fountain fun

Finally, a warmer day!  I realize that my kids are wearing long pants, but when we left this morning to go out, it wasn't quite warm enough for shorts.  We headed out to Mercy's 3 year well check-up.  She did great!  I remember the days when she used to be hyper-sensitive to going to the doctor.  She would see the nurse and start screaming, or sometimes she would start screaming when we would walk in the room.  She is up to 28lbs!  She is at around the 20th percentile in weight and 60th percentile in height.  After the doctor we went to the library for a little bit, and then decided to go out to the fountain for some impromptu play.  They had a blast.  Mercy was much more outgoing at the fountain than in the past.  Last summer she was very shy about getting into the water.  Not this time!  She was all in! 

 

Running into the water!

 

Mercy afterwards:  the goal was "not to get too wet"  hahaha

 

Allie's Superhero fun run!

Several weeks ago I signed the boys up to run Allie's Superhero fun run.  Allie is a kindergartener at Josiah's school who was diagnosed with a rare cancer called Ewing Sarcoma.  I don't know the family personally, but I know she is in the process of chemo treatments.  The boys were given some Easter money from Gigi, and decided to use their own money for the race.  Sweet boys!

 

Unfortunately, a monsoon has decided to sit over the entire state of Tennessee today. (Not to mention that today is the Nashville Marathon.  I couldn't imagine running that long in all this rain.  My feet would look like two big raisins.)  And, it's not just rainy, but chilly.  In the low 50's this morning.  BUMMER!  We debated on whether or not to run.  The race was at 10:00, so not super early.  The boys wanted to run, though, so off we went!

 

Before we left!  Mercy is wearing her red rain coat!

Before the race in the Algood Middle School gym

We have a good number of teenagers from church who go to Algood Middle School.  Several of them were there to help out.

Go Josiah!

Ryan ran with Aedan!

Baye ran a lap with Josiah.

running in the rain

Griffin cheering on Aedan and Ryan.

Coming in on the last turn

 Videos!  You can see the thickness of rainfall in the videos. Here is Josiah!

 

Here is Aedan!

 

After the race:

As far as times go, there was no official clock.  Also, the kids just ran around the parking lot four times.  Ryan and I have measured the parking lot before out of curiousity after the Tommahawk Trot, so we know that they actually only ran around a .8 of a mile.  I'm sure Josiah didn't run a 6:30 mile, which was the time on my stopwatch when he finished.

 

With their medals:

 

All the kids!  Yes, a small turnout, but considering the rain and coldness they had a blast and loved it!  Team Allie!!!

Free Friday

After dinner on Friday, we went out as a family to do free things!  We had a coupon for a free haircut from Sport Clips, so we decided to use it for Josiah.  The whole place is sport themed!  Josiah and Aedan loved it.  During the shampoo, Josiah sat in a massage chair and had a warm towel over his face.  There were TVs everywhere with ESPN.  Of course, the Draft was on, which the boys have really enjoyed this year.  (It's on as I type this.)  I have a coupon for Aedan as well, but I just cut his hair on Wednesday really short, so we are saving his coupon.

 

getting ready!
 

watching the draft

Here's the wating area.  There are sport type seats and of course, a TV.

Wow!  Check out those bangs!

 Next, we went to Marble Slab.  Our kids had never been there before and I think I have only been once about 10 years ago.  A friend of mine had given me a $25 gift certificate, so we used it and it covered all of our ice cream!  The kids were unsure of the toppings mixed in.  Aedan was the only one to pick a topping.  It was a great evening out and the kids had a blast!

The winning streak continues

Aedan had two baseball games this week.  The first one, on Tuesday, was a late game.  And by late, I mean starting a little before 7:30.  Since our kids usually go to bed just after 7:30, I figured it might be a doozy of a game.  Playing a game when you are usually sleeping can be difficult.  I am thankful that on the first part of the schedule it is the only one scheduled at 7:10 (which really means 7:30ish since the games seem to go over).  That could change for the tournament games.  We'll see.  His team won 18-8.  Notice is is nightime!

Aedan's cheering section.

 

The Thursday game was a 5:10 game, so much better.  Aedan started at 2nd, and then moved to short stop.  He'll need to learn that position.  It is good to get experience in different spots, I suppose.  Unfortunately, it is rainy today, so no practice and it is supposed to rain tomorrow.  So, I'm not sure if there will be a practice before the next game.  They won this game 11-1.  The game started out actually close, but then the Braves pulled away.

on first

dugout shot

ready to go as short stop

 Cute hill pictures after the game:

When a team is up by a certain amount (I think like 7 or eight) then the coach has to pitch to them.  Here's Aedan at bat with the bases loaded.  This was also the first pitch to him from Brandon. 

 

Next game: Friday, May 3rd

Spring Cleaning Post #2

Ready for a spring cleaning update?  Well, I have continued with the spring cleaning, but I was sick for a while, so I was unmotivated for a little bit.  And, it wasn't a kind of sickness where I was using it as an excuse...I had a fever for a few days, and flu-like symptoms...a lot of achy feelings and headaches, except it wasn't the flu.  Anyway, I am better now, but there were several days where nothing was cleaned or organized.  When I began feeling better, I began cleaning and organizing once again.  Like I mentioned in my last post, cleaning on top of the daily cleaning is difficult.  Here are some scenes around my house on a daily basis:

 

June and Annie hanging out with Diego and Wendy Waters.

The Clemson Barbie crusin' in her pick corvette with Wendy Waters.  (Wendy is quite popular.)  They just ran over a spoon.

Babies resting on Boppy pillows.  (Mercy takes good care of  her babies.)

The small random dinosaur here and there.

a Clemson helmet (next to a pink shoe...which should be in the bench)

Dinosaurs...yes, they are in the bucket!

Now we have sporting equipment around.

And, lastly...you name it all over the floor.

So my first step to organization began with this: 

I cleaned all sorts of old papers and stuff and threw some items away.

 I bought this:

to shred up old bills and stuff that were in the dresser.

 Next, I cleaned off our counter tops.  Sorry for the lack of a before picture.  But, it does look much better.  Some of the important stuff that used to be on the counter tops I moved to the dresser (from above).  Also, I found the paper organizer that I bought a couple years ago, which you can see in the picture.

Alright, as embarrassing a this may be...here is a before picture of our Baker's rack!  I know it's bad!  hahaha!

 And, after!  I even wiped down the wall all around the trash clean.  It looks so much better, and really, our whole kitchen does!

Stay tuned for more spring cleaning updates!