holiday

Happy Halloween!

I know, I know.. we’re almost halfway through November and I am just now posting Halloween pictures. Mommy blogger FAIL.

Forgive me, work has been kicking my butt and I’m struggling to keep the four (five counting Buddy) of us alive, fed, clean, and living in a somewhat tidy house. Plus that whole marathon training nonsense. I promise the cuteness in these pictures makes up for the delay (or maybe I’m biased, but either way, I hope they make you smile)!

Last year, I ended up all stressed out over Halloween. There was a costume parade, neighborhood party, pizza delivery that never got delivered.. it was fun but way too much stress. This year, we decided to keep it simple. I made a big pot of chili in the crockpot (and we pretended it was a nice, cool night to enjoy chili, it wasn’t) and we had my parents, my brother, and his girlfriend over for dinner and to help pass out candy while we took Braden and Mackenzie out.

Have you ever seen a cuter Spidey and Minnie? I haven’t! We inhaled our food and quickly got out the door so I could take some pictures before we headed out. It was driving the kids crazy, they could see their buddies already trick or treating and I was making them wait for pictures.. geezzz what kind of mom am I? You two will thank me when you’re older!

We’ve been practicing saying “Trick or Treat” with Mackenzie. She’s not at all shy so I figured she’d run right up to the houses and belt it out while Braden, who tends to be the shy one, hung back and followed her lead. I was wrong. Braden remembered all of the delicious candy that he acquired last year with a simple “trick or treat” followed by a sweet “thank you” and he took the lead while Mackenzie hung back and stayed quiet. Like usual, I was wrong.

Braden was having a blast, even saying “trick or treat” for Mackenzie when she was too scared to say it and asking for candy for her when people were slow to hand it to her. I love how he looks out for his baby.

We took both kids around the block, as we made our way back toward our house, Mackenzie had enough. She and I stayed behind at our house to help pass out candy while Adam and Braden took off down the street the other way.

We didn’t see them for a long time.. like long after the crowds of trick-or-treaters were gone. I started to get worried and called Adam, he said they were fine, B was just having a blast and didn’t want to quit. They finally made their way home with an overflowing pumpkin full of candy.

This year was so much more fun for all of us and a lot less stressful. I’m slowly learning that I need to stop over-scheduling and trying to cram so many things into a day. The world won’t end because we miss out on one event and sometimes, we have more fun on our own. It’s hard, I want our kids to have it all.. but sometimes it’s better to just scale things back and enjoy the little things.

How was your Halloween? What did you do?

What was your favorite costume?

Memorial Day Weekend

(I’m a little behind, so forgive me for the onslaught of catch-up posts!)

Days like today make me love where we live. I love our neighborhood – such a family friendly place to live. Wonderful pools, wide shaded sidewalks, close to tons of shopping and restaurants. We’re lucky. Adam and I often talk about how spoiled our kids are to have so much so close. We both grew up kind of out of the way. It was a big deal for me when my parents let me ride my bike a mile or so to the Jiffy gas station with my friends to buy snacks. That was the only store anywhere near us. Adam grew up in a super small Central Florida town in the middle of nowhere. Our kids? They can ride their bikes to the movie theater, pools, playgrounds, the library, grandparents houses, school, restaurants. They have it good.

I’m getting off track though. Our neighborhood has two pools, one is generally used most often by adults and has a lap pool and the other is a kids paradise. It has a big water slide and this awesome kids area with water guns, thunder buckets, a beach entry, water slide.. it’s wonderful, especially for the little ones. There’s a place to grab lunch and snacks too (although, it can be a bit slow, which can be difficult with hungry little ones, but I guess you can’t have it all).

Saturday we ran errands and I promised Braden that if he was good for us all day, we’d go to the pool Sunday morning. He was awesome, so Braden and I spent the early afternoon having fun splashing around while Adam and Mackenzie napped at home.

While Braden was too busy with his new pool friends to pay any attention to me, I got to sit back and relax a bit and text with some of my running buddies about jogging strollers. It’s been a struggle lately to get my runs in — it is way too hot in the afternoon (when I usually go) and in the morning Adam has to leave for work so early and Mackenzie is up. It’s next to impossible for him to get ready and watch her at the same time so it was really difficult for me to get out the door in the morning.

One of my friends has a B.O.B Revolution SE and loves it. Adam and I both had a serious case of sticker shock, but a few others backed her up and said it was absolutely worth it. REI had them on sale for 15% off, so after we grabbed lunch at the pool and got home to get cleaned up, we headed out to REI to take a peek. All I can say is my friends were right, we took it for a quick spin around the store and I was sold. Mackenzie seems happy with her new wheels too! I’m really hoping that this helps me stick to my training plan that I’ve been slacking on so much lately.

We ran in Best Buy to pick up LifeProof cases for our iPads (since our kids have been taking them everywhere with them lately) and Toys ‘R Us to get a LeapPad for Mackenzie (because she keeps taking Braden’s, causing arguments that I’m not a fan of) while we were at the Town Center then headed South to meet some friends to load up on delicious carbs before our 5k in the morning. They are running their very first race and it’s my first 5k (yep, I do things backward). I’ve been really looking forward to it for the last few weeks, but I’m a bit nervous too. I set some lofty goals for myself, but I’ve slacked on training and I twisted my ankle a few days ago.

Thankfully my ankle isn’t giving me any big problems – I can walk and run on it, I just feel a little pinch that is a bit uncomfortable. I’m planning to tape and ice it tonight in hopes that it is feeling good in the morning. My original goal for this race was to have an average pace that starts with an 8 — I figure a 5K is the only time I’m ever going to see that. I’d also really like to beat my little brother. He’s always been in better shape than I have without having to put much effort into it and this is the one time in our lives that I actually have a shot at performing better than him athletically.. for now at least. I have a feeling that he’s going to be flying past me with ease in no time.