Maddi's Triathalon

Maddi did a triathalon through our park district on Sunday. It was a 100 meter swim, 3 mile bike ride, and 1/2 mile run. She heard about it from her p.e. teacher and wanted to sign up. I was proud that she even wanted to compete and even more proud that she completed it all. She swam laps a few times at the pool to practice the swimming but other than that she just did it all cold turkey. No training or practicing, which probably would have helped, but oh well. She does do crazy amounts of dance each week and is in great shape from that but it would have helped to have more practice withe each event.

Here she is with her friends, Abby, Amanda, and Sara, before the race. Maddi and Abby were the only girls from their school in the 3rd grade race. Amanda and Sara were in the 4th grade team race.

Abby is on swim team so thankfully she had a "real" swim suit for Maddi to borrow so she didn't have to look like a rookie swimmer in her bikini.

Abby's brother, Dylan, did the 5th grade race. Her little sister Cally and Cade had fun playing together and cheering for their siblings.

Blurry picture taken from far away but it's the best I got. Here's Maddi waiting for the swim part to begin.

Here she is 3/4 of the way done with her swim. I was so nervous for her for the swimming. She actually did really well and didn't finish last. I think she was 4th from last to finish the swimming. I was so happy and proud of her for doing so well it made me cry.

Abby and Maddi were all changed and ready for the bike portion to begin. They gave them 10 minutes to change and prepare for the bike race. Each event was timed separately so the transitions weren't timed and rushed, which was really nice.

All lined up and waiting to begin the bike race. She did really well on the bike race and was in the lead after the first turn.

Crossing the finish line at the bike race. She ended up 5th place for the bike part. The first few girls actually took the wrong path and cut the corner on each lap but I doubt it was on purpose, they just didn't know what to do. 2 girls right in front of Maddi had a crash on their bikes and one of them was injured pretty badly and was bleeding. Poor girl.

Finished with the bike race and ready to begin the run.

Cade and Cally, partners in crime. Cally is only one year younger than Cade, but Cade looks a few years older, huh?

Between the bike and run race Maddi got a really bad stomach ache/cramp and said she was going to throw up and was crying. She didn't want to finish and do the run but she did it. She ended up walking the first lap, very slowly, and I felt so bad for her.

When she made it around from walking the first lap everyone else had already finished the whole run. A middle school boy who was helping with the race offered to run the last lap with her and encouraged her the whole way around. What a nice boy! She ran the second lap pretty quickly and finished the race! She would have been so upset if she had quit and didn't finish.

Crossing the finish line!!!! Everyone was cheering so loudly for her since she was the only one running and she didn't give up. I'm not sure what her final combined time was, I can find out this week. It's too bad she got the cramp because running would probably have been her best event. Anyway, she finished a triathalon and we are so very proud of her!

Curriculum Night

The kids school had Curriculum Night last night and Maddi and Cade were so excited for me to go and see the things they had prepared for me. Brett picked Maddi up from dance and then took the kids to Dippin Dots so he didn't go to Curriculum night this year. Click on the picture above to make it bigger to see my budding artist' work. When I walked in Cade's class they had put a shirt on their chair and taped their face to the back to make it look like each child was sitting in their seat. I immediately spotted Cade's artwork. Let's just say he gets his artistic talent from his mom and his least favorite thing at school is art class! He was so proud of his self portrait and I let him know I thought it was wonderful when I got home.

They also had written riddles about themselves on the back wall. He couldn't wait for me to read his and I knew right away which one was his. His read:
I have brown hair. I am tall. I am seven years old. I have one and a half sisters. I have a fish and a dog. My dad likes to yell at football players on tv.

Isn't that so cute???

Maddi had a test for me in her class. I had to guess her favorite color, food, movie, tv show, etc. I had promised her (about 100 times) that I wouldn't cheat and I didn't. Her answers were stapled behind my test and she was concerned that I would be able to see through her paper and get the right answers. She is going to grade it this morning and she is very excited to see how I did. I think I did really well because she just had to fill out something similiar for her buddy at dance. She also left me a note and then I wrote her a note back. She asked me if I wrote one back and I told her no. I lied because I wanted her to be so excited to read it. Instead, when I told her I didn't write back, she was heartbroken and almost in tears. Then I told her I really did write her but I wanted it to be a surprise so I was trying to trick her. Poor girl. Little things like that mean so much to her. It made me feel bad for the kids who will get to school today and not have a note from their parents because their parents couldn't make it last night.

The rest of the night was quite boring. The teachers gave a quick overview of what they will learn in all subject areas and went over the class schedule. Yes, they've been in school for a month now, and they're now telling us about homework, etc. I've figured it out by now, thank you very much. It's so nice to have my kids in back to back grades because I only have to learn about one new grade at a time.

Legos, Flowers and Baby

This is a random post of 3 things on my mind this morning.
1. Cade is a Lego nut! He has issues, I think. He woke up at 4:30 am because he couldn't sleep because he was so excited about finishing his new Legos he got from Grampa last night. I wish I had something I was that excited about to want to wake up that early. I think Legos Anonymous might be in his future....

From the moment I came downstairs Cade was telling me all about his Legos he built. Non-stop chatter. I try really hard to be interested in his Lego creations. These particular ones were the Power Minors and they have rock monsters that fight something else and I just don't get it!

Check out Cade's hair! It's making me lose my mind. He wanted to let it grow and I just can't handle it anymore. Brett tried to take him yesterday for a cut but there was a 30 minute wait. We are getting it cut today, no matter how long the wait is. Every morning I try to brush it and I end up having to cut some crazy callic curly part because it just won't lay down.

He's still loving his robe. Brett and I crack up all the time that he's such an old man because he wears his robe after his bath until he goes to bed and then puts it on right when he wakes up until he gets dressed.

2. Tuesday I got these beautiful flowers from the President of the company Brett is going to work for. They were to welcome me to the Morgan Services family. How great is that?!? Who does that? Certainly not the company he is currently working for. Brett kept saying that this company is not like any other company and I can totally see that. Maybe the guy felt sorry for me that all I have to do is clean out craft cabinets all day. Ha! I have a really good feeling about this next stage in Brett's career. (Notice the Lego directions and pieces on my coffee table. Ugh...the boy and his Legos!!!)

3. Baby....I'm a little over 32 weeks and today is exactly 7 weeks from the day I'm evicting Emalyn from her warm and cozy home (getting induced). I don't always wear workout clothes, it just happens that when I've thought of taking a picture of the bump I'm on my way to teach a class.

You can see my belly button is still popped. I keep thinking that mabye if I grow more it will just spread out and flatten but I don't think that's happened with my other pregnancies. Oh well. She is still as active as ever and seems to be loving her jungle gym that I call my uterus.

Here are some pictures of her room. We painted the walls Texas Sage to give her something Texan and my mom made her some pillows for her bed. Layed all over the bed are burp rags that Omie made for her too. I am so happy that I have a talented mom! Thanks mom, for all your sewing...again!

My good friend, Dusti, gave us her little girls crib bedding and I just love it. We just went with the bedding and then added our own stuff to finish the room. The letters on the wall behind the crib spell her name and Brett and the kids think they are very funny when they go in there and rearrange them to spell Melany. If you switch e with m and a with l and y with n you get Melany. It was pretty funny at first, but it's making me crazy now! Brett...are you reading this?

It feels good to have the room all finished. With 7 weeks left I'm starting to feel a little nesting settling in. I'm gonna try not to get too crazy and just enjoy the last 7 weeks of life as we know it.

Cakes

Lately we've had a coughing choir from Maddi and Cade. They both have had bad asthma coughs and Maddi had vomiting and fever with hers this past weekend. I kept her home from school Monday and she seems to be fine now so hopefully she's kicked the fever and will be feeling better soon. I was beginning to wonder if it was the dreaded "swine flu". Since she was home and feeling fine we decided to have a test run for her birthday party. She wants to have a crafting/baking party so I wanted to see how many cakes a cake mix would make and how long it would take from making the batter to baking to the cake cooling off enough to be iced. We made 2 cakes from one mix and then we decided to decorate them for Brett to celebrate his new job.

Maddi and Cade creating their masterpieces.

In case you can't tell, Cade wrote "DAD" in red icing. It has so many sprinkles and icing that it makes my stomach hurt looking at it.

Maddi was having a great time using the icing writer.

Final product reads "Good Job".

They are very excited about Brett coming home to see his surprise cakes. Brett accepted a job today as a General Manager for a company that he is really excited about working for. His job that we moved here for has been less than enjoyable and continues to get worse so he is thrilled to be taking on a new challenge with a different company. No more calls in the middle of the night from China because this company is only in the US and all of his plants are in the Chicago area. The President of his company called today to tell him how excited he was that Brett accepted their offer and he called home instead of Brett's cell so I got to talk with him. We talked for a bit and then he apologized for calling in the middle of the day and I said "It's no problem at all, I'm just cleaning out the craft cabinet". As soon as I said that I wanted to wish those words away. Why couldn't I have said "I'm home with a sick child" or something/anything else? I guess I sounded like June Cleaver and I should have mentioned I was working on our 5 course dinner and polishing the silver. Yeah, right...I don't even do crafts and the whole reason I was cleaning it out is because Maddi had gotten a basket of stuff out and the whole thing avalanched onto the floor. Anyway, we are all excited about Brett's new position, it's really an answer to prayer. He'll start October 1st so he'll get a few weeks under his belt before baby arrives.

Happy Birthday and Labor Day!

Monday was Labor Day but also Brett's 37th Birthday! Happy Birthday to my Brettley who is a wonderful husband, friend, and father. We love you so much!!! I really can't believe he is 37. That used to sound so old and it's so close to 40, which sounded ancient, but now 40 just doesn't seem that old. How did we get so old and where has the time gone? I met Brett when he had just turned 23, hard to believe! I am so thankful for our time together and look forward to celebrating many more birthdays.

Our neighbor, Brendan, had his birthday on Sept. 1st so we tend to celebrate the daddy's bdays together. 4 dads went to play golf while the moms and kids went to the park and pool. When the boys got home we had a cookout and of course...birthday cakes. It was such a beautiful day. High of 75 and sunny. Have I mentioned that I love, love, love this summer we've had?

Brett and Brendan making their wishes and blowing out their candles. I love that the kids get so excited about their parents bdays too. Maddi, who usually loves to sleep in, woke up at 6:10 Sunday morning and called for Cade to come in her room. They made birthday cards for Brett while Brett and I kept sleeping. Their cards were so cute and sweet. Love those kids!

After cake it was time for a magic show from the kids. Maddi and Grace did their trick first.

Then Cade and Jack showed off their tricks.

Cute little Lilly wanted to show a trick too so Brett tried to teach her how to pull off her thumb. All the kids were trying it and it was pretty funny. Soon after the magic show was over it was time to head home and get baths and get to bed since it was a school night. Everyone was worn out tired from our fun Labor/Birthday celebration.

Dips

Another blog that I came accross (yes, I have lots of time on my hands now that the kids are in school) and it has recipes for dips. I LOVE dips and I am so glad I don't have any cream cheese in the house right now because I think I would have made and ate 5 or 6 of these and I've only looked at about 30 of the recipes so far. Happy dipping!

Three for Thursday

3 random things on Thursday:

1. I saw this blog on a friends blog and then clicked on some links from that blog and I feel like such a boring mom. I do not enjoy cooking dinner, much less deciding what to make for the kids lunches. I really get bored with it because Maddi's lunch is gluten free. Maybe I'll keep browsing these blogs of creative people and find some inspiration to make things more exciting in our house.

2. Something is in the air/water at our house and there is some major reproduction going on. We had 4 baby robbins at the front door and 4 baby robbins on the playset earlier this spring. Then when we got home from Texas we had a dove nest that had 2 babies that recently spread their wings and flew away. Now there is ANOTHER dove with 2 eggs in the nest. I told Brett to get rid of the nest Sunday when he mowed the lawn but he didn't and now we're having more babies. The problem is that those dove are so messy and are messing on our front porch. So that will be 12 baby birds and one baby human in about 6 months for our house.

3. I am pretty sure this baby is going to be a monkey, gymnast, dancer, and/or karate black belt. I really wish I knew what in the world she was doing inside me but she is a very active one. She has made me sick to my stomach a few times from so much movement. I am so glad to know that my children love my uterus so much and have such a fun time in there. I would love to have a home sonogram machine to watch her in action.