Race for the cure

I was totally looking forward to the race this year because I have been training for a distance race in early June.  So, of course, this year it would be raining with lightning so they had to cancel it.  I was even going to do an extra 7 miles to add onto it.  Well that did not happen and I was a little disappointed.

This is how the girls traveled back to the car!  They really wanted to stay dry.

Mother's day 2018

Being a mom is HARD!!  I don't know why, but this year I find myself struggling to keep up.  My kids are busy and fast.  They can destroy the house in literally 5 minutes.  I feel like Eli tips the scale to crazy, he is into EVERYTHING.  He recently got into the drawer got the scissors out and came at me (playing) and scissor chopped my leg which meant I had a cut and was bleeding on my leg.  He really thought he was playing and didn't realize that I would get cut, but this is just one example of everyday shenanigans in between responsibility.  This year I am even working 3 days/week, not full time, and I still feel like I have no time.  There is ALWAYS something to do.  My kids are still so needy and I struggle to take all 3 out with me at a time.  My time away never feels long enough..  But I am sure I am not the only one that has these struggles.

This year mothers day started Saturday night when I said I was off duty starting then until Monday morning.  So "mom, can I have, Mom, I need, Mom I want snack, mom, mom, mom) was all directed to dad.  LOL! 

Sunday morning I woke up and headed out the door at 6:30am before anyone got up, and did my long run on 10 miles for training for the half marathon I'm doing in June.  My phone died at mile 5.5 so I didn't have any music for the rest.  Totally sucked.  After that we went to church and then went to mothers day brunch where I totally pigged out!  It was great!!  It was at brunch that Eli pooped so big he had a blowout and the only pants in the diaper bag were these sweet yellow pants.  Of course, this was before pictures :)

My mothers day present was this Mama bear bracelet, which I love!!

As well as this wonder women card from the kids.  So cute!  I have a feeling that Ella picked this one out as she has been huge into the super hero theme lately! :)

This picture of Eli cracks me up!  Get it, Eli!  He was clearly enjoying the buffet....

Happy Mother's day to all the moms out there!  Hope it was wonderful.  Mine was!

Acrobats recital

The girls took acrobats all this past year, which is floor gymnastics, and this past week was recital week. 

Here they are in their recital costumes!!  I can totally tell you I am not a recital mom.  I did not gush over the costumes or doing any of it getting prepared.  But the girls did enjoy it and I guess that's what counts. 

Ella in her pretty make-up.  They loved the make-up portion of the recital.

Josie showing off her skills.  She gets up pretty high on her bridge-ups

They had a special visitor come over and she actually help do their make-up.  This was her first day home from college and she came over to visit the kids! Our kids have a special place in her heart and it's so sweet.  Ellen and her mom came to the recital to watch the girls perform as well!!

And they also got to see another one of their babysitters, Klayre.  She was in the recital as a dancer.  The girls wanted to stay and watch her solo routine on Friday and that kept them up pretty late. 

Here are the videos of the girls performances.  In the first one Ella is front row right side and Josie is the second one on the Left in the second row.

In the second video (which was started late) Josie is the first one that comes out on the left side second row and Ella is the last one that comes out on the right side front row. 

Camping 2018

First weekend in May and we are camping!!!  Not quite boating weather, yet, but we booked this trip knowing we wouldn't be taking the boat.  Our friends recommended the KOA Omaha and we booked with them, about mid February.  So a 3.5 hour drive later and we were camping.  This is the farthest we've camped away from home and it was good!  It was a small campground, which meant that the kids could go to the play ground and other cabins by themselves and we could still keep an eye on them.  The weather turned out to be absolutely perfect, not to hot and not to cold!

 

Getting comfy in the camper

Eli loved unzipping the window. This was the first time we didn't put him in the pack n Play and he slept with his sisters on one of the slides.  It wasn't very good....he woke us all up, but it can only get better from here right?!!

Since we weren't boating we enjoyed doing things around the campground like mini golf and mining

The girls "mined" for gold and found some other treasures like arrowheads and Eli just played in the water.

Sifting for her treasures

And they had a jumping pillow at the playground and that was HUGE hit!

 

We enjoyed a scavenger hunt, s'mores, campfires and mommy even got to go shopping!  There was an outlet center just around the corner and, of course, I took advantage and did a very short amount of shopping.  I could have spent all day there!

And as every camping trip ends we usually end up with all three kiddos asleep!  Eli really messed with sleeping in the night and I assumed this is how it would be.

Except on the way home, we ran out of gas!  Yup completely on E! We called our friends to see where they were and they were only about 10 miles ahead and they turned around and got us some gas.  Thanks goodness!!!  Not exactly how we envisioned the drive home going, but I am glad it was gas and not a mechanical issue. 

Our view from the side of the road...  The girls sure had a lot of questions about us being on the road and not moving and Eli, he cried, a lot! LOL!

So camping season 2018 has begun!  We are looking forward to more trips this summer and hope the weather is as perfect as it was this summer.

Spring?

We have had a bad spring this year.  April 20th we had snow and then a week later it was 78 degrees.  Today it is 80.  So really no mild temps and pleasant evenings which is a bummer.  Oh well, we will make the best of it.  Here are few of things we have been doing...

I am still plugging away at my training for my half marathon.  I have tried to get outside as much as possible to run and sometimes that means I have to push Eli.  He likes it, I don't.

I had a garage sale.  My neighbor and I put one on with about a week notice.  We were hoping the weather would cooperate and the highs that weekend were about 57, so pretty chilly in the mornings.  When we were looking at weekends to have it, it was a weekend with one week notice or we were well into July for having it.  We managed to get our stuff organized and pull it off.

We had lots of stuff to sell.  I had a TON of kids clothing and quite a bit of it sold.  What stuff didn't sell I donated.  My rule is that nothing goes back into the house that was put out to sell.  Well, I did bring a few things in, but not much. 

Overall the garage sale was success.  We were pretty slow on Saturday and closed shop up early, but all in all it was a success

Joey and I celebrated our 12th anniversary.  Here we are 12 years later

And before...

 

And the teeth just keep falling out!  Ella has lost another tooth and she has enjoyed her loot from the tooth fairy.

The warmer weather is here to stay so I have put all the winter coats, hats/gloves and boots all away and I have laid 15 bags of mulch and sprayed for weeds.  Joey has mowed the lawn already too.  All this means is boating season is FAST approaching.  We even have our 1st camping trip of the season scheduled for this weekend and the kids are excited.  Happy Spring everyone!