A Memorable Memorial Weekend

What a fun weekend we had. We worked some and played some and just enjoyed spending time together! On Saturday I finished planting all of my flowers, and I was SO glad for that when we got an inch of rain on Sunday! We had two big events that made this weekend extra exciting. First, our cat had a kitten. And yes, I emphasize the word "a". She only had one, which, if you ask Matt, is awesome. Except now the kids all fight over who gets to hold it. The kids were SO excited when they found it on Sunday morning. I thought that Nicole and Corinne were going to hyperventilate!

The second big event is that Paige can now ride a two-wheeler. She LOVES it!! She couldn't wait to ride to school this morning. As a matter of fact, she didn't wait. She left Nicole and Corinne and was already to the corner before they even had their bikes out of the garage! Do you remember in "Forest Gump" when the kids were chasing him and he's trying to run with those braces on his legs, and then the braces break and fall right off and he just takes off? Well, that's kind of what it reminded me of taking the training wheels off of her bike. Maybe we shouldn't have waited so long! I hope you all had a great weekend as well!

Here is Ginger with her new kitten, "Tygee-Tigger". (I'm not sure if I spelled that correctly.)

Nicole and Claire at the park. It's like looking back in time a decade--or forward!

Corinne, Matt, and his mom at the reservoir.

Wellsville Mile

Yesterday was the Wellsville Mile. Of all of the wonderful things that I love about living in Wellsville, this tradition is right near the very top! Every year all of the 4th and 5th graders from the south end of the valley run a mile race that is hosted by Wellsville Elementary. There were over 1200 kids this year! They do 12 heats (6 for each grade, girls then boys). The cross country and track teams from the HS come run with the kids to help pace them and encourage them. And the streets are packed with parents cheering them all on. Nicole did great!! She has been training for the last 6 weeks, running a mile every day at school. The last few weeks she really worked hard to shave seconds off of her time each day, logging a personal best of 9:47 last week. Well, yesterday she came in 14th in her heat (of around 100 other 5th grade girls) with a time of 8:20! She said she felt like she was going to faint and throw up. I told her that means that she did a great job. We were so proud of her for doing her best. That is what I love about this race. All of the kids just work so hard and get such a great feeling for accomplishing something so difficult. Here are some pictures of her at the starting line and just past the half mile mark. The video is at the finish line and you can see that she didn't have much left to give.

Happy Birthday Corinne!

Okay, so I'm a couple of weeks late with this, but trust me...we had a great birthday! Our sweet Corinne turned 9 two weeks ago, and she chose to celebrate with a Birthday Luau. From the time that she could barely talk, Corinne has LOVED birthdays! She doesn't even care so much about getting presents, she just loves to celebrate. She plans for it all year long and then presents me with lists of what we are going to do on the big day. And let me tell you...with that much enthusiasm, it's hard not to comply! So it was a big day and I think that she had a lot of fun! We sure love our Rinnie, and are very glad that she is in our family!!


Here is the hula girl cake that I thought I would attempt.

How low can you go?

Corinne taught all of the luau guests the fine art of hula dancing!

Instead of cutting the hula girl cake for the party, each girl (and Spencer) had their own volcano cake!

And here is a video of Corinne showing off her hula skills. It's hard to hear her, but she says, "Sway the hips, and dig..." Fun stuff!!

No Fear!

We took this video about a month ago. Matt has done this little balancing act with all of our kids and thinks it is so funny. It took me several kids before I could even watch without freaking out. Claire is so little though, that he's been able to add a "toss" in with the act. Doesn't Claire look just terrified? Maybe one day she'll join the circus!