Easter Activities

We've been gearing up for Easter at church- and that means lots of activities.  On Palm Sunday, the kiddos participated in the service by walking around during the opening hymn waving palm branches.  Later that evening, the children's choir gave their Easter performance- which consisted of several traditional songs (This Little Light of Mine, When the Saints Go Marching In, etc). We have been practicing these songs every morning during our drive to school, so Owen and Olivia were ready.  They did a good job.

 Later in the week, the kids participated in the church Easter egg hunt.  Since Olivia is in Kindergarten now, she got to hunt with the "big" kids.  Owen stayed in the Pre-K and under area.  The church moved the egg hunt to a Wednesday night this year, and found that this increased the turnout for the event.  There were a lot of "eggcited" kids- more than we expected.  We ended up having to do some last minute re-distributing of the goody bags, but we were happy to do so.  Having more kids than expected is a good problem to have.  Once all of the eggs were hidden, the kids were positioned in their designated areas.  We said "go", and those sweeties took off.  They didn't stop until every egg was found- and some of them kept going even after the last egg was found.  Owen and Olivia both found a decent amount of eggs and had a lot of fun doing so.  At the end of the night, all of the children were rewarded with a huge bag of goodies.

Owen is 5

 My baby is 5!  Where has the time gone?  Owen has been so excited about his birthday this year, and I believed that it was everything he hoped it would be.  His actual birthday was on a Thursday, and it was an all-around fabulous day for him.  I woke him up by singing "Happy Birthday", and made him pancakes for breakfast.  At school, his teachers wished him happy birthday and gave him a crown.  Once he got home, he found that he had presents from Brian, Olivia, and I (a new scooter and skylanders).  While he was playing with his toys, several family members called to sing to Owen.  He got so used to hearing the singing, that he said "not again" when Aunt Hannah called.  Either that or he realized how bad Hannah sings (just kidding, sis).  We decided to eat out in honor of Owen's big day, and we let him choose the restaurant.  He picked Captain Joe's (to everyone's delight).  After eating, we came home, sang to Owen, and let him blow a candle out of a cupcake.  This was an all-around great day.



On the Saturday following Owen's birthday, we gave him a small, family party at And Bounce.  This is where Olivia had had her 5th birthday, and Owen wanted his here, too.  All of the cousins had such a great time playing on the inflateables.  We all got so tickled at Julianna- who thought she was as big as the other kids.  She repeatedly climbed up and slid down the largest slide.

Here is Uncle Sam participating in his favorite pastime- chasing kids.

 When
I asked Owen what kind of party he wanted this year, he told me he wanted "dogs"- no dog in particular, just "dogs".  I gave my sister (and cake maker extraordinaire) the theme, and she really ran with it.  Hannah ended up designing and baking this cute little dog-with-a-birthday-hat cake.  It turned out so well and it was delicious. Brian gave it two thumbs up because it was a chocolate cake.




I love the video of Owen blowing out his candles.  You can just see the excitement on his face.

After cake and ice cream, it was time to open gifts.  Owen got so many nice things.  He got lots of clothes- which he desperately needed and many toys as well.  Both of my kids are really into the "Skylander" toys right now, so Owen was excited to get a skylanders lego set (which he and Olivia have already assembled).  It was definitely a great birthday.

Field Trip to Davis Farms

Owen's Pre-K class recently took a trip to Davis Farms.  The Davis family has a large farm with a variety of animals on it. Not only were the kids able to see the usual farm animals like donkeys and sheep, they were also able to see some more "exotic" animals like llamas and emu.  Neither Brian nor I were able to chaperone due to work.  If only we knew someone who was retired and could go with Owen on his field trip.  Oh wait, we do.  This "Gigi is retired" thing just keeps getting better and better.

Girl Scout Cookies

Olivia continues to enjoy her first year as a Daisy in the Girl Scouts program.  One girl scout right-or-passage is participating in cookie sales.  Selling cookies has been a great experience for Olivia.  I don't have an exact number of boxes that she sold, but I do know that it is somewhere between 225-249.  She worked hard sale this many.  She and her daddy took a wagon around the neighborhood a couple of times and sold quite a few boxes that way.  In addition to this, she and I helped work a cookie booth on three different Saturdays.

Olivia was a little shy on her first Saturday at the booth.  The troop leaders were smart and paired up the Daisies with the older scouts.  Olivia picked up on what the other girls were doing- and by the third weekend she was a pro.  She was speaking up and asking people if they would like to buy cookies, re-stocking the table, and helping give change.  She could even describe each cookie and correctly answer questions about them.  Although selling cookies was a good experience, I'm glad that it's over.  Having all of those girl scout cookies sitting around the house was detrimental to my diet.

100

 We recently celebrated my Great-Granny Moore's 100th birthday.  There were many, many relatives and family friends at the celebration.  Everyone brought a dish, and the food was certainly good.  There was so much on the dessert table that I had a hard time choosing a treat.  The event was organized by the grandchildren, and they did a really nice job.  The room was decorated with 100 balloons and some of the quilts that Granny Moore had sewn in her younger days.  For being 100, Granny gets around pretty well.   Lots of pictures were snapped, and I am posting three of the ones that I took.  In the  first, we are singing Happy Birthday.  The second is of the kids with their great-great-grandmother.  The third is of Granny Moore and her three surviving children (including the lovely and awesome Quen Buie).  This is such an awesome milestone, and I'm glad that everyone came together to make this day special.

Celebrating Seuss

 In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday, Olivia's school had a two-day celebration.  Both days included various fun activities and many many Dr. Seuss books.  Day one of the celebration was hat day.  Students could wear Dr. Seuss hats to school.  We couldn't find Brian's old red-and-white hat, so we sent Olivia to school with $5 so that she could purchase one.  They had all sorts of color combinations to choose from.  She opted for this lovely purple and white number.  The second day was crazy hair day.  We put a plastic cup on Olivia's head and pulled her hair up around it to produce a tall-standing hairdo.  At the school, students were able to get their hair sprayed in different colors.  The hairdo didn't make it through the day, but the spray did.  She had pink and blue hair when she came home.  It sounds like everyone had a great time.

26.2

The event: I did it.  Over President's Day weekend, I completed my first full marathon.  The marathon that I participated in was the 26.2 with Donna- aka the National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer.  I don't think I've ever seen so much pink in one place before.  All of the runners and volunteers were decked out in this color.  The course began at the TPC (golf course) in Ponte Vedra and ran through the beach neighborhoods of Neptune, Atlantic, and Jacksonville Beaches.  A few miles of the course were actually run ON the beach.  All of the residents of these communities turned out in force to cheer for the runners.  Many had decorated their houses, businesses, and streets.

The crew: This race served as a "first" for many in my running group.  In addition to being my first marathon, it was the first half marathon for Maura and Hunter.  This was Quincy's second half, and she PR'd.  .

The experience:  Excitement was definitely high for all in my running group.  Even the below-freezing weather couldn't dampen the mood.  I'm glad that we could feel the excitement- because we couldn't feel our fingers or toes.  We arrived super early so that we could avoid traffic and ended up huddling up in the "warm" tent for about an hour.  The race started late, so we ended up shivering at the start for thirty extra minutes.  Thank goodness that we went to Target the night before and bought extra gear to keep us warm.  Once the race started, we warmed up quickly.  My strategy for finishing the race was to get with the 4:30 pace group and stay with them.  I wish I had stuck to this plan.  About a mile in, I got bored with the pace of this group and sped ahead to catch up with the  4:15 pace group.  This was a mistake because I used too much energy doing this and paid for it at the end.  I did catch up with the 4:15 group and stayed with them til about mile 10.  This is where I decided to hang back and slow my pace.  At mile 14 something happened to my knee.  I don't know what it was, but I was in extreme pain.  [Side note: I have since been to the doctor about the knee, and he said that I probably injured my meniscus or IT band.  He won't know for sure until he does an MRI- which will only happen if it keeps bothering me. So far it has not been bothering me.  I'm suppose to be cutting back on the mileage and icing my knee for a little while.]  Anyway, the pain in my knee began at mile 14.  There was no way I was quitting, so I ran / hobbled for the last 11 miles.  I was so happy to see the finish line. My time was 4:49:23.  Not going to qualify for Boston with that time, but I'll take it.  I'm just glad to have finished in a upright position.  Overall, I really enjoyed this race, and I plan to do more in the future.