A Happy Happy Birthday!!

I turned 37 this past Tuesday! I can honestly say that with each year the Lord blesses me with the joy and contentment in my life increases as well!

I was so grateful to have a few days off in a row last week, which is rare and pure heaven! And my sweet family took me out for dinner for my birthday - truly a great gift! (No cooking and no dishes are things to be treasured!!) Since it was my special day, Daryle said I could pick - but I couldn't make up my mind! Finally (with the help of four little people who DID know exactly where THEY wanted to eat) we settled on our favorite restaurant, Hana. THE. BEST. SUSHI. EVER!!!!! My new favorite thing - Inari!! Sweet fried tofu. (I know. But you gotta try it.)

Get Your Jog On

Yes, you can tell this is the BEGINNING of my run.... I still have a smile on my face! Training is going great, I actually feel READY to tackle 13.1 miles 1 week from today!!!

Yesterday was my longest run yet to date, at 10.5 miles. My knees hurt for the first time ever, which was weird! I was quite the picture - ice bags on both knees, a hotpack on my back, Daryle massaging a nasty kink out of my neck and shoulder, and my face the color of a lobster, a SUNBURNT lobster.

LOVE it!

Swim Practice!

Rea's favorite part of swimming is jumping in, and doing the somersaults at the wall and pushing off!

Happy Birthday, Princess Ni'ke!!

This little girl did a lot of GIGGLING on her birtday! She was so delighted with everything - she just laughed and cheesey-grinned the whole day! There's truly NOTHING better than seeing joy in your childrens' faces....

Happy Birthday, Giggles! You bring us so much joy!!

The Birthday Girl!!

How did this little petunia get to be 6 already!??! Wow!

Today she went to school in her new little birthday out fit, she looked so cute!! I sent finger jello with her for a snack with her class mates - all in the shape of butterflies, per her request! Strawberry, grape, and her favorite - lemon!!

Tonight we'll have "the real party", as she says, when our whole family gets to celebrate with her! She's so like me, I love birthdays, too, but the best part is being with family all together...

And just because it's her special day, here's my latest and most favorite Ni'ke quote from "Funny Things My Kids Say":

"Mommy, don't forget to turn off the lights! We have to save elas-TRICKETY!!"

Love it!!!

Kickin' It Pool School

This past weekend was one of those rare times when the gorgeous 80 degree weather actually coincided with me having a weekend off! Hallelujah!

And wouldn't you know it, I got sick....

Still Hallelujah!!! I sound worse than I feel, have comPLETELY lost my voice, and can't seem to stop coughing. But we enjoyed the time off together anyway! I even managed to get in a couple runs for my training. (Countdown: 2 weeks and 6 days till the Half Marathon!!)

Exciting news on the swim front! Ma-lak and Rea have advanced to the Sea Horses swim team! Up until now they've all been on the preteam (still learning to swim) but they're doing so well, the coach decided to try them with the team this week! YAY!! And our schedules are about to get really busier... (insert BIG BREATHE here!)
Is it worth it?? Absolutely!!! Of all the things we've let them try, swimming is the thing that they are the most excited about.

Saturday Ma-lak and Rea had some one-on-one time with their coach so she could see how they were doing. The rest of us were hanging around and enjoying the business of doing nothing! (See Ya'shar's favorite hanging around spot - his dad's neck!)

Hair 'Do's!!

I finally decided it was time to tame a very "hairy" situation, and took the girls to get an official real hair cut/trim at the "beauty parlor", as they love to call it. They looked forward to this for weeks, and after school last Wednesday, away we went to get our hair did. :) I've been fine with trimming it here and there when it gets long and shaggy, but curly hair is hard!! Professional assistance was needed!

Much to our delight, one of the gals who was doing their hair was someone we know! Julie's little boy is in Jiu Jitsu class with our kids, so it was nice to see a friendly familiar face!

Let me tell you, this hour and a half stuff was quite the task, but I learned alot about taking care of it, and their hair is so much more healthy and easier to manage now! Hopefully we can keep it that way over the summer with all the swimming and romping around that is sure to occur!

Walk & Roll to School Day

The kids' school has been on a campaign to encourage parents and students to walk or ride their bikes to school as much as possible. This promotes health, of course, but also helps with the huge parking problem!...

I have to say that sometimes it's just more convenient to throw them in the car and zip them to school, although we do live easily within walking distance. Sometimes I'm flying home from work at the last minute and there isn't time to walk them to school, or sometimes if I have a meeting after school, Daryle does walk them over. And of course they love it. And I do too. It's just a fresh invigorating way to start your day!

When students walk or ride their bikes to school, they get entered into a drawing, and Miss Rea won a really cool yellow water bottle! (Gifts are such great incentive.)