Run, Daddy! Run!

In mid-September Daddy ran in a 5K through his work. They hold one every year; I think this was the 26th year maybe? This was Daddy's second time to run this 5K and we were there to cheer him on! It was a nice, brisk early fall morning, perfect for running!

Daddy, Aqua-Girl, and Skele-Boy.





And he DID IT! Under 23:30 and a personal record! YAY DADDY!


We celebrated by taking our model rocket out for our first test flight. Sadly, we lost our rocket in a tree...but we had fun.

Ballerina

Gillian is taking dance lessons again this year. It was a really tough choice for her in late summer to choose between dance and gymnastics. I encouraged her to pick dance, I will admit, because the child is ALWAYS prancing and dancing and singing away, dramatically. She would have liked gymnastics, I'm sure, but dance is a better fit for her right now. Anyway, she goes once a week for an hour for ballet, tap, and some tumbling. She seems to like it so far!

Finally: School.

I feel like we started school about three weeks later than everyone else I know! We did start eventually though! We were ALL very excited! The kids are going three mornings a week this year and are in different classrooms again. We are about six weeks in now and all is going very well! Hooray for school!

Our first day of school pictures for 4 year old preschool!








Colin needed a pictures with his transformer dinosaur. Of course.


And then Gillian did too. Of course.

Labor Day Fun

Since it's not enough to refinish floors over a weekend, we invited a crew of people over for a Labor Day picnic in the new place! Uncle D, Aunt Cedes, and Tommy came over. And Grammy, Papa, Tim, Mrs. Kathy, and JOE (!!!) drove down for the day. The children were ECSTATIC!

The kids were VERY surprised when Joe walked in,since we are smart enough to not TELL THEM when things like that are happening. They then monopolized Joe's time playing in their rooms for a very, very long time. It was very loud up there...but I still don't know exactly what they were up to! Everyone else enjoyed a tour of the new house and admired Daddy's new floor.

After a pretty yummy lunch (if I do say so myself), we asked Mrs. K to take some quick pictures for us. I wanted a family picture to put on a change of address card to mail out. Thankfully, Mrs. K was happy to oblige.

(We didn't use that one, but it amuses me.)


Oh look, JOE!



We also got a nice picture of Grammy with all three of her grandbabies. I think she was happy to have one to show off!




And then the children got a hold of the camera and documented the rest of the day.













This is Colin and Joe in the dark, with a light saber.









Fun day. Good company. Silly photographers! We hope to have many, many more family picnics here!

Gymnast.

Colin is now a gymnast. Last spring he expressed interest in taking a gymnastics class. So we signed him and Gillian up for a gymnastics camp this summer and they both really enjoyed it! Colin still wanted to take a class this fall, so we signed him up for a one a week class at a local gym. He's been going since late August and he really likes it! I can see improvement in his balance and coordination too! So, that's a nice bonus! He has a nice small class...three girls and him!

Our gymnast on his first day of class in August!

A Project: Dining Room Floors

Labor Day weekend "we" tackled the first of our New Home Improvement Projects: Refinishing the Dining Room Floor. By "we" I mean Daddy did the floors and the rest of us stayed out of the way. It worked. And Daddy did a SPECTACULAR job.

We pulled up the cream/white carpet in the dining room (Who installs WHITE carpet in a dining room???) and pulled up the padding, and then Daddy rented a sander and got started.





(All of those are "before" pictures.)

Middle of the project shots:






Starting the "staining" portion:


And the finished product!



We are very pleased with the results! There are some deep scratchs that didn't come off, but that's okay. It's part of the charm. And so, so, so much better to feed our children three meals a day in a room with hard wood...not white carpet!