Sunday, March 24, 2013

The joys of 7

 
This weekend we celebrated in style...and man I was beat.  Aly wanted a cooking party...so we headed to Pizzeria Uno for a make your own pizza and ice cream sundae party.  Tons on fun and exhausting at the same time.  Our weekend was jammed packed.
 
 
 
The kids decorated aprons that I had personalized and they ate tons of candy


 
Sat night...we headed out to a local benefit for some friends that I have met in the triathlon community.  George and Derek are both doing IMLP and Dereks story is really incredible.  He had a heart transplant 2 years ago after chemo killed his heart....and I am so excited to train and race with this group this summer!
 
 
and it was fun to get dressed up and go out...and I lasted umm until 9  pm before we headed home and crashed.
 
Sunday...we did not get out of our pjs all day..it was glorious.. Everyone napped - except me because I needed to get on my bike..it was nice to have a down day after a crazy weekend.
 
This week starts Spring Break for the kids....and we head to Aruba on Sat...I am ready for some warmer weather as we are looking at 1 to 3 inches of snow tomorrow.
 
 
 

Friday, March 22, 2013

Birthday Girl

Today Aly turns 7....and she was so excited!  She is growing up so fast.  She is smart and caring and the girl LOVES fashion.  She loves to cook and is a great big sister. 
 
She has Ryan's math skills and memory for sure.  She is a midwest eater for sure....the girl can match her dad hotdog for hotdog...but she has a flair for good food and tonight she chose crablegs for dinner.
 
I am constantly amazed at her creativity and sense of style.   We finally let her get her ears pierced for her birthday and she was over the moon.  We are just so blessed!
 
Happy Birthday Aly! 
 
 
 



Monday, March 18, 2013

Weekend FUN!

The leprechauns hit our house....and boy was it fun...they left green milk and green water everywhere. They kept turning things green...the muffins that went in the oveneven came out green.
 


 
We spent a good portion of Sunday morning...hunting for them...numerous traps were laid all over the house.  Aly proclaimed they must love Lucky Charms and we set bowls of those out in buckets to try to catch them....

 
 No luck on that end...but it was a fun day!
 

Aly might have proclaimed it the best day ever..as we let her get her ears pierced.  She has wanted to do this for over a year, and finally we decided it would be okay.  She beelined for the jewelry store and picked out...of course the most expensive pair immediately.  She is over the moon about turning 7 on Friday and beside herself that she is finally old enough to have pierced ears.



Friday, March 15, 2013

Oh the places we go.....

Just as we got a small glimpse of Spring the nasty weather hit again and we should be skiing given how cold it is.  Instead though....we headed to the Please Touch museum in hopes of burning a little energy...I am really hoping that this outing does not bring another round of some stomach plague into our house.



 The most hilarious part had to be Jackson hitting the grocery store...he is his fathers child 100%...he belined for the cereal and pancake mix...and no joke..took EVERY single box...and likely would have laid out any other poor child that wanted a box of Lucky Charms.




Brianna spent a good long time at Rita's Ice....I see a summer job in her future.



Monday, March 11, 2013

Get these sickies OUT


We have been housebound since Thursday when Jackson picked up some awesome bug.  He is at that age where rolling on the floor at the vet, licking windows, and sharing snacks with anyone that will open their mouth is just so much fun.

This one was a nasty one though..and I swear on Friday he shared it with the dog..who would not stop puking either..and by Friday night I was glad I was jumping this joint for NYC.

But alas I returned to my post Sunday am...and Aly had caught this awesome viral bug and we were in quarentine still...so Monday rolls around and I make the fatal decision to keep everyone home.  I got scammed by my 2,4,and 6 year old seriously scammed...

I knew by noon that was a BIG mistake..as I told Aly if you run around one more time..I will make you run to school.

So we made pretzels instead...and I do not recommend this either...it made a bigger mess than most of my other crazy projects...like a bomb went off in the kitchen...might just have been because we let Jackson play with flour...we made the alphabet in dough which seems to occupy a good few hours.

Either way, I am over the moon that tomorrow is a new day...but most importantly...everyone is going to school.








Sunday, March 10, 2013

USMS Swimming


Yesterday, we spent the day in NYC for the USMS coaching clinics, Level I and II.  I have not been to many of these clinics and I come from a competitive swimming background so I was not sure what to expect for and how much information I would get from this.  I met up with Kelly in NYC and it was so much fun to catch up and get together.

It was held at Asphalt Green, which is a pretty neat place in NYC and I am sure it comes at a not so pretty monthly price as well.  The pool is a 50m Olympic pool and there was a masters meet going on. Instead of swimming in this



we were PACKED into a closet room...like this


Literally the seating was on top of each other and some out the door....some standing..it was kind of nuts.  In the end, it was kind of a shame because the information that they presented was actually really interesting.   

We spent the morning talking about different masters swimmers, the fitness, triathlete and competitive swimmer.  The challenges of bringing these groups together in one venue and identifying goals that would satisfy all groups.  The participants were a mixed group of either pure swim coaches or triathlon coaches.  There was some good discussion regarding the challenges of the groups and bridging the gap to promote success in any program.

I found it interesting that USMS made a large effort to include and identify the multiport athlete as a strong part of their program.  There was some dissention among pure swim coaches about this individual because their goals are often so different that the traditional swimmer, and lets be honest most triathletes could care less about getting into a pool meet.  I thought it was really interesting to see how some of the larger and more successful masters programs really identify and run some of training in synch with the local tri calendar.

We broke for lunch and we able to escape the sardined room and head out for some fresh air....the one bummer about being inside was the weather was so nice in NYC yesterday.

The afternoon was spent entirely on stroke development and skills associated in the pool.  It would have been fun to put some of the drills and info into action in the pool at Asphalt Green but alas we stuck to the classroom.  The afternoon sesssion was great, I got a bunch of new drills and exercises for the adult onset swimmer.  There was a lot of conversation regarding using pool toys and we were given a pair of fins to bring home.  We talked about starts and turns and mechanics, this was great to see how far swimming has really come.  

The presenters were great.  Most were accomplished swimmers and coaches and they were entertaining and not dry.  Overall it was fun to brush up and learn some new things to try this spring.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Ready for Spring!


Not to early to prepare for snorkeling in Aruba!  We are busy practicing and dreaming of warm ocean air and better weather!

We are ready for Spring!  and tomorrow we are slated to get a full day of snow, sleet, rain, and ice. happy happy joy joy...I am over crappy weather and ready to get outside.  I want to be out on the roads on my bike and off the treadmill for sure.  The kids begged to ride their bikes yesterday..so hats and mittens we rode around just to get out of the house for a little while.

Four weeks and we will be in some sunshine away from the yucky muddy spring.  

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Birthday Fun


It was my BIRTHDAY WEEKEND!  and more on that in a moment.

Jackson is currently obsessed with several things...one being my phone and the camera.  I never know what I am going to get when I upload it.  As evidenced below..he is also obsessed with orange...so he might be documenting his new orange kicks that he got this weekend..still working on wearing them on the right feet.




Onward to the birthday...we had a low key weekend which was nice..the kids are not feeling super and we had plans to go out Sat night...but we canned them and came home for movie night instead.  Everyone has upper respiratory issues going on and the winter colds seem to be never ending this weekend.

But we ended on a high note...the girls had a shopping day today and we did GREAT..Aly is such a little shopper I tell you.  She loves clothes and fashion...and I have no idea where it comes from!

We are snuggled on the couch getting ready for the movie!