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.

Today's Hair

Alayna specifically asked to have her hair curly this morning for the gym so that we could do something with it this afternoon for quiet time (after Farm Town - she had strawberries ready to harvest). After the harvest, we looked at the hair blogs, and she wanted this one.

Because Paul is out of town, Alayna asked me to take a picture of her hairdo so he could see it today. I thought we would share it with everyone else at the same time.

Good News on the Gluten Free Front!

Why, yes, that is a Betty Crocker box, bought at Albertson's, that says GLUTEN FREE!!

Yes, it is very thick.

And, yes, I do let my daughter lick the spoon.

This is the only picture of the finished product. We were going to take pictures of brownies being eaten, but we were too busy eating brownies. They were yummy! One would not guess that they were made with rice flour. I think we will keep a box on hand, but Paul still loves the previously posted Brownie Lady Brownies, and I have two or three other "from scratch" recipes I want to try adapting to gluten free.

We also purchased the Gluten Free versions of Devil's Food Cake, Yellow Cake, and Chocolate Chip Cookies. Alayna is also happy to note that they are all Box Tops for Education products.

Hand-Me-Downs

I love hand-me-downs for my kids for a number of reasons.

1. I am cheap. There is nothing better than clothing that is passed on and costs me nothing.
2. I hate shopping. There is nothing better than clothing that is passed on that I didn't have to shop for.
3. I have no sense of style. There is nothing better than clothing that is passed on that is stylin'. I'm just saying, dear family and friends, you have much better taste than I.

But, the reason I love hand-me-downs the most: the memories. I love putting clothing on my children and thinking, "Oh, doesn't that just make you think of . . . "

Examples:

This shirt is from Alex. Each time I see it I think of him bouncing on his toes with more energy than all the other kids combined.

This shirt is from Karl. And I can see him quietly and intently working on something while the others run around him.

And this shirt is from Alexander. Okay, it is highly possible that it came from Karl first, but this one reminds me of Xander. Slyly climbing on everything that should be too big for him.

So bring 'em on everybody. Even if I didn't see the child wear those clothes in person, I think about that child every time I put the clothes on my children. If you want your kids to be immortalized in my memory, send me your cast-off clothing yearning to be worn!