recognize her! She is the reason why I was insane enough to come to the race. I squashed my best time, under 36 minutes, haha..., and that was with hills {not saying too much since I've only ran more than 3 mile a total 3 or 4 times, but still}. My calves were crying up the hills! {uh, I was walking up most of them!} I think I need to start doing some strength training. I was trying to keep up with a speed walker named, Terry. He is quite the popular fellow around here as there were 4 people, I believe, dress like him, which included long white wigs. Speed walkers didn't start passing me up until about the mile marker, which is better than I was expecting. And none the the non-speed walker passed me up which was a very good sign. Ha! 

Chuck & chuck. 
Twins! {Chuck said she could have at least made her mustache black, ha, ha.} Kris was 3rd in her division!!!!!!
 Then we came home to this! Asa was laughing SO hard as Cookie was chasing him around trying to eat him. Adam started off using cookie as a puppet. This is Asa's entire costume on Adam's head. Haha...he doesn't know I'm putting this pic on the blog. {now I can see I need to clean under the couch}

Last night we went to Boo at the Zoo. I was a little scared myself, but the kids loved getting candy...the night before we went to End Childhood Obesity race...haha. The kids got to wear their Narnia inspired costumes. Ava said she was a Medievil princess. She wasn't smiling because she said they didn't smile in olden day pictures. That and the fact the line was about 5 kilometers long! Ava was playing thumb war with herself.
 I wanted Asa to wear his crown, but this is about the only time he did, because he found his helmet and apparently thought it was more cool.
Asa kept poking everyone with his sword! 



We will get some better pictures in the costumes. The kids were quite cute! 

In other news:
Is this not the cutest picture of Larry the Cucumber! Asa drew this. So sweet. I love kids pictures!
We went to the Oglebay Fest, which included a parade. I love parades! Its the truth.



Ok, this not at the Oglebay fest, but isn't he so cute!


Um, on a side note, I've never seen a baby crawling contest before, but I was uh, fortunate? enough to watch one at Oglebay Fest....in the rain. Those poor babies!!! Just say'n...seriously, a baby crawling contest?!? We are in Wheeling, West Virginia...full of runners and baby crawling champs...
One last note from my niece, Gabby:
Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

What to do on a rainy afternoon...

Tiny Tot Trot
I love those articles and emails about what you could do with your kids when its raining outside. See, I was born in Florida and though I didn't live there much after I could walk, if you didn't play outside in the rain, then you didn't play outside. Then we moved to Arizona, where kids don't want to play outside until it rains in fear that they might come back inside the house looking like a sweaty tomato.  When it rains and kids flock to the windows, you would think that they were seeing Santa Clause or something!  I can say about the only time the thought, "running might be fun", would cross my mind would be on a rainy afternoon.  It would remind me of all the endings to great sappy movies, where the couple torn by misunderstanding of their love for one another, would run towards each other drench from the rain. Ha. It always has to be raining. Alas, this blog post is not actually about rain. Its about the day I decided to run. Yes. I entered the the insane club. Of course I was/am influenced by some people of questionable sanity, namely Kris and Brooke, but don't tell them that I mentioned their names ;)

Anyways, so it began one rainy afternoon on October 7th, when I thought. I've always wanted to go for a run in the rain. I had bought a wind breaker at Goodwill only to find out it was a kids large and fit a little funny, but hey it worked! Honestly, I didn't even think I could run a mile! I didn't run much more than a mile, but I still did it. I wasn't sold on becoming a runner, but after emailing Kris who is like a cheer leading/ Barnabas running junk or something, she had me interested. If you ask me on a day to day basis why I have kept running these last 3 weeks, I'd say homeschooling and cleaning drove me to it! but Kris' encouragement keeps me going! She's already got me reading a book, blogs, articles...on running...who am I? Thanks, Kris, thanks a lot. What did you do to me?

Tiny Tot Trot....not quite a 5k :)

Off My Rocker

So somehow Kris has convinced me to enter a 5k this coming Saturday only after 3 weeks of running. Until last week I had never ran 3 miles before! I was very much relieved when I actually did run 3 miles {insert screeching record sound} ok, wait up...I can't actually run 3.1 miles. No, not yet I can't. Its more walk/run intervals. Hey, its a thing! I can justify this because people actually train to do this intentionally, even in marathons (I would think especially in marathons!). So, I will be the one in my full speed jog being passed up speed walkers and regular walkers alike! I only get a 2 minute head start before the walkers start and I know that's not enough! But people will be dressed in costumes, the kids get to do a fun run, and it will be family friendly, so its a good one to start with....pray for me, none the less!

Sorry, this was a really long post all about me. and running. but at least I can look back a year from now and see where I am. You know it's tough having a blog. Its me, me, me all day long! {that was suppose to be a quote from Julie and Julia, but I think I messed it up}

I have to go spray Freeze it! all over my body. I'm telling Adam its my new body spray.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

all in a days play

A few weeks ago we were blessed with a visit from Mawmaw & Pop for the weekend! We had a weekend of fun...well, Pop may say he had a weekend of work! He hung up several curtain rods, a coat rack, shelves, magnet board, chalk board...the list goes on. He got more done in one day than we would have in a year! Thanks, Pop!!! On Friday we all headed to the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. We had never been there and had a blast. It would have been very easy to spend all day there, especially in the MakeShop area where they had sewing, book making, woodworking, circuitry, and animation. It really inspired me to start making our house more crafting friendly...you know, actually take some stuff out of the attic so we can have craft supplies ready to use. Anyhow, here is our trip the the museum in pictures...I can't believe I didn't get more of Mawmaw & Pop
Paper making

screen printing

circuitry 101-Asa LOVED this
sewing hair bows
the kids weren't the only one's playing...the tour guy to the guys in suits in the back commented on his wonderful technique 
catching letters...this reminded Ava of the Electric Company

Going to the Children't Museum would be in a day in itself, right? uh, not on this day! We headed to lunch, then to Ikea, then the Sarris Ice Cream and candy shop...whew...crazy!
not a fan of the pictures
sharping his weapons..oh my



Fortunatly our ride was roomy! We rode in Mawmaw & Pop's RV, which the kids LOVED!
holding their breath in the tunnel
Asa LOVES his feather-down pillow...Ava doesn't want it touching her...ever
we had some entertainment...it was not appreciate by all






I would just like to add that we shared that Banana Split. What a fun and tiring day!!! I'm sure we will do it again...uh...just not all in one day, I'm sure! 

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Easy Word Art

Wordle: Jesus
If you click on the link, it will take you to Wordle.net to create your own!

So its no surprise that I'm behind on the times, not in the loop with what's hip and happening...haha..I sound like a grandma already! Maybe other's know about Wordle.net but I had no idea how people made cool word collages except with Word somehow or to just order something on Etsy. While Ava and I were surfing the web for some printable binder covers (we are loving the journal notebooks for each subject this year), we came across Wordle.net where you can make many variations of word collages or whatever they are called. We made some cool ones with Ava and Asa's front and center. You simply enter a multitude of words. The more time you repeat a word the bigger it gets. Then push ok. You can then change the color scheme or customize the color scheme, make it vertical, horizontal, both, or 'everywhichway', etc. I wish I could show you Ava & Asa's.  I created this one in less than 5 minutes! Pretty cool.....thought I would just spread the word...
Here's one in the gallery I found that I liked!

Wordle: Southern Belle Simple - What We Love About Fall