One Cold Race!

My friend Michelle made me an offer that I couldn't refuse. I could run for free in a 5K that her work was sponsoring if I volunteered to help pass out packets before the race. I was also able to sign up Donovan and Howie to help and they could run for free too. What a great deal!!

Then we saw the weather forecast and that deal didn't sound so hot. In fact, it sounded freezing cold!  It was only 11 degrees that morning so I had the boys stay home while I did the volunteering.  Matt brought them up to the park for the race and we all enjoyed running in the freezing weather along the snowy course.  I even placed 3rd in my old lady age group!

Top Quality Thanksgiving Pictures

No fancy food pictures (our food didn't look to fancy), or shots of our neatly decorated table (we didn't have one).  Just awkward pictures of our kids on Thanksgiving Day.  But the food was amazing and I am stuffed! 

Chess Club

This was another one of my babies.  I remember last year, a chess company advertised a chess club at the school for a whopping $90 per kid!  Howie and Cameron both wanted to participate, but it was way too much money for us.  I decided that I would do something about it this year.  After coercing one of my favorite teachers to sponsor the club, we were able to offer a chess club of our own to the students for FREE!  We had 25 kids come every Wednesday for 2 months.  It was really rewarding to watch these kids have such a fun time playing chess together.  Well worth the time.  I am grateful for the volunteers (mostly my own family) who taught kids how to play and offered to play with anyone who needed a partner.

A Neighborhood Snowman

Cameron has been wanting to build a snowman for a couple of days, but we have been busy with all sorts of things. Finally today's schedule looked promising for a snowman!  Unfortunately the snow was melting a little more quickly than we expected so Cameron and Rex had an idea to use the snow next door to make a snowman. They had to ask Dillon if it was okay to build a little man in his yard and Dillon was more than happy to approve this project. Henry joined in the fun too!  I'm happy to see these boys getting a chance to play together.  

Rex and His Art

I keep telling myself that I will do this more often, but I think I am fooling myself.  In a perfect world, I would snap a quick picture of my kids with every single art project that they bring home and then chuck most of them in the garbage.  Then my basement wouldn't be flooded with stacks of projects and I wouldn't forget who did what and when they did it.  

So here is Rex, with his amazing hair, and his more amazing tree collage.  

Hulk Smash!

When ever I drag Rex along with me to the school, he doesn't even come in the office.  He will sit outside and wait.  And sometimes he has to wait a long time.  I don't think he likes the attention he gets from the ladies in the office.  He won't even respond when Whitney or Ruth says hi to him.  

Well over the weekend we went to the Boo Ball and Miss Ruth was dressed up like the Hulk.  Rex LOVED her costume and he actually smiled and talked to her.  Yesterday I saw Ruth at the school and she gave me this mask and the hands and told me to give them to Rex because he warmed her heart by talking to her!  Ever since he got them he has been doing some pretty sweet Hulk Smashes. I'd say he likes Ruth's gift!

Fall Run Club

We finished up our 3rd season of Run Club tonight with a little awards ceremony.  It was another good season. We had  runner who logged a total of 875 miles. We had 11 marathoners and had 26 kids run in The Stride. 

Overall I think it was a success. There were several stressful days where we didn't have very many volunteers and we had to scramble to figure out how to manage with what he had.  Those days were hard enough to make me seriously consider whether or not I want to do it again in the spring.  But knowing me, I will probably end up doing it again. I just love seeing all the kids out on the trail running.