John's Run 4 Kids - 2015

For the third year straight, we brought the kids downtown to run in the John's Run 4 Kids, organized by the same folks that do the Mudbug Run, Running With Horses. The course was slightly different this year. The park where they held the festivities previously is undergoing renovations, so they had to move the start/finish/party over to the library and Children's Museum. This year, Grandma and Grandpa came to cheer the the kids on.

 As usual, since she's older, Olivia's heat was first. She was really excited.

 Nick, the race organizer, had to do some running of his own to keep from being trampled. :)

 The park being closed also forced them to change the route and have a new obstacle: the parking deck. They made you run up 5 stories, across the roof of the deck and back down 5 stories. It was exhausting!

 Olivia made it through in just over 10 minutes.

 There was a little bit of time between Olivia's and the boys' heat, so the silliness helped pass the time. :)

 Finally, the boys were off! Rebecca ran with Gabe to help motivate.

 Ezra, however, was off like a shot and never looked back. It was tough catching him. I would get a pic of him at an obstacle...

 and the wait for Gabe to come through. 

 Then I had to sprint ahead to catch Ezra at the next obstacle...

 and wait for Gabe to catch up. :)

 After doing Olivia's race and knowing I'd have to do the stairs again, I cheated and took the elevator. I was glad I did because I just barely caught up to Ezra as he crossed the roof.

 Gabe and Mama weren't too far behind. 

 I next managed to catch up to Ezra at the plane in the Children's Museum.

 The I waited for Gabe while Ezra ran through the garden outside. 

 Fortunately, I had just enough time to get over to the finish line to catch Ezra's finish.

 And Gabe finished strong just a minute later.

 I was proud of both boys for really sticking it out and doing their best. I think next year, tho, we'll enter them in different heats so I don't die.

 Once the race was done, it was time for fun. Irene had a blast in the bounce house.

While the rest just about wore the slide out! :)

Some Days It's Hard to Wake Up

Need I say more?

Emma at the Little Gym

Emma finished her course at the Little Gym last week. :) It was great to see the confidence she had built and the fun she had doing the different activities.

 Her forward roll

 bear crawl

 on the balance beam (by far her most difficult thing to overcome.)

 spider walk

 high jump

and swinging from the bar. 

She had such a great time. We hope to be able to put her in another class soon!

Hay Making

So after the birthday party, we put the littles down and I took the older three to see some farming in action. Our friend, Ezra, was out cutting and baling hay so we rode out to Yanceyville to see how it's done. 

 Ezra had a "Little House on the Prairie" moment.

 They got to ride on the hay wagon as the baler worked away noisily.

 The Mr. Ezra took the boys up into the tractor so they would be out of the way for the guys stacking the bales.

 They were very "helpful". :)

They kids had a lot of fun and were a little sad that we had to leave to go home. Hopefully we'll get the chance to go back up and do it again. :)

Double Birthday!

With Ezra and Irene's birthdays so close together, they happened to both fall during the VoB retreat, so we decided to wait until this week to have a special day for them. We decided that the theme for them should be a Farm theme, with farm animal crackers, mac and cheese, fresh veggies, local hard-boiled eggs (doesn't get more local than your own back yard...) and a barn cake with cupcakes that looked like either hay or grass. We put the cows and sheep on the grass (all grass-fed, right?) and the chickens and pigs on the hay.

Our friends, the Vaughns, happened to be in the neighborhood for their homeschool co-op, so we told them they should come by and celebrate with us.

 We set up various games for them to play. The first was Pigs in a Pen. (I kept calling it Pig in a Poke from European Vacation.)

 The object was to stomp the pink balloons and get the quarters and dimes inside.

 Then we split the kids up. Some played horseshoes (I swear Elijah should go pro).

 Others played Pin the Tail on the Cow. Ezra Vaughn managed to nail it dead on. I think that having a cow at home gave him an advantage.

 Even Irene got in on the act.

 Then the kids played Pin Drop.

The idea is to drop the clothespin into the jar. It looks easy until you're standing on that chair doing it yourself.

 The last event was an egg race. The kids had to carry an egg in a spoon around the hay bale while zig-zagging between the stumps. Once they got around , they were to take the egg and throw it at the bullseye. Unfortunately, I vastly underestimate how strong our chickens' eggs would be. They just bounced off the hay bale and landed in the grass. The kids finally started throwing them at the tree behind the hay.

 Irene took a throw or two.

 Show-off. :)

 We also had a duck pool for the kids to splash around and cool off.

 And last, but not least, our kids had a few sack races. Sadly the Vaughns had had to leave just before then, but we still made a go of it.

After everything was cleaned up and the littles went down for naps, I took the older 3 to see some farm work in action; namely, cutting, raking and baling hay... But that's another post. :)

The kiddos got some very cool gifts and had such a wonderful time. It's always fun to play games together as a family and with friends. 

Happy Birthday Ezra and Irene!

No More Braces!

After a whole year, Olivia finally got her braces off this week!

 She was such a trooper and went through the whole year with great dedication and very little complaining. 

 Dr Reynolds at Reynolds Orthodontics was fantastic with her and we're thrilled with the results.

Last year, she had to get the braces because of that one crazy tooth that decided to come in behind the rest. 

Just for comparison's sake this is what she looked like last year. You can see the big gap where the hidden tooth should have been. 

What was the first thing she wanted once they were off? Gum. :)

Breakfast with Cousins

Aunt DD and Uncle Rudy were passing through town, so we met up with them for breakfast along with Nana, Pop-pop and Uncle Greg.

 The controlled chaos was fun. :)

 Fortunately, Chick-Fil-A's play place was there for them to burn off some energy after eating.

 Sweet Vivi! :)

Sadly, we were missing Kira, Aiden and Rooney, but it was so fun to see Max and Vivi even for the short time we had. 

Olivia's Baptism

We recently went on a retreat with our congregation, Valley of Blessing. Before the retreat, it was announced that there would be an opportunity for Tevilah, or baptism, while we were there. Olivia heard about it and went to Pastor Richard and asked to be baptized. He asked her a few questions about her faith and agreed that she should do it.

Israel, our assistant pastor and worship leader, gave a little message before-hand, explaining why tevilah is important in the life of a believer. Then Pastor Richard took her into the water and she did it! The water was freezing, but she was determined and made the commitment. :) We're so proud of her!

As a side note, Israel's not having a stroke at about 2:30 into the video. Irene was so gung-ho about getting in the water that she nearly took a dive off the embankment we were standing on. :)