March In Review (and February too I suppose)

I can not seem to get caught up this year. Maybe its just the craziness of getting Garrett to and from school, getting workouts in, feeding everyone, keeping summer occupied, working, and just generally surviving from one day to the next. Our days have been filled with lots of fun, but I haven't really taken that many pictures. Trying to be in the moment with the kids, but I KNOW I'm going to miss having this to look back on down the line.

Let's see . . .
We had a cold snap. Haylee must be getting old (which she really is, she turned 10 in March, which is CRAZY to me) because all she did was bury under the blankets and refuse to move.

Aspen, on the other hand, chose to attempt to swim in the lake during one of our coldest days. Rotten dog.

Nana and Papa came for a visit. I'm sad to say this is the ONLY picture I took with my camera while they were here. Garrett and Summer loved having them here to play with.


Valentines day.
We made darling super hero valentines. Garrett got a kick out of making them.

He also made lots of sweet little art work. This was my favorite though, made with the bottom of a celery stalk as a stamp.

My dad came for a visit. We hit the beach and went to the Everglades. Its been a while since he's seen the kids. Everyone had a blast of course.

We did fun things like make robots out of toilet paper roles. Don't ask about Garrett's face here . . . .I think he was acting like the robot.

I ran my first half marathon on March 4th. I'm so annoyed that I haven't managed to post about THAT in the past month. It was an epic weekend, my friend Amanda from TooTallFritz came for the race. As I mentioned before, we've been online friends forever but have never met in person, and she was one of the people I could always ask for help when I got stuck on my running journey. It was so fabulous to meet her and her mom--they were kind enough to let me hang out with them the night before the race to save on some serious pre-race jitters!
Not to mention a beautiful evening on the beach:

Brad stayed home with the kids so I'm sadly lacking in pictures of the actual race. But we had so very much fun! I finished in 2:49, which was under the goal I had set for myself. Next time I hope to run the whole thing, I ran faster than I should have in the beginning and had to do intervals the last half. It was so incredible though.
And I can't forget the sweet good luck flowers Brad got me before the race :-)

Spring Break was fabulously busy . . .

We used the awesome pop bottle science kit Leanne got Garrett over Christmas to do some fun experiments over spring break. We made a volcano.

We also blew up balloons using the reaction of baking soda and vinegar. We have a long standing tradition of making faces on our balloons--Summer did such an awesome job on hers (with NO help) that I had to take a picture.

We went to the Childrens Museum with the Falconer clan. The kids had a blast--Summer and Ava hadn't played together in a while. The Pirate Island Exhibit there is amazing and the kids loved it. Garrett had also been wanting to try the rock climbing wall there for a while, but we always kept forgetting socks and close-toed shoes. He had an AWESOME time climbing the wall. If there is one thing I love more than anything else about the way we live our lives, its that living an active lifestyle has given this boy the idea that he can conquer anything. I love that he doesn't blink at physical challenges that would have made me, as an adult, cringe in the past.

Silly girls!

We played in the mud on the last day of spring break, just because getting dirty is so much fun.

Somewhere in there was Dr. Seuss's Birthday. We had tears on this day, ACTUAL TEARS, because Garrett's school told them they could wear Dr. Seuss shirts and I could not find one. As he's crying because he is worried he will be the only one without a Dr. Seuss shirt, I decided to be creative. The result turned out pretty darn cute, and he loved it. Saved by the Sharpie Markers and the stash of plain shirts sent to us by Grandma Sherry.




St. Patricks Day cuteness:
At the end of March we received news that Garrett was admitted into the charter school down the road from our house. I struggled for the entire week (we had to decide by March 31st if we wanted to enroll him) with what we should do. I really like the school we are currently at--the principal and staff are amazing, and it is such a small school that you can't help but feel at home. But in the end, an established Math/Science program and the ability to bike/walk to school won out over everything else, and we'll be switching schools at the end of the year. Hoping that it will make our lives simpler and that it will be a good fit for my crazy boy.

And, last but not least . . . a picture of Summer at the beginning of April 2011. I can't get over how much she has grown. She has been driving me bonkers lately--she is truly not an easy child and STILL isn't fully potty trained (we've been to the Dr. more times than I care to count in the past couple months, trying to sort her out). But she is growing up so fast and really becoming a big girl.

Happy St. Patty's Day

Honestly, this isn't a holiday I particularly care about. But for once, I actually put the kids in the themed shirts my mother in law always sends for the holidays AND took a picture. I expect you to clap for me now of course :-)

And here is a sampling of the St. Patty's Day stuff they did at school last week:



We're on spring break this week. We haven't done much of anything. With gas prices as high as they are, our days have pretty much centered around NOT using our car. We did ride our bikes to a nearby park, which meant a 9 mile round trip ride. Garrett rode his own bike. That kids just loves to go!

We went to the zoo today with Leanne. I'd like to say we had a blast, but it was almost more work than it was worth. Summer was crabby as all get out, but the kids still had fun and it was nice catching up with Leanne.



Garrett filled his marble jar this morning and got a Superman book that I found at the dollar store. He keeps telling me how much he loves it, which is fabulous. Especially since he was helping me MOP THE FLOORS this morning in order to finish filling that jar. BEST IDEA EVER! This morning he was not interested in putting the book down during pictures, just as Summer was not interested in putting down "Bear" with his St. Patty's beads.

We've rounded off our week with a lot of time spent in the pool. Its getting warm here, and with the later sunsets, I've even been able to hit the pool twice for some laps, which has been nice and relaxing. Summer is just around the corner! Other than that, I'm re-reading the last few books in one of my favorite series in the anticipation of the newest book coming out on Monday. Rounding off the week with much needed adult time in the form of a dive trip with the neighbors and a drive to Fort Myers on Sunday for work.