Tuesday, March 26, 2013

We survived

Roller skating with kids.
This is the day before.  You might be surprised to know that at one time, David was quite fancy on roller skates.  So he broke out his old skates to "stretch them out." That was his quote, not mine.  




Here we are, at the skating rink on Sunday.  We got there as soon as they opened.  



Practicing with Ryan.  We put Hannah in regular skates at first.  


After about 30 minutes, and some discouraging falls, we went to the plastic skates that go over your shoes.  She kept trying, even after one hard fall in which I think she jammed her elbow.  


We went roller skating to celebrate Iris' birthday.  That's Iris in the pink, with her dad.  Her mom and brother are next to her.  It was quite experience.  There was definitely some "Mommy, I don't want to skate anymore!" Which was followed by a "Too bad, let's go again!"  


Logan, Iris' brother, crashed into the wall so hard one time that his glasses went flying and he got himself a pretty big knot on his forehead.  Yet, they all skated still.  


Riley was beyond ticked off that she could not be out there with everyone else.  Ryan would skate around on the carpet with her a little but she seemed to lose interest in that after awhile.  All she wanted was to be where all the other kids were.  


I don't think I've ever seen David so patient with Hannah.  At least, positive patience.  


My big crash involved Rebecca.  We feel together, and I landed on top of her.  No really, ON TOP OF HER.  My butt was on her hips.  A little kid maneuvered in front of me and I tried going around and Rebecca was responding to me moving.  It was just a big mess.  That resulted in us both on the floor.  Although, it wasn't so painful for me.  ; )






Iris went through every type of skate option the rink had, multiple times.  But we all kept trying, through forceful means at times.  


I'd say Hannah got the hang of it.  She kept trying and by the end of the afternoon, she laughed when she fell.  She got smoother, gliding more.  Most importantly, she wanted to keep trying. 






The next day, Hannah complained about her thighs being sore.  
There's a slow rollers time at our skating rink every Saturday afternoon.  David and Hannah are going to start making a date of it.  At least once a month.  Maybe she'll surpass her dad's talents!  

Just an evening

Last night, in pictures.  
Riley and I played with her barn and farm animals.  










While Hannah read Fred and Ted go Camping to David.  

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Date night

Remember that sleepover arrangement Michelle and I created.  I blogged about it here.  Well a couple weeks ago, Michelle took Hannah and Riley.  I must admit, I was a little nervous because it was going to be my first night away from Riley.  I don't know why, as moms, we feel so anxious about leaving our little ones for the first time.  Of course, maybe not all moms do.  However, I teared up a little saying goodbye to her.  
The first thing I did: went for a run!  Then I went home to get ready for our date.  We had decided to go to Wine & Design with another couple, Rebecca and Ryan.  So Wine and Design is a cheaters way of painting.  That way, those of us that are not artistic can still walk away with a decent looking painting.  

This is the painting we did the night we went.  


David, creating the border of his painting.  


Creating my canvas.  You can already see how different mine and David's are.  It's not intended for everyone to have identical paintings.  
If you look under my canvas, you can see the array of snacks Ryan and Rebecca brought.  We had a variety of nuts and bread, with our wine of course!  


Rebecca




As usual, David was the first one finished.


Here's our two paintings.  We had such a good time.  It was relaxed.  We chatted, we sipped wine and snacked.  The teacher was very sociable and friendly.  He even had a glass of wine with us.  


The end of the night.  
Notice David and Ryan are the only two guys there.  We all agreed that we would do it again.  
The way I see it, every time David and I go, we get a new painting for us and a gift for someone else!  


From there we went to Peirro's and had dinner.  We sat next to a bacherlerotte party, and had a great time imagining what their night would be like!  

The next day, David and I went geocaching together, and I have some photo's from that but they're not on this computer, so I'll have to share those with you later.  



Wednesday, March 20, 2013

A courageous eater

That's an oyster folks.  




She wasn't crazy about the texture.  But she swallowed it!  



Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Methodist University Obstacle Course

David and I are signed up for the Brave Soldier Challenge.  I am so excited about it.  
And a little nervous.  I haven't climbed a rope or crossed monkey bars since elementary school.  That's why I'm excited, because I have to actually train for it.  

The loose log roll. 


Once I signed up, I set out to find a rope and monkey bars.  A friend from the running club told me about an ROTC course behind Methodist University, which had a rope, monkey bars and many other obstacles.  


Saturday morning I ran 7 miles.  I signed up for a 10k, then parked really far away from the packet pick up.  I came home, showered, and then felt like it would a good idea to go tackle this course before Hannah's Awana's game practice.  


Not the most thought out plan.  I was pretty exhausted.  But the course was SO MUCH FUN!!!  And REALLY HARD!  I consider myself to be very physically fit.  I like pushing myself to pain in my workouts.  This course made me feel weak.  

The rope climb.  So hard.  
Although, David taught me a foot technique that will make climbing it much easier.  It'll make it all about my legs, instead of my arms.  


Hannah wanted to try.  From now on, we're going to spend a little time with her, teaching her how to do some of the obstacles too.  


The monkey bars.  They were slightly intimidating, but I did finally make it about halfway.  





Military hurdles.  I was better at this than anything else.  I bruised the heck out of my knee caps.  And I fell on my butt once.  


Burns from trying to tackle the vertical wall.  There's no photo of the vertical wall here, but it's about 9 feet high with a small wood step up in front of it.  For this, I have to work on my jump.  I couldn't get my shoulders over the top of the wall.  At the wall, I also learned that my running shoes were not proper foot wear for climbing a wall.  


So I'll just have to get better.  That starts tonight.  I'm meeting David there after work.  I hope to get out there 3 times a week every week in between now and the Brave Soldier Challenge.  And after the challenge, I'm going to keep it on my workout rotation.  
Progression photo's to follow.  

How I get to start my morning

I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I feel so fortunate to be able to stay home with my girls. Though I may get frustrated about some aspects of it at times, I know that there are many people who do not have the option of staying home with their kids. Here's how my girls put a smile on my face first thing in the morning.









Monday, March 18, 2013

She's not afraid!


David and Hannah went fishing recently.  We decided to let Riley play with the worms.  David oversaw the activity, because I just didn't know if I could handle Riley trying to eat a worm.  And I knew she would try.  








Riley LOVED playing with the worms.  She kept squeezing and stretching and laughing!  I almost felt sorry for the worm at times.  And she only tried to eat the worms twice.  


And then daddy took them away.  And Riley cried and cried.  
Yep, she's not scared of a squirmy worm.