Ready for the Book Advent

If you follow any "mom blogs" or are on Pinterest, then you've probably heard of this. It's a fun way to keep track of the days until Christmas. 24 books all wrapped individually. (Actually, I think some/most people pick out 25 and read a special one on Christmas night, but I had trouble picking enough age appropriate books for a 3-year-old...not to mention a 20-month-old). Unwrap one every night. We'll unwrap ours at bedtime. I can't remember if they are supposed to be numbered, but that's what I did because I wanted to follow a certain order with some of the books (ie: make sure that sequels were read in order). I pulled them out of my teaching supplies from the depths of the attic with some help from Trav the other night and am pretty excited to read them again. It's been a while...

Summer : Water Table as Fall : Rice Table

I love that Pinterest helps me access the crafty ideas I have stored away in my brain from the teaching days. (Seems like it was a lifetime ago I was in the classroom, not a mere 2.5 years.)

Ya know the ones that are so simple they are brilliant? Colored rice is one of them.

 These two wasted no time digging right in. (Frank and Hagrid supervised, of course.)

 They thought it was such a blast.

Goofball.

Ethan tasted it, naturally.

 Katie just wanted to fill every bucket, holder, scoop, and shovel with it.

 They were so excited they even shared the toys!!! (For a little while anyway.)

 Mixing it up was the most exciting part.

Here's Ethan carrying around his tiny little cup of rice.

It's his favorite thing to do at the table now.

And because I never make something without first considering how I will manage it (a blessing and a curse) I made this pul polka dot cover to keep moisture and dirt out. Now if I could just figure out how to get the kids to keep the rice inside the table. That'll be the day. I should have taken a picture of the carnage. It was amazing. I think they literally lost half of the rice in one session.

(For a quick reference I will post the measurements/ supplies in the comments section when I am motivated enough to search for it in the abyss that is the office desk. I'm not in the mood right now.)

Rugged Maniac 2011

Brace yourself, folks. I think this may be the first post EVER that isn't about the kids. Don't worry, you're in the right place. Just branching out a little because this was too much fun and I don't want to forget it.

So, back in August (?) Martin found out about this obstacle course/ race called Rugged Maniac 5K from a friend. When Trav asked me about it my exact response was, "You know I don't run."  Ha. Never thought I could run and enjoy it.

I originally said yes because I didn't want everyone else having fun without me (no joke- I'm that juvenile). Then I thought about it and figured it might be a good way to boost my weight loss plan, which was stalled at the time. After I checked out the website I FREAKED OUT and recruited Laura so I would have a buddy who wouldn't leave me in the dust. She recruited David, and Trav talked Matt (our old college roommate) and his girlfriend Amber into going, too.

Just for the sake of record keeping: When I first started training I could only run a half mile and my lungs hurt for hours afterward. By Nov 5th (race day) I had been running 3.25 miles in 35 minutes and doing Pilates afterwards. I thought I would be able to jog the entire race with all of this training under my belt. Silly me. More on that later.

 After a loooooong drive out to Buckeye, AZ, here's Martin. (Pre-race)

Here's "Team Tutu" pre-race ...

 ...and post-race.

 The group at the end... getting ready to go get our free beers and rinse off in the showers. (We're missing Shanlyn in these pics because after forgetting her inhaler she had to walk most of the course and finished about 20 min after us. I'm still feeling really guilty about it...)

 The suit was a hit.

 

Muddy person pyramid.

We rocked! I was really frustrated at first because the first mile had a LOT of uphill sections. Stupid me I trained on the sidewalk in and around my neighborhood. Aka: super flat ground. The guys made it look effortless to get up those steep hills and here I was 3/4 mile into the race and I had to walk because my lungs hurt so much. I was so angry. I worked my butt off, puffed away on my inhaler for 3 months, and I was worried I was going to be miserable the whole time. But then it leveled out a little more and the obstacles became more fun. Thinking about it, I  guess the course was designed with the most uphill sections at the beginning because (unlike me) most people start off strong. My middle mile is my best. Anyway. I stopped cussing about half-way through and was thrilled to get down in some nice cold, muddy water for a crawl under some logs. After cooling off, I was much happier and I enjoyed the rest of the race. I use the term "race" loosely because none of us were really going for our best time.

I did every obstacle (not all of them well, but I did them) and Trav was very supportive. He even pushed my ass (literally) over all three of the vertical walls. Thanks, Honey. And he didn't once mention how fast he could have done it on his own. I really appreciate that. Afterwards we all drove back to Gilbert for some Buffalo Wild Wings.

And when we finally got home I just had to document the bib numbers on our arms. Don't we look buff? Haha.

Here are the results:

1193rd place: Travis: 55:47 (718 out of 1026 men)

1198th place: Melissa: 55:50 (479 out of 1047 women)

1201st place: David: 55:52
1209th place: Laura: 55:56

1211th place: Martin: 55:59
1226th place: Matt: 56:23
1227th place: Amber: 56:24
1895th place: Shanlyn: 01:12:52

Just for reference... 1st place was 21:07, 2073rd (last place) was 23:52:53

Ethan-isms

"Pah-mmm" (pumpkin)
"Ca-ca" (cat)
"Ba-baw" (ball)
"Go-gah" (Glow Guy, a  glow in the dark little figure The Sectors gave him for his b-day that  loves)
"Chuh-che" (cheese)
"Memo" (Nemo)

1st Dance Recital Part 1

On Thursday Katie had the final class for this 4 week session class. The last 15 minutes of the class the teacher invited parents in to watch a little recital. It was so cute.I was pleasantly surprised that she followed directions even half the time because every time I peeked through the window that morning she was not where she was supposed to be. I was also expecting her to sit with me (instead of dancing) or even burst into tears. Here's Katie practicing tip toes. Had to split this post in two because Blogger didn't want to let me upload two videos. Read on for more...

1st Dance Recital Part 2

Here's the routine they learned. I taped the girl next to her some of the time so we could actually see what the routine was. She cracks me up. She loved watching herself bounce in the mirror.

Halloween 2011

 

This Halloween Katie and Ethan were little devils. How appropriate.

 Mommy was relieved that they both really liked their costumes.

 We had a party the Saturday night before Halloween (on a Monday this year). It was a blast. Mommy is so sorry that she barely got any pictures of the other guests. (Not the family.)  I promise I will do a better job next time. It's a shame, too. Lots of cute costumes this year. Good thing we had such a fun time at the party because Katie was throwing up on Halloween. No trick-or-treating for us this year.

 

 I swear, this is not a staged photo! 

 Here's Mommy and Daddy, the angels. (Why does my husband always look less than thrilled to pose for a picture with me?! Turd.)

Uncle and Auntie (Animal Control guy and a fox). Jocelyn (a gypsy) holding Cousin Kiera (a caterpillar), Grandma (Medusa), and Mike (a doctor).

Here's a better shot of the little caterpillar. Hope everyone had a great Halloween.

Pumpkins

 This year we thought we'd try a little something different.

 We painted K and E's pumpkins instead of carving them.

 It was so much fun!

 And later Mommy cleaned off the finger paint and made homemade pumpkin puree. Yum.

 Later that week we went to Grandma and Grandpa's to carve the two big pumpkins.

 Ethan squished the pumpkin guts in his hands one time and that was enough for him.

 After that he just wanted to point at it.

Katie had fun reaching all the way in and getting all of the stuff outta there. So cute.