What is she doing??

So, Tom and I decided to take a leisurely little 3 mile run with Clare this afternoon and what do you know? She kicks our rears! I couldn't believe it! AND we were running the hills in our neighborhood! She's in such great shape! Since she also ran a little over 5 miles with us this past Sunday, I think she'll do fine at the 10K this weekend. I asked her if she was going to try to beat us and she said, "That's my goal!" What a little stinker.

Big Number 9 Party and Spring Soccer

This has always been one of my favorite pictures of Daniel. He was 3 1/2 years old and quite a little character. He still is. I love him to death!

This past weekend, Daniel had his first sleepover birthday party (his birthday was a couple of weeks ago, but our little violin adventure and another party kept us from having his party.) His friends, Seth and Victor, came over for an inside "camp out." It was a lot of fun - flashlight tag to wear them out and Alvin and the Chipmunks to calm them down. I'm not sure what time they went to sleep, but Daniel took a pretty hard nap the next day!

The cake has a blue tent on it -- see the fire pit in front of it? :)

The boys watched the movie from the tent. They were so sweet.

The day after the sleepover, both kids had a soccer game. It was a busy day, as usual.

Clare's team -- notice how many girls are on the team? (4) They definitly do their part. I'm surprised they're smiling -- they just got beat pretty bad!

Ain't it great?

Yesterday was my birthday (yea, me! ;-)) This year, Clare, sweet thing that she is, decided to make my cake. It ended up that Tom helped her make it while I went out with friends the night before. (As it was his first cake, too, he called me several times to ask this and that!) They cooked it fine, but didn't allow it to cool enough and didn't shave off the top of the bottom layer. How would they have known to do all that?? Anyway, this is the final product:

Believe me, it tastes much better than it looks!! I sure do LOVE chocolate!! We had a good laugh about it. Clare has declared herself the "Ace of Cakes!" She's going to help make Daniel's cake for his party this weekend (she's going to get a few lessons from Mom. :))

To celebrate my birthday, Tom and I ran a half marathon. It was a bit hilly, but still pretty good (Tom swore we were running uphill both ways!) We ran it in 2 hours, 14 minutes, and 30 seconds. Our pace was better than when we ran the marathon - 10 minute, 13 second miles. Yippee! The weather wasn't the greatest. It misted for the first 6.5 miles and poured the last 6.5 miles. We even had a little lightening along the way! I think that must be the reason our pace was faster! We were totally drenched by the finish. There was pizza waiting for us at the end, which made Tom VERY happy. I am so grateful for the fact that I can run such long distances, especially with Tom.

Happy Birthday & the Suzuki Violin Festival

Daniel turned 9 this past weekend! He got two new Webkinz - the snake and the white mouse (I tease him about his white rat!) Happy Birthday, Daniel!!

I figured I'd be a good mom and video the kids at the violin festival. It didn't go exactly as I planned, but I still think it's o.k. I cut off the beginning of Clare's piece and you can barely see Daniel in his piece (that's the director's fault.) Then, my memory card filled up right at the end of the Twinkle variations!! Oh well. We are soooooo proud of Clare and Daniel. They did GREAT!! If you want to watch the videos - just to warn you - they are long. By the way, this is an awesome festival. The kids had workshops on Saturday then they played in a big concert hall on Sunday. There were almost 500 Suzuki students at the concert on Sunday! Very impressive.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com