Food & Fun

This week I did my best to run and stick with my training plan - and I did a pretty good job, but I had to contend with a LOT of cake, cupcakes, and chocolate. Not only did everybody bake and buy me sweets for my birthday, but Friday we had a neighborhood chocolate tasting party. Aurora and I dipped strawberries, bananas, pretzels and bacon in chocolate. It was awesome.

The kid's probably ate healthier than we did, but by the end of the night chocolate was oozing down Clark's shirt. The next day we had Grandma and Grandpa over for a make-your-own-pizza party!

It's a good thing I've been working out or I surely would've gained 10 lbs this week alone! As if all that food wasn't fun enough, we spent the afternoon doing Mad Libs. Aurora's old enough to read, write, and understand nouns, verbs, etc. so it was hilarious.

Today we got up bright and early for a DAY OUT WITH THOMAS! I try to stick with one theme for each blog and considered breaking this up into two, but how could I wait to post all this cuteness? Clarkie loved the choo choo trains and we got to spend some time with our buddy, Austin.

There's more going on this weekend, but I've had about all the food & fun I can handle...

Happy Birthdays

For months I've been telling people that the Marathon Relay was going to be my birthday party (and they were all invited!). At some point I forgot about the birthday and started focusing on fundraising and training. I actually got a few sweet gifts from my family and teammates on event, then yesterday Chuck and Aurora did the food shopping for me and came home with beautiful roses, a balloon and chocolate pie. Dinner was birthday girl's choice and I decided on Kobe Japanese Steakhouse. I'd been telling Aurora how they cook the food right in front of you on a flaming grill and she was pretty excited to experience it. Grandpa came along too, but we all know that Clark and Grandma don't know how to behave at restaurants so they spent a quiet evening together at home.

It was a seriously fun and tasty birthday treat... not just for me, but for at least one person at every table! Aurora said it was the best birthday dinner (of mine) EVER. Our family celebrated another special birthday this week when my nephew Preston turned 18.

I do remember that day 18 years ago, just a few days shy of my 20th birthday, when I went to tell my family that Chuck and I were engaged and nobody seemed to care :) In retrospect, Preston was much bigger news. He was the cutest baby I'd ever seen and he sure has grown into a handsome and impressive young man. Happy Birthday Preston!

Marathon Relay

Today was my second time participating in the car2go Marathon Relay with Team LIVESTRONG. Once again I was team captain and once again I gathered 5 awesome women to run with me. A few highlights included having the sole of my shoe come halfway off just before my leg of the race and using yellow duct tape to keep it together; having our 5th runner show up about 3 minutes before her start time (serious excitement!); bringing Aurora and letting her color and play with the other kids and families while we all ran (she had a great time); and best of all was coming up on mile 4, so close to the finish line, and seeing my team, our girls, and my PARENTS cheering me on in the crowd!!! I did not expect them to come and it was awesome. Maybe the BEST part was handing off the baton when my 1/6 of the marathon was up.

My goal was to raise more money, train better and run faster than last year. We definitely raised more money, winning an award and lots of great incentives for being a top fundraising team. I feel like my training went better (though I didn't really start training until a few weeks ago) and my final time ended up being almost exactly the same as last year. A couple weeks ago I decided that I want to keep training even after this event is over, so next week I'm starting up a new training plan (more to come on that) and my next goal is to run in the Austin Half Marathon in February. WHAT!?

Gone with the Wind

During my sabbatical I stopped playing games on my phone and started reading books. Real books, Kindle books, lots of books. My favorite genre used to be young adult fiction but these days I'm more into historical romance, so I decided to read Gone with the Wind. I put it on hold at the library not realizing it was 1472 pages - definitely one of the thickest books I've read! If it were published today I'm sure it would be a trilogy. Regardless, I loved it and finished it in just over a week. Afterwards I found out that a local museum was going to have a Gone with the Wind exhibit to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the film. When I heard, I had a conversation with Aurora that went like this:

Me: Aurora, remember that book I told you I was reading?
A: You mean the one about the Civil War?
Me: Yes! Well, they made a movie about it, and a museum nearby is going to have an exhibit with pictures and storyboards and letters and dresses from the movie!
A: Well mommy, I would be interested to go to that with you.

So, today we went! My mom and dad have been gone in Florida for the last month or so, but they came back this week and were more than happy to come along.

I think the exhibit would be awesome no matter who you are, but it was especially cool after just reading the book and watching the movie. This has been a hard act to follow so if you have any book recommendations, please leave them in the comments. And if you happen to be in the Austin area, stop by the Harry Ransom Center and check it out!

Better late than never...

Clark's been 2-years old for 5 weeks now and today I finally took him in for his 2-year well child check up. If it was up to him, we would've skipped it entirely. He didn't like the change in his morning routine, he didn't like the sun in his eyes during the drive, he did not like getting weighed or measured or having the doctor look in his eyes, ears, or mouth. In fact, he kept getting down, opening the door and leaving! Thank goodness he didn't need any shots. He did cheer up a bit when I put him in the little hospital gown...

Our little guy weighs just 23 lbs, putting him under the 25th percentile for weight (maybe closer to 5th). He's 34" tall, putting him just over the 25th percentile for height. He's behind where Aurora was at this point with speech, but he's right where he's supposed to be - and his motor skills are above where Aurora's were, meaning he may not be able to say as many recognizable words but he's never once had a face plant the way she always did. The doctor pointed this out to me after asking a few simple questions and she said that's very common. I think it's amazing that there are such obvious differences between boys and girls!

I also remember Aurora wanting to do things independently, but she usually wanted to do the right thing. Clark just wants to do what Clark wants to do, and that usually doesn't include doing what he's told. Oh well, he may be a little more "terrible" at two than she was, but we sure love him anyway.

Achievement

This weekend was completely packed with outings, parties and awards. I'm sure many people think it's silly how we reward kids for every little thing these days, but I love it. I love that Aurora got a "Certificate of Achievement" for making a birdhouse at the Home Depot kid's workshop. I love that Girl Scouts has started back up and she gets a badge every month for learning something new. This month they made a chore chart - what's not to love? I love that she got a prize for volunteering 5 hours over the summer at the Little Helping Hands end of summer picnic, and she loved telling people that her favorite volunteer activity was Meals on Wheels.

As for me, my greatest achievement was getting the family to all these events and a birthday party with very few meltdowns. While he's not in many pictures, Clark came along whenever he could and had a great time. He even got to hit the piñata!