My Second Favorite Day of the Year

Mother's Day!!! Oh how I LOVE this day! It falls right behind Christmas as my favorite day of the year.  I mean, I whole day devoted to ME!! It's even better than my birthday which is so often overshadowed by Christmas festivities.  Savannah had been planning my Mother's Day surprises for a couple of weeks and the night before she told me that I was not allowed to leave my room until after she woke up.  So considering that I tend to wake up before 7:00 and she could sleep until 9:00, I had to wait a long time.  Once she finally woke up, her and Oscar went downstairs to make my breakfast. One would think that they weren't going to let me eat the rest of the day based on my breakfast: oatmeal, waffles with blueberries, and a breakfast sandwich.  Usually I only eat one of these items but they thought I needed options.  Thankfully Savannah and Walker ate the oatmeal and waffle which left me with the sandwich.

my breakfast in bed

Savannah said I needed to wear a crown all morning

After breakfast I opened my cards and gifts.  Walker gave me a school-made necklace (I about cried!) and Oscar gave me a couple of Lilly items.  Savannah's school-made gift had to wait until Muffins with Mom the following morning.  Then I did a quick 5 mile run on the treadmill before heading to lunch at the country club.

my greatest joys!

The next day I stayed with Savannah at school.  We had coffee and snacks, watched a musical performance with all the pre-K students, then planted a flower in a pot that the children had decorated for us.

ready to sing

with my mini

S and her friend, Amelia

I really am the luckiest girl around!!!  Soooo beyond thankful for my little family and I am sooo very blessed to be able to stay home every day to watch these little people grow and to shower them with love and attention.  Greatest job on the planet!!!!

Spring Racing Season

It's rare that I write a post that has nothing to do with the kiddos but I can't let the months of April and May go buy without mentioning all the racing that Oscar and I did.  I can't even recall all the events that Oscar has done but I'll try to do a quick run down of each weekend.  

Opps, I forgot about Ironman 70.3 California back in March.  Let's not forget that suffer-fest!

April 11-12th Oscar was in Texas to race Galveston 70.3, I think.  Back at home I ran the Rock 'n Roll Raleigh Half Marathon.  I really can't remember any of his race times.....anything beyond 4 hours is just crazy anyways.  I ran a 1:39 which put me in second place for my age group.  Not my best time but considering all the foot issues that I had been having the last month it was pretty good.    

hardest earned medal yet....I felt every single foot strike!

lots of electric therapy going on around these parts lately

trying out new shoes.....

......hoping to fix the foot issues

The following weekend, April 18th, I ran the TarHeel 10 miler and Oscar ran the 4 miler.  I paced a couple of my running buddies and helped them to achieve new PRs.  Most definitely not my fastest run but very enjoyable nonetheless.

before the race pic (no one needs to see an after pic)

the home stretch

 The next weekend, April 25th, Oscar was back in Texas for a charity ride with several of his team mates.

May 16th put him back in the Woodlands volunteering at the Ironman Texas where he raced last year.  I ran the inaugural Not So Normal Half Marathon in Carborro.  This race was so poorly marked that many runners went off course, myself included.  So the results said I placed first overall for females but we all know that's incorrect since I missed a mile somewhere along the way.  No way I ran a 1:22 half! But it was a fun morning spent with friends out sweating on a hot and humid Sunday.
And that brings us to the last weekend in May where Oscar is racing in the Raleigh 70.3 Ironman tomorrow morning.  And next weekend he'll be back in California to check Escape for Alcatraz off his bucket list.
Phew, I'm exhausted just trying to keep track of all these races!

Spring Break and Easter 2015

I am sooooooo behind on blogging and once I get behind it's almost too overwhelming to get back into it.  So let's go back almost two and a half months ago to Spring Break.  Savannah's and Walker's break started on Monday, March 30th and lasted through Monday April 6th.  That's eight LONG days to fill.  The first day we joined Caroline and her mom (one of Savannah's pony classmates) at the movies to watch the new Cinderella.  Originally I had planned to drop Savannah off with her friend and Walker and I would just walk the mall but I actually really wanted to see the movie.  So I bought our tickets and hoped that Walker would at least sit through some of it.  To my surprise he watched all the previews and the new Frozen short and then passed out within five minutes of the movie.  So I was able to sit and watch the entire movie!  

Savannah and Caroline

The second day of break we met up with Caroline again and two other friends from school at the Museum of Life and Science.  We rode the train, had lunch, checked out the indoor exhibits, walked through the butterfly house, and played around the dinosaurs.

train time

she was beyond thrilled to catch a butterfly

The third day was a little more relaxing until we joined the Moray family to celebrate JinYi's birthday over dinner.  It's always fun to join them for a yummy dinner and Savannah and Avi have so much fun together.  

such cuties!

with the birthday girl

 Day 4 was spent at home playing on the elementary school playground, taking walks, and riding bikes around the neighborhood.  

Friday, day 5, began the Easter festivities.  First up was an underwater egg hunt at the Wellness Center.  Walker was happy to sit on the side and watch while Savannah dove for eggs.

Saturday, day 6, we went to the church egg hunt first immediately followed by the hunt at the country club.  Walker really had no interest in picking up eggs and the few he did want had to be blue eggs.  Once he figured out that some eggs had chocolate inside, he became a little more interested.  

I have no pictures from the club hunt since Oscar and I had to split up with the kiddos.  Savannah finally had to move down further in the driving range with the big kids while Walker and I stayed back with the little ones.  I'm sorry to say that my golden egg streak ended this year.  Since Walker wanted to be held the whole time I couldn't focus on finding that darn egg.  Oh well, there's always next year.
After the hunts we returned home to dye eggs for our home hunt on Easter.

first Walker watched.....

then he took over against Savannah's wishes

showing off her colorful eggs

in their Easter pjs before bed

 Sunday, day 7, the kiddos hurried downstairs to see what all the Easter had brought for them.  Walker was beyond thrilled with his two new train engines and his baseball bat and tee.  Savannah loved her mermaid tail and princess art pack.  They also got a new double swing for the play-set.

 After church we had brunch at the country club and spent time with the mini petting zoo.  Then we came home for our final egg hunt.  Michael and Rachel arrived Saturday afternoon so they were able to spend the holiday with us.

she takes her egg hunts pretty seriously

By day 8 of spring break I was more than ready for these two to head back to school the following day.  We spent this day getting back into our normal routines (gym, PopUp, naps, ballet) and just playing at home.  Tuesday April 7th couldn't come soon enough :)

My growing boy

I've been meaning to do a Walker update for a couple of months now but it's so hard to find the time to blog nowadays.  I'm amazed that I managed to do it monthly for two years.  The bigger he gets, the more active he gets, the more exhausted I get, and the less that I get done.  

So here's a brief update:

~he started using two words together sometime during January.  The first combo was "choo choo ride".  No surprise there.  Then I think it was "Waher's sool"  (Walker's school).  And now it's just part of his normal conversation.  I can't even list everything that he say because his vocabulary has grown significantly in such a short amount of time.  

~even though we're not potty training yet, he does go on the potty every night before bath time.  And he will come tell me when his diaper needs to be changed.  

~he recently discovered that he loves "nanas" (bananas) and he eats about one a day.  

~he's at the point where somedays he may be ready to give up his nap and other days he absolutely needs it.  Well, I need it everyday so I'm still forcing it on him but that means that some nights he doesn't fall asleep until 10pm.  But he does still like to sleep in until anytime between 7:45 and 8:20.  Apparently neither one of my kiddos like to wake up early anymore.  Those teenage years should be fun.  

~he is so a creature of habit.  He will only wear the same shoes and the same jacket everyday.  I tired putting a new coat on him while his old one was in the wash and the neighbors probably thought I was abusing him based on the screams that were coming out of our house.  I can't even imagine what he's going to be like when I put sandals and pool shoes on him this summer.  

~I just signed him up for his first summer camp sessions.  I can't believe my little man will be going to camp this summer!!  He'll be at Westminster the same weeks as Savannah for Monday-Friday 9am to noon sessions.  Ohmyword what will I do with myself all week!!!!!   

~he's still obsessed with all things train, car, bus, plane, truck, and digger.  

enjoying his daily banana

just watching the diggers

cutest little man in the world!

He really is such a cutie!  He's getting so big so fast.  Every day that I rock him to sleep it seems that he's grown just a little bit more and it's just a little bit harder to fit him in my lap while in the rocking chair.  Pretty soon not only will he not fit, but he won't want me to rock him anymore.  I tear up just thinking about it.  Just yesterday as he fell asleep in my lap I realized these moments are all too quickly coming to an end.  And at that moment I looked over on the floor and one of my favorite children's book was lying open and I read "I'll love you forever.  I'll like you for always.  As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be."  And I couldn't hold back the tears any longer.  That book has always made me cry but it hits just a little too close to home now.  Yes, I can't keep him little forever but he'll always, always, always be my baby.