Catching up

I've been pretty bad about blogging lately. We've all been busy with this, that, and the other. You know??! We had a great time celebrating Maribeth's TOY award last weekend with a picnic at Linda and Roger's house. Clare and Glen love getting together at Grandma's house so they can put on her clothes (I'm not sure Grandma enjoys this activity!) And the bocce ball game was brutal! :)

Clare and Daniel started school this past week - Daniel is in 4th grade and Clare is in 6th (middle school!) Both are enjoying school and their teachers. Phew! It's always a relief. I am, of course, very glad that the big yellow bus has arrived again this Fall. Maybe I can get back on a more "normal" schedule - cleaning house, grocery shopping, appointments for this and that, volunteering at two schools and for a great political campaign (did you see Obama's speech???), etc. Of course, after school activities will take up much of my time, too (cross country, soccer, swimming, etc.)

Daniel is playing travel soccer for the first time this Fall. His uniform came this week and it's HUGE! Apparently, everyone buys them big so they will fit for more than 1 year. O.K., but does it have to be so big Tom can wear it, too???

Clare

Hi! It's Clare. Just messing around my mom's blog. Today, I mowed the lawn all by myself. How exciting! =-) I might have had a little help, but oh well. I didn't go in very straight lines either. Here are some of the pictures of me mowing. Most of them were taken without me knowing. >:-( My favorite is of me restarting the engine. It's so cool!!! My socks have a lot of grass stains on them now.

This is the one where I'm starting the engine. Isn't it awesome?

Winding down

We are in the final weeks of summer. Just a brief overview of life in the Milburn abode: the kids already know who their teachers are going to be this year. Clare has her locker set up and knows where her classes are - she shouldn't have too much trouble on the first day. She also started training with the cross country team last week. The Olympics are keeping us up late at night and preoccupied during the day - I'm exhausted! I must admit that I'm a little excited to have that big yellow bus come and take my kids away during the day so I can get back into my routine! I need to get this house organized!

We did get a chance to head down to NC to see my parents last week, now that swimming is over for a while. Of course, Tom had to work on the road (literally!) part of the time since he has a deadline soon. Our favorite day was when we went hiking with my parents and crazy Uncle Henry. Daniel and Henry raced to be in first place the entire 6 mile hike. The views were amazing, the temperature was in the 70's, and there were blueberries and butterflies everywhere. After the hike, we went sliding down Sliding Rock - the water was COLD! Check out the pictures below. You can click on them to enlarge.

Championship '08

Yesterday was the end of a fantastic summer swimming season - the championship meet. Unfortunately, it stormed at the beginning of the meet, delaying it 3 hours. Then it stormed again 5 events before the end of the meet and they weren't able to declare a winner! What a shame! After spending about 10 hours at the pool, we were totally exhausted!! Clare and Daniel had a great meet - strong to the end. Both aged up this year and have struggled with not being "the best." I think it was humbling for them, but a good challenge. Not that I don't love summer league swimming, but I'm going to enjoy the next few weeks without having to take them to swimming practice and meets! :)

Here's Daniel waiting out the storm. It was probably good he had his DS to keep him occupied, though the librarian in me would have rather he had his book!

Clare and her good friend, Sara. I'm always amazed they're the same age!

Silly Daniel!

Can you tell which one is Daniel? It's a wonder he can actually see out of his goggles!

Here's Clare swimming the butterfly in the 100m medley relay. They were seeded around 12th, but came in 4th!

Daniel swam a great butterfly. He came in 3rd - the fastest 9 yr. old!