Student of the Week

Alayna was named Student of the Week on Friday. Her reign began during the weekly Friday morning assembly. Stacy was tipped off by Sra. Sauceda of the impending coronation, so we were able to sneak in and surprise Alayna at the ceremony. We had a good time reciting the pledge of allegiance and we learned that there is a pledge to Texas. We sheepishly mouthed silent words trying not to stand out as the only people not completely loyal to the sovereign state of Texas. Luckily, we know the Student of the Week, so we were OK.

Alayna will continue her reign when she returns to school on Monday. As a result of the Thanksgiving holiday, there will not be a Friday morning assembly next week. Alayna will have the grueling task of maintaining the office of Student of the Week for two weeks in a row. She has no immediate plans for revolutionary changes right now. She is focused on incremental changes around continued good citizenship and maintaining eligibility for future terms.

Stacy's Half Marathon Race Report

My race was a HUGE marathon and 1/2 marathon combo with over 31,000 people. Because of my estimated finish time I was in start group corral 26 out of 35. It took 50 minutes from the time the gun went off just to get to the starting line! I didn't bring my music and enjoyed listening to the bands along the route and the other runners. I was surprised at the number of people carrying lots of water and "stuff." I thought it might be because I was with the slow/new/inexperienced people but Paul saw a gal up in corral 5 with a baggie of makeup, that she used before the start!?!

The Before Picture. See how happy I am?

My run went really well. I stopped along the course to use a port-a-potty after the first mile. The funny part is there was a line, and when a lady came out no one would go in because she said it smelled really bad. I didn't care so I got in and out fast and avoided the line.

Running in a group this big was a new experience. I had to walk at each water stop as I drank otherwise I end up choking and splashed all over. Not to mention, the pack I was in all slowed down and you couldn't get fluids unless you slowed down as well.
The first half of the race, I was right on pace to finish in 2:30. I really enjoyed being able to check a pace band I printed up to help keep me on track. Around mile 4 and 5 there was a hill that slowed me down, but I wasn't too far off. Kept it up for a few more miles but had slowed down for mile 8, and felt a little confused about my fuel plan. I couldn't remember when I had planned to take more gel and electrolytes, but I ended up getting it all in me.

I knew I was getting even slower and when when I got to mile 11 I decided to walk a bit. Except I was wrong, I had only made it to 10.5 miles. That was a bit demoralizing, but it was too difficult to comfortably run anymore after the walk break and I had promised I wouldn't push myself. Around mile 12 it hurt to walk and stopping to stretch hurt even more. So I found a "slog" to be the most comfortable movement and made it up the hill to cross the finish line in 2:48. I got my medal, posed for a picture and scavenged for free food before getting bags of ice for my legs.

Play Time

Cavell and I have found a new game to play. Actually, it's an old game and ours is a set that Grandma Onines made for Alayna. And it's educational.

We are playing the matching game.

We lay out the colors . . .

and Cavell matches them.

Then we cheer for the color he matched. When he matches them all, we give a Super Cheer for Cavell.

When Cavell is in an extra silly mood he will mismatch the colors, on purpose. How do I know? He looks up at me with a grin, starts laughing and shaking his head while saying, "nooooooooooo!"

5K

Last month Paul's work held a Couch to 5k run/walk. Families and guests were encouraged to participate. Luckily there was a "child watch" provided, including a bounce maze/slide, bungee run, coloring sheets and The Bee Movie on the big screen. Paul and I got to start the race together while Alayna and Cavell played. We were not missed.

The route was 3 1/3 loops around The SCOOTER Store main campus with a little chute for the finish.

click on picture to view huge quadriceps pounding pavement

Click on picture to witness bulging calves in blurry action

There are no actual pictures of me running but I did achieve a personal record (PR) of 31 minutes. Paul came in 14th overall with a personal best time of 21:57.

After cooling off Paul took Alayna for her fun run. Alayna was very excited to participate in her first race. She ran from the start line to the chute which was close to 1/3 mile. The story is, about halfway into her run she walked about 10 yards then told Paul she NEEDED some water. He let her have a drink from his water bottle and off she ran giggling about beating her Dad!

Here she comes down the chute. Notice, she's running fast enough that Paul is actually jogging to keep up.

Crossing the Finish Line!

Receiving her "medal" for WINNING* the race!!

The end of a good morning.

* according to her.

It's A . . .

Blueberry Sized Blob.
Measuring exactly to date, and with a fluttering heartbeat. Our due date is 18 April 2010.

Alayna wanted to be sure we shared this, "really exciting news!"

Other than official phone calls to Mothers, this will be the announcement to the family and friends of our impending addition to the family. We figure that between the folks that check the blog semi-regularly and the way THE sister (you know who you are) just seems to know these things, everybody will know shortly.

If you found out via the blog, please post a comment for our own kicks and giggles.

A Treat

Recently, I have been thinking about cakes. Particularly Gluten-Free Cakes. I realized that as our children get older they will not be able to pick a cake from the store that is fun and just right for them. At some point, they may not want cupcakes with sprinkles on them for their birthday parties.

On our date the other night, Paul and I spent some time browsing in the bookstore. I flipped thru the cake decorating books. I liked Betty Crocker Decorating Cakes and Cupcakes. It had relatively simple designs that looked fun, for cupcakes and cakes. Before I dive into shapes, I wanted to see if I could even make a regular cake look nice.

Following this tutorial at CakeCentral, I gave Marshmallow Fondant a try. I made a half batch since we only do single round cakes (and still toss half of it away after a week). Alayna helped me measure the marshmallows, sift and add the powdered sugar.

The first layer looked good enough, and I had a lot of fondant left over. Both kids helped me cut out shapes from the coloured fondant. We only used the daisies, so they got to eat the tulips right away.

The final resut:

I think our first try went very well. For the next attempt I will be cutting our single round in half to stack for a two layer cake.

Strawberry Soup

Alayna has been talking about making strawberry soup for a long time. I think it started in Florida, that means it's been at least 6 months. It started when she saw strawberries at the store (and I didn't buy them for her). Suddenly, any time she played with her dish set she was making strawberry soup.

One afternoon during quiet time Alayna was out of my sight longer than I realized, and she wasn't playing with her dishes like I thought. She was playing with my dishes.

She proudly invited me to partake of her Strawberry Fruit Soup. I was presented with this:
Would you like the recipe? Measure an arbitrary amount of fat free milk, fat free cottage cheese, fat free sour cream, Dannon Light & Fit Strawberry yogurt, add a chunk of apple (Gala I believe, also the reason for changing the name) and squeeze in some grape juice from a cut green grape. Mix. Put in the fridge to cool. Yum!!

I also received this:
and more of this all over the kitchen floor.

Imagine the surprise flipping thru a magazine at the kitchen table and seeing this picture!
Only to discover that it is actually Watermelon Gazpacho. Now we are looking for a real Strawberry Soup recipe. Anyone have a favourite they would like to share in the comments?

From Alayna

Alayna drew this picture to share with everyone.

"FOR EVERYONE I LOVE

FOR MY AUNT AND MY FRIENDS AND
GRANDPA GRANDMA
FROM ALAYNA"

Missed Sharing

After posting Cavell's birthday, I was looking thru the blog and saw the GLARING absence of some events. We never mentioned that my mom came to visit us, in APRIL?!?

Yes, she did. It was a great visit, for me. This was the two week period that saw Cavell and then Alayna get sick, and Paul arriving home from a week out of town - sick. It was very nice to have Mom here to help with the dr's visits, entertainment and projects. She even babysat one morning, so Paul and I could run in the Texas Round-Up 10K.

A lot of her visit was spent reading with the kids.

She even tried her hand baking some gluten free cookies, learning a little about our different flours in the process ;-D

(Paul picked this pose.)

The biggest project was dolling up Alayna's German Dance dirndl. Sadly, Alayna hasn't had a chance to wear it for a performance. She was sick for the dance while her Grandma was here, and the next, and last, event was canceled due to Swine Flu. We do plan to sign her up for lessons again in the fall (if they are offered).
With the leftover flowers, Mom (or, Grandma in this case) made a bouquet for dress-up.

Before she left we had a chance to go to Paul's office and see the baby chicks and ducks. The pig had already been sent to a new home (a real home, not a euphemistic home).

Overall, even with all the sickies, I think it was a great visit. I loved being with my mom. And even though it is a few months late, I thought it would be fun to share.

He's TWO

We don't have a baby anymore. Yesterday, Cavell had his second birthday.

He took time to read each card. Alayna made her's for him. She even "wrote" in baby language so that Cavell could understand what he was reading.

He figured out right away what his presents were about. "Bubbles!" Sadly, the bubble lion didn't work.

Not to worry. He received more bubbles, and these bubbles did work!

It was a bubbly birthday.

After all of his practice blowing bubbles, he was ready to blow out his candles.


And then it was time to enjoy some (Betty Crocker) chocolate cake.