Happy Halloween!

Sunday evening, the girls helped Colin carve the pumpkin.  Katie helped scoop out innards, and the two of them designed the face.

Natalie had her pre-school Halloween party in the afternoon, and then after an early supper, it was time for trick-or-treating!

Snow Fairy Katie, Pirate Gavin, and Fairy Princess Natalie

We enjoyed beautiful weather for trick-or-treating with our neighbor, Pirate Gavin.  Clear weather, a little bit cool, and so nice for walking around the neighborhood.  Cherie and I had time to catch up as the kids were loading up on candy.  By the end of the evening, I had to carry both girls' buckets!  


We had a blast, and in my opinion, the best part of all was that everyone cooperated, no one fussed, and we made it around and back home with no incidents.  :)


Happy Halloween from our family to yours!!!

Storybook Character Parade!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the annual Storybook Character Parade at Katie's school.  What fun!  It is so neat to see the kids in their costumes, toting around their favorite book with them.  Here is the class before the parade started.

Unfortunately, I didn't get very many good pictures of the parade itself.  They were moving so fast!  And I was having trouble working out flash vs. no flash in the covered corridor.  But everyone enjoyed themselves, and there was a good turnout of parents and family members to cheer them on, celebrate literacy, and celebrate the end of Red Ribbon Week.


Have a safe and happy Halloween, everyone!!!

Twister the Cricket

Katie's afterschool group recently learned about crickets.  They kept a cricket diary, and then were given their very own pet cricket to bring home.  Katie named hers Twister, or Twister Storm if you want to use his last name also (not TwisterStorm, as I kept calling him).  Twister lived in a bowl, drank water from a sponge, and ate fruit.  I was in charge of changing his food and water every other day since Katie was afraid she might actually touch him.  :)


Since his bowl was getting a bit yucky, after keeping him at home for just over a week, we decided to let Twister go back to his natural habitat over the weekend.

Katie and Twister

Twister, sitting on his sponge

We released Twister into our back yard at lunchtime.  Katie was concerned that if we waited too long, he wouldn't be able to find adequate shelter before nightfall.  How sweet!

Ready to release Twister

Jump like the wind, little buddy!

And Twister did jump out into the yard and hop away.  The cutest pictures is the one I didn't get...  Katie sitting on the edge of her bed that evening, listening out the window, counting the chirps to see if Twister was telling her the temperature outside.  


We hope you're doing well in your outdoor home, Twister!


And I learned something very important...  we're not ready for a pet any bigger than a cricket.  Yet.  The girls just aren't responsible enough to handle it.  Some day, though.  Some day.

Keeping the Weight Off

Long-time readers may remember that I participated in a weight loss contest at work last summer.  I fluctuated in a 2-lb range the entire time and didn't actually lose a bit.  Same for my co-worker Marsha.  She and I were the two people with the lowest starting weights, the two people that others thought didn't belong in a weight loss contest.


Fast forward to now, 13 months later.  Jump-started by that holiday distance challenge I did through the Y, I've lost and kept off about 18-20 pounds.  I'm eating a lot better, and I just feel so much better.  Same with my co-worker Marsha.  She's made a real effort to exercise more and eat healthier, and she's lost 20 pounds, with a goal to lose an additional 14.  Go, Marsha!!!


I am pretty sure that, one year later, we are the only two who have been successful at keeping the weight off.  I credit that to real lifestyle changes for the both of us, and I hope we are successful at maintaining this into the future!

Running Rumor

I heard a rumor from a reliable source that the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series may bring an event to St. Pete....  I see the half-marathon on the schedule for 2012, but I heard that they may bring a full marathon to our neighbor city sometime soon.  True?  I will have to let you know what I find out!

 

Sweet & Sassy

This weekend, we attended a Sweet & Sassy birthday party for our friend Kacey.  Never been to Sweet & Sassy???  Neither had I.  It was an experience, to say the least...  and the girls LOVED it!


First, you choose your princess gown...

Then comes nails, make-up, and hair, complete with lots of glitter spray...

Then you walk the catwalk for the fashion show...

Have a dance party with your friends...

Participate in a limbo contest...

Attend your princess coronation...

And finally, enjoy pizza and ice cream!


Like I said, the girls had a great time.  Sweet & Sassy has regular hair/spa services, too, and their prices aren't too bad.  We may go back for a special occasion, just us, but I don't know about hosting a party here.  That may be a little too much for me!


Happy 7th birthday, Kacey!!!  We had a great time!!!

Running Ramblings - October

Here we are, almost halfway through the month already!  Where does the time go?  I feel like it's been a blur with soccer, parent-teacher conferences, Natalie's party, and all sorts of activities at work.  But there's still time for running!


Unfortunately for me and many other runners who work downtown, they recently closed the Platt Street bridge for renovations.  It will be closed until January.  January!  This is the bridge that leads to Bayshore Boulevard, the greatest uninterrupted stretch of sidewalk on which to run.  I know the repairs to this historic structure are needed, but this is a total bummer.  I've been trying out different routes over my lunchtime run, and it's been OK, but I miss my Bayshore.


Next running topic:  shoes.  I need new shoes, and my preference is to just buy the new version of my favorites, Saucony Hurricane.  But here's the only problem of the ones I've seen in the stores:

You might not see the problem...  I don't like pink.  The fact that I've only seen them pink in the stores is quite distressing to me.  That sounds silly, I'm sure, but I don't think I could wear a shoe with this much pink.  I have seen them online, straight from the manufacturer, in lime green, and that is more my style, but what happened to blue? 


Other than that, running is just fine.  It continues to be the bright spot in my work day when I can get out for a couple miles over lunch!

Natalie is 4!

Happy Birthday Natalie!  Today you are 4, and we are so thrilled!

We got up and opened gifts first thing before getting ready for Sunday school.

New clothes

Dress from Mommy and Daddy

Fashionista Barbie from Katie

She had other new clothes, toys, books, and DVDs from us, my parents, and my grandma.  We had a blast opening presents!  Which almost made me late for my gig at church with the orchestra...  oops!  Natalie had fun wearing a new dress to Sunday school and letting everyone know that she's 4 today!


After lunch we watched Shrek Forever After, which was one of the gifts from my parents.  The weather was miserable today, so it was the perfect day to stay inside with a movie.  Later on, we did our shopping at Target and went to dinner at Applebee's, which was Natalie's choice.  Yum!


I'm so glad you had a great day, Natalie!  You are such a joy:  smart, sassy, and full of energy.  We love you, birthday girl!!!

Natalie's Frog Party!

We celebrated Natalie's 4th birthday in style with a frog party at the YMCA!  Here are the girls before we left the house:

Apparently when I do this in Chrome, it doesn't rotate photos for me?

I really think we need some kind of frequent-partier card for the Y.  Between the 2 girls, this is the 5th party we have hosted there, and we have loved every one of them!

Katie tries the bars

Natalie

Natalie, Raina, Ethan, and Jasmin

Natalie on the beam

Ethan and Jasmin, ready to jump!

Our party crowd

Mmmm...  pizza and cheetos!

Change of crowns

Make a wish!

My frog cupcakes

Yum!

Presents!!!

Natalie had a great time playing with her friends, and I was so happy with how smoothly everything went.  I think with each party, we learn a little more, prepare a little better, and are able to have things go off without a hitch.  Everyone was really well-behaved this time, too, which makes it so nice to host such a large group when we all get along. 


Thank you everyone who helped Natalie have a GREAT party!!!

Frog Party

Natalie's 4th birthday is coming up, and she decided she wants a frog theme party.  We ordered frog invitations through Snapfish, and also a variety of frog tableware for the party.  Everything is almost set, but the biggest challenge I have left is the frog cupcakes.


Hopefully this will go more smoothly than when I attempted to make peanut butter icing last year at Christmas.  I sure hope so...  I'm not exactly artistic, but I've looked at tons of pictures online, and I'm going for something like this:

photo from www.solidrecipe.com

I figure I can practice making a lot of eyes before I stick any on the cupcakes since I have a ton of marshmallows (or smarshmallow, as Natalie calls them).  I have all the supplies so I'll be ready to crank them out this weekend.  Stay tuned for photos of the finished product!

Soccer Time!

Fall soccer started off this weekend with beautiful, cooler temperatures.  After STILL waking up with it being 80 degrees in the early morning all through September, we loved the fact that it wasn't quite 70 when we went to Katie's 8AM game on Saturday.

Katie did not enjoy the temperature as much as I did!

Katie's team is the Green Dragons, and they took on the Aquatots (which isn't a very intimidating name, is it?).  Here are a couple action shots as they battled to a 1-1 tie.  Katie nearly had a goal, but it bounced off the post.  Bummer!  She played very well the entire game.  We were so pleased!

Once her game was done, the rest of the family went home while I went for a quick 3 mile run.  I was able to get home and clean up before we had to be back for Natalie's game at 10:30.


Natalie's team is the Pirates, and they took on another group of Green Dragons.  Popular name!  We were so proud of Natalie.  After spending most of last season whining and sucking her thumb, she was in the thick of it the entire game.  She even scored a goal!!!

I just love her hair in this action shot!

Deion Sanders-like celebration following her goal

Hooray, Natalie!

Both girls really enjoyed themselves, which made it that much more fun for us.  I hope we can keep up the enthusiasm for the entire season!