Walk / Run 2016

Today was the school's annual walk run "race". It's about one mile around the school grounds and the kids prepare for it for about a month. The parents are welcome to attend and even encouraged to race! I ran it with both kids when they were in Kindergarten getting legitimately smoked by 80% of the class. 

This year Emma asked Daddy if he would run it with her. As daddy has been hitting the gym, he agreed thinking anyone can run a mile!

The 3rd graders went first. Em vowed to me this morning she was going to come in in the top 5 girls. She's got serious competition in her class - a lot of speedy girls. She has come in around 10th the past two years. We encouraged her to give it her best shot and off she went. 

I was at the finish line collecting the top 5 bibs and was pleasantly surprised when I saw her come out of the woods portion and towards the finish in the 3rd spot! But she had two girls hot on her tail and I was totally THAT MOM, "They are right behind you! Step it up! Step it up!" When she finished 3rd, my heart swelled with pride!! She really pushed herself hard!

Daddy came in a minute later, getting hosed by tons of 8 year old girls! 😂

But I was VERY proud of him as he hasn't run any significant distance in 15 years!!!

Ben and I were up next. At the starting line:

He started off strong but I noticed he was running with his hand on his back. About a quarter of the way in he grabbed my hand and said his back was hurting bad. We then remembered he slipped on the wet steps Sunday and bruised his tailbone. I had no idea he hurt himself that bad as this kid is not a complainer. But with TONS of encouragement he finished the race and we actually had a decent time! (80% of the kids still beat us but who is counting!)

The kids had ice pops afterwards and we got a bag of ice for Ben's lower back. That seemed to make him "feel better". 

Emma & Ben, you kiddos are true Champions. You pushed through some adversity but both finished strong. We are so proud of your efforts!!

Day trippin'

It's Spring Break - minus two days that we needed to make up for snow days... Not enough time to "go" anywhere knowing we also need to run an office (!), but we did sneak into the city today for some fun. Normally I would drive - non-rush hour it takes about an hour, but with traffic - you just never know. The kids have been BEGGING me to take the train into the city. We are the LAST stop and it's a LOCAL train taking two hours so I have avoided it until today. Here we are at 9am!

We were about 2 and a half seconds into the trip and they wanted their snacks! Ut-oh, it's going to be a long day! They looked out the window for a bit, then played on their kindles. About 1/2 way there Emma admitted driving was SO MUCH better because they could watch a dvd in the car. HAHA! Ben LOVED the train - surprise surprise. A) trains B) he played on his kindle the entire time.

We made it to the big island on the railroad and now had to stare at this map for ten minutes and decide how to get to the Central Park Zoo. Funny thing is, before kiddos, I backpacked the world! Europe! Asia! No English anywhere and yet I always figured out how to get to where I needed to go!

Let's just say, my magical GPS touch is a bit rusty but...

...we made it to Central Park!!! The children immediately wanted to be local city folk and Emma had a hot dog from a dirty water dog vendor and Ben chose a giant Pretzel. (Look closely at Em's shirt - she dripped mustard on her sweatshirt with her first bite!)

Within 15 minutes of walking, Emma's "legs hurt" and Ben was "tired" - no children, we are not horse and carriage riding to the zoo. Suck it up and WALK! They did and we made it. As Madagascar is our favorite TRILOGY, we were excited to visit the place where Alex, Marty, Melmin & Gloria all met. Woohoo - the CENTRAL PARK ZOO!

It's actually a really tiny zoo, but they do a great job on the displays and the children's zoo is very interactive. This SEAL was happy to pose. I'm not sure what Ben is doing... Breakdancing?

The peacock put on a good show, thank you very much.

And the 4D "Ice Age" movie was FUN - look at these gangsters...

I'm a cute little bunny!

There are hundreds of giant glacial rock formations in the park just waiting to be climbed - I've got about 10 different pics of the kids climbing, but I'll only tease you with ONE:

We made our obligatory stop to visit BALTO, our favorite Sled Dog EVER (please see the animated movie)...

Ben purposely brought his BALTO book so he could "read Balto on Balto!"

We rode the carousel for the first time... I waited on the side and Ben blew me kisses with each revolution - such a good son. :)

We were getting tired so we made our way back to the railroad station on the subway - always a treat for the suburban kiddos... A great way to spend the day, trippin' in the city so nice they named it twice - New York, New York.

April showers and baths

The PTA science fair was last week. This was the 1st year the kids didn't do a project. I think mommy is still burned out from the Talent Show! We walked into the gym and Ben spotted a "dig". He spent the entire night here and didn't look at any of the projects. Emma, on the other hand, ditched me immediately and wandered the tables with her pals. It was a fun night but when it was done Ben was sad, "But I didn't even get a chance to see the projects!!" (We were there for 90 minutes!!!!) 

It was cold and rainy and windy on Sunday so Em's 1st lacrosse game was canceled. We did a lot of snuggling and reading and movie watching...

When we reminded the kids it was bath night, they asked for the first time in forever to bathe together. I was all, "Ummm, NO."  This was the compromise: bathing suits! Hahaha. 

We love the game 5 second rule but we made up our own "kid edition" to keep it easier. Questions like, "Name three kinds of dinosaurs" or "name three things you can buy at Walmart" or "name three things you may find in the ocean." We were laughing so hard! We love our Sundays, indeed.  

Hoppy Easter!

Easter was another beautiful day and we were happy to spend it in our home. The kiddos were up by 6:45am and searching for their baskets. Ben found them in the master bathroom bathtub! Silly rabbit. Check out these sleepy faces!

The first thing the noticed were the light sabers!! There was a major battle before I even got out of bed. Emma kept saying, "I can't believe I got a light saber!!!!"

They scored some legos, too, which was a brilliant idea because they built while daddy and mommy slept another 45 minutes. Ha!

Of course, we had to have bunny shaped pancakes!

Abuelita sent the kiddos their Easter outfits - Em had hers on long enough to take the picture. SIGH.

My handsome little man...

They scored big on the egg hunt in our yard. 

Emma was definitely the better hunter!

We went hiking in Melville Park after lunch to get some fresh air. Love the bamboo forest!

Family pic!!

We busted out the Summer toys - the trampoline is back and continues to be one of my favorite purchases! Yes, he is wearing his Halloween costume on Easter... :)

This was a great movie - both kids were sucked in and designed a bunch of cool structures from scratch after watching it.

Daddy made leg of lamb to celebrate the day for dinner. I was a little freaked out when it came off the grill that it looked EXACTLY like a little lamb... Freaky.

I ordered this book and Emma and I have been reading it. If you ever want a great picture book this series does a great job in a variety of topics. 

Temporary...

My awesome hubby always says, he is a temporary workaholic to be permanently lazy. We are so proud of all our hard work - just found out our office is #57 in the entire company!! That's over 55,000 licensed financial leadership coaches and our 40 guys & gals (and growing rapidly) land us at 57. I'm so incredibly proud of our efforts and this year is going to be busier than ever - so forgive me if I lag on the blog!!! It's for permanently lazy reasons!! :)

The 3rd graders put on a "Music From Around the World" concert last week. Emma's class was Greek. She had to wear a dress for the first time in forever and was absolutely beautiful all dressed in white! Here she is with one of her pals, sweet Julia. (Her teacher is the gal standing behind them that looks like Ann Coult*er - freaks me out every time I see her.)

The pic below is Ben's depiction of his upcoming nerf battle with Emma. He drew out the map of our house perfectly! In the center is a stick figure drawing of him shooting her - hahahahahaha! They have epic battles on a regular basis and I should own stock in those nerf bullets and I have purchased enough of them in the past year.

Attention relatives: Emma is PAST the princess phase! I know I have mentioned this before, but it's for real now as she has been selling off her dresses at $10 a pop. She is using the $$ to invest in the Rubik line of toys... No complaints here.

I had my 1st jury duty day ever yesterday - not too bad - made it to 44 without having to report. The 1st two time I was summonsed, I was nursing infants and got out of it! Thankfully I made it through the day without being picked and now have a 6 year pardon. Woot! Woot! The kids were off for Easter break and had to spend the day with daddy at the office. Not the funnest way to spend the entire day do they are making up for it this morning on the playstation. Giggle.

Two months...

So this handsome devil turned 7 for reals. He had a hard time with the "change" but has finally adapted and declares himself 7. His birthday fell during the week so of course we had cake for breakfast before school!

His birthday party got snowed out so we had to reschedule it for a Tuesday after school. 7 sweet boys invaded my house - they all came home on the bus with Ben. The bus driver said, "God bless you!" And I needed the blessings! 4 of the 7 were terrors wrestling their way through our house and the others hung sweetly with Ben playing legos and reading books. This was the only semi-non-chaotic moment!!

We had a very mild Winter thanks to El Nino. The few times it snowed, it dumped on us, so we took advantage and did tons of sledding. The kids have mastered the snow board scooters and I am confident they are ready for the real ski mountain next Winter!

We had our besties over a few times - always more fun to sled with your besties!

Daddy even introduced them to fort building! Too bad the next day was 50 degrees and everything melted pretty fast.

The PTA Sweetheart dance was a huge success. It was daddy's turn to be the Sweetheart and I got to hang with the boys. I think I got the easier end of the deal! :)

We spent a few days of Winter Break in PA visiting cousins and Gramma Lou. On the coldest day ever we chose to go to the train museum - it's a National Park - who knew? It was an excellent exhibit and I'm excited to return next time we go to PA with Daddy (he stayed behind to work this trip).

My first coaching experience was a success. They were a great group of girlies and their skills came a long way over the course of three months. It was a challenge to coach Emma - she was parent deaf to me and refused to listen, but isn't that the way it always goes? Her other coaches say she is very respectful - HA!

This sparkly dolphin was lost months ago at a friends house. The friend recently found it and returned it and we have one happy Benny! Sleeps with "Sparkles" every night. 

Daddy had a birthday in early March! Don't let this cake fool you - it wasn't any healthier than a chocolate cake!!! But it sure was just as tasty. Yummmmmm.

Em & her bestie kicked butt once again in the talent show - a fierce performance of moves to the tune of Uptown Funk. We were VERY proud!

They're back! Rubies cubes have made their comeback and this girl is obsessed. She was very proud of herself as she used her own money to purchase it.

How did she earn money? See that 15 feet deep patch of land behind Ben? It is a gnarled mess of dead leaves and vines. We have spent many a Spring-like day chopping away at the vines and clearing the land. They were happy to help (i.e. get dirty!) and earned $$ for their efforts. Frisbee time afterwards! Welcome, Spring!