House Changes

I was holding off to see if I was ever going to get more stuff on the walls, but it hasn't happened yet. So, I am going to go ahead and post a few before and afters. Some of the angles are different, but here is a sneak peek of what we have done so far.

Family Room Before:

After:

Ellie's Room Before:

After:

Playroom Before:

After:

Hall View Before:

After:

Breakfast Area Before:

After:

Erin's First Race- 10K

Well, I did it!  I ran in my first ever race.  After my brother-in-law convinced me that I can run outside if I can run on a treadmill (I had NEVER run outside before), I decided to try a race.  I found one online that was being held in about a week so I did two quick training runs and then went to the race.  I had three goals for this 10K:

#1-Finish

#2- Keep Running- don't stop

#3- finish in less than an hour

Before the start of the 5K/10K, they had a 1K for the kids in the stadium, so this is me in the stadium before the race started... spandex and all!  Yikes.

Ready to start the race... there were several hard core runners, but they were up in front right on the starting line.

This is me crossing the finish line.  I have to admit, I was pretty proud of myself.  I finished in 56:15...not bad for the first race.  I ran the entire time, even as I was grabbing water on the side of the road... admittedly, I am going to have to work on the coordination that is involved in drinking water while running.... several times it went up my nose and was lucky to get a swallow before it all sloshed out of the cup.  I passed many people and even passed people who looked in much better shape than me.  After I finished and rested for less than a minute, I felt like I could keep going as well.  PLUS, I didn't get lapped!

This is me getting my reward for finishing second in my division!!!  The first place girl ran it in 38 minutes... uh, not even close! 

This is Maggie and I right before we left... I was pretty sweaty!!!  Now, I am thinking on working on the 10 mile run and then maybe, just maybe I can pull off a half marathon???  I don't know, we'll see.

First Day of Preschool

Elise and Owen started at a new preschool this past Tuesday.  We were all excited about it and the kids couldn't wait to get there.  I expected to have a little bit of time for transitioning and what not, but this was the easiest thing ever!!   They must have remembered how preschool works from when they went last year because they didn't skip a beat.  They went in so easily and were good and followed directions the entire time!  (I really need to figure out what they do at preschool that works so well because they sure don't follow MY directions).

Owen's teacher is Miss Nadja.  He loves her already.  He is in the 2's class and looks like he could eat his other classmates.  He is easily and by far the biggest kid in the class and bigger than most kids in Ellie's class as well.  He has been playing well says the teacher and has been going to the bathroom at school without issue.  (Again, why won't this work at home?)

Elise's teacher is Miss Carrie.  She was having a hard time remembering her name so I told her to think about how Miss Carrie rhymes with "scary".  Well, it worked but I think she sometimes slips and calls Miss Carrie, Miss Scary.  She loves preschool and is already considering her classmates as her best friends and doesn't know why mom isn't inviting them all to the house yet.

Saturday= Pool Day

Continuing our fun weekend with our Zielke family, we went to our neighborhood pool (which is now only open on the weekends.. rip off).  Anyways, there isn't much to say, but lots of pictures to share.  I will say that despite some of the frightening expressions on some of the children's faces as they were coming down the slide, they actually had a blast!!!

Erin and Owen

Kyra

Uncle Ryan and Addy

Owen

Kim, Kyra and Elise

Grammy, Elise and Kyra

Addy

Kim striking a pose

Erin and Maggie

Owen and Kyra (you can't tell me this isn't cute)

Dan and Maggie

Erin and Papa (or dad)-- (again, you can't tell me this isn't cute :))

Kyra and Ellie, apparently after an unexpected dip

Elise and Owen

Ryan, Addy, Kyra and Elise... SCARY!

Maggie taking in some rays (I know, that pacifier... but really she doesn't want to give it up and I have more important things to do like potty train the boy)

Elise Louise

Papa enjoying the after-swim lounge chair. 

Fun at the Park

Last weekend Kim & Ryan and their kids came down for the weekend to celebrate Ryan's birthday.  It was a lot of fun and something we did to keep the kids busy was head to the park.  They really had a lot of fun and it was nice to find a park with some tree cover for shade.  It was still really hot, but we went fairly early, so we survived.

The tire swing was a big hit and Uncle Ryan kept it going for the kids.

30 years old folks... yes, this man turned 30.

Only one of a sparse selection of pictures we were able to catch of Owen who was pretty much in motion the entire time.

Magdalyn Beth sure enjoys a slide.

Sisters.

Kids of all ages enjoyed the park.

I'm including this picture because I was about to kill Daniel during it.  He was swinging SOOOO high and there were many kids around and if any of them had come near him, he would have completely wiped them out.  That is me next to him and I am sure if one zoomed in, I would have a pretty furious expression on my face.  Luckily for him, he flew off a few seconds later.