I'm Back and a Triathlon!

April has had me other places besides here on this blog, but I do hope to be back more.

There is no way to even begin catching up, so I'll just post something recent that I'd like to have saved here on the blog, otherwise known as the only scrapbook my children will ever have unless they create their own!

My girls completed a triathlon!

My 9 year old daughter did it last year and loved the experience and her 6 year old sister was eager to join the fun this year.

It was a 100 yard swim, 3 mile bike ride, and 1/2 mile run.

The event is huge, so the logistics are CRAZY and this year there was tons of mud so that made things more interesting, but no rain during the event so we were happy about that.

The outdoor pool constructed just for this kids triathlon (you can see the crowds of people in the background to get an idea of the size of the event):

 

Little Girl running into the transition area after her swim (parents are not allowed in transition so the kids must switch between activities all on their own).

 During her run:

And after finishing!

Big sister doing the bike portion of her race (love that huge smile on her face):

And again with the smile walking her bike back in to the transition area (all riders have to get off their bikes and walk them at a certain point):

Crossing the finish line (The time on the clock is not her time since there were staggered start times, that is the total time since the first racer began.  My girls both took around 33 minutes to complete the triathlon) :

So proud of my strong, brave girls!

P.S. Now that their sisters have done it, my boys thought the triathlon looked like so much fun that they want to do it next year!  I think chasing 4 kids around the triathlon course with my camera will definitely constitute an athletic feat for me!

City Kid Goes to the Rodeo

I just love my 7 year old's look of utter (udder -- ha!  couldn't resist) confusion here.  "I have to do what to get the milk out?"

Who knew life was so much easier with just two kids?

About a month ago, my husband took our 2 boys on a father-son camping trip.  They had a blast and the girls and I had a fun girly weekend at home.  I was amazed at how peaceful things were with just the girls, how easy it was, and how clean the house stayed for the 27 hours the boys were away!  And then they came home and the chaos and mess came back.

So, I joked (half seriously) that it's THE BOYS!!  All the chaos and mess that I struggle with every day.  It's all their fault!

Then, this past weekend, my husband took our 2 daughters on a dads and dolls camping trip to the same camp.  They had a fabulous time (check out the pics later of my brave girls on the ZIP LINE!).

BUT, guess what?

The boys and I had the best mother-son time!  We went bowling, ate pizza, slept in a bit on Saturday morning, made biscuits from scratch+eggs+sausage breakfast together, CLEANED up the kitchen together, played an ENTIRE Monopoly game, and then watched a movie.  It was delightful.  And I marveled at how peaceful things were with just the boys, how easy it was, and how clean the house stayed for the 27 hours my husband and the girls were away!  And then they came back and instantly it was mess and chaos.

Later that evening I told my husband how great a time I had with the boys and how I was all wrong that they were the source of all the mess and chaos.  Then I joked to my husband that if it wasn't the girls and it wasn't the boys then maybe it was HIM!  He was the source of the mess and chaos that I exert so much energy to contain in our household every day!

He countered with, "I don't think it's the boys or the girls.  It's HAVING FOUR KIDS!"

Ah yes.  THAT!

Here are pics from their camp adventures.  First the boys, then the girls.  I would be jealous of all the outdoor fun, except that both camping trips they slept in tents with temps in the 30s -- NO THANK YOU!

A Girly Weekend

A few weeks ago, my husband took our boys on a father-son overnight camping trip.  They had tons of fun and while they were away, my daughters and I had some awesome girl time.

First on the agenda was a tea party dinner that we ate on the good china, followed by a girly movie.  There was also some fingernail painting and I taught them how to make pom-poms out of yarn.

After we'd made several, we used some baker's twine threaded through a large needle and sewed right through the center of each pom-pom to make a garland.

The girls were super excited to hang the garland in in their room!

Checkout this website for great pom-pom making instructions.

We had so much fun that the girls were a little sad to see the boys come home!

Baking with 4 Kids and a 1 Crazy Dog

My 4 kids made Christmas cookies today.  For the first year, it wasn't total chaos; they were actually really good at the rolling and cutting out of cookies!

Do not fear I'll have to change the name of this blog, there was still chaos in the kitchen due to the dog desperately trying to help make cookies (she is in all 4 of the pictures below, although very hard to spot in the 2nd one):

Would anyone like a 4 year old goldendoodle for Christmas?  I can drop her on your doorstep complete with a large red bow!

Gingerbread House Decorating

This year at our church's annual gingerbread house decorating event, we decided to two houses, a girls' house and a boys' house.  Fun for everyone and the best part is that the mess was not in my house!

Gingerbread House Decorating fun:

Cutting down our Christmas tree as a family only looks idyllic in the pictures!

We embarked on our annual family exhibition to cut down a Christmas tree this past Saturday.

 Our 9 year old daughter fell in love with a certain tree we worried would be too tall for our living room ceiling.  Literally there were tears, TEARS, over not getting that tree she wanted!  Really, the ridiculousness of it is still amazing to me now 3 days later!

Lest the pictures fool you into thinking it was an idyllic day, just know that we began the outing with a 15 minute lecture right there standing in the parking lot of the Christmas tree farm, to address bad behavior from all 4 kids that had gone on that morning.  And mid-way through our quest for the perfect tree I may have said we'd never do this again -- I mean an entire farm worth of trees and we couldn't all agree on one!  

The 11 year old perfectly illustrating my feelings:

Then there was the colossal fit Little Girl threw in the play area that caused my husband to carry her out screaming to the car.  He later told me he kept waiting for the police to come question him for kidnapping.  We worried about that a lot when Little Girl first came to us and was throwing fits often and we were hyper aware of not matching like typical parents and children, since we are white and she is black.  But, praise God, the fits got better and I haven't thought much about being accused of kidnapping my own child in a long time.  Hopefully that Christmas tree farm fit was isolated and not the beginning a new pattern!

So, just keeping it real, and telling the back story behind the pictures, but at the end of the day we did go home with a tree that we cut down, the kids had some fun, hopefully lessons were learned, and we are a family.  We hang together through the messy and the beautiful!

100% Authentic Re-Enactments of The First Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is not even officially here yet, and I've already enjoyed all manner of festivities!

The kindergarten Thanksgiving lunch I attended today with over 100 pilgrims and Indians:

Now, I was not there at the very first Thanksgiving feast but I feel certain there were not Chick-Fil-A nuggets nor Capri Suns, however, I'm sure a nugget tray and a little fruit punch would have been a welcomed addition to their Thanksgiving bounty!

And then tonight, from the comfort of the couch in my living room, there was a Thanksgiving play put on by my three youngest children who played the parts of a pilgrim, the turkey, and an Indian.

My favorite part was when the pilgrim caught the turkey!

But, the conversation at dinner when my 9 year old daughter was assigning parts, and the 7 year old, upon being given the part of "The Turkey", lamented that he always got the bad parts, was pretty priceless, too!  But, he rallied and put on an Oscar-worthy performance as The Turkey, complete with lots of "Gobble!  Gobble!"s. 

Wishing you the happiest of Thanksgivings!

Family Adventure Day

The kids had a fall holiday from school on Friday so on Saturday we set off for "Family Adventure Day".

We loaded all 6 bikes on the SUV, packed a picnic lunch, grabbed some donuts and kloaches for breakfast and headed west a couple hours to a state park with some waterfalls that we'd never been to before.  The weather was gorgeous and we had a beautiful day exploring as a family!

Don't ask me how close Little Girl came to a collision with a patch of cacti when the trail went downhill and she took it full speed as I watched in horror from behind!  Thankfully she narrowly missed the cactus and came to a stop safely in some tall grass.  I, however, have several new gray hairs from bike riding over hills with that daredevil little girl who kept telling me as I begged her to slow down, "I'm not controlling my bike, IT is controlling ME!"  But, go figure, her only scraped knee was on the hill I deemed "too steep" and while we were walking our bikes down the hill she fell and got a little scraped up!

We drove home after dark with some very sleepy kids and fun memories of our family adventure day!