20 May 2011

Hot enough for....


...I C E   C R E A M ? ! ? !
Well, I suppose that it was in the 70's and the boys did ride their bikes all the way home from school (1.81 miles) AND most of the homeward journey is infact, UPhill!!! So yes, they got to make their own icecream after school!!! So delicious!!!

19 May 2011

Finally.......

Luke's tree has bloomed!!
I think this is the very latest his tree has ever bloomed. It usually is quite prompt and blooms right around his birthday!





* * *
And here are some pics of my little pansies. They are SO pretty. I love pansies.







17 May 2011

Simon the swimmer

At the boys' school, 7 weeks of swimming lessons are included in their education! It is a totally awesome perk of them being enrolled at such a GREAT school!!! Today was Simon's last lesson. He has made a lot of improvement in his overall swimming abilities!



This picture of Simon floating on his back was taken a few weeks ago (notice the much longer hair), but I wanted to show off his great skill of back floating! He said that floating on his back is one of his favorite things to do. While all the other kids are jumping & splashing......amidst all of the chaos around him, there is Simon peacefully floating on his back.


 Super Swimmer Simey!!

Jumping into the DEEP end!!!

VERY FIRST solo trip down the water slide!!! Yay Simey!

"Phew! I lived through it!!!"


Now he's starting to get more daring & showing off!!!

15 May 2011

we have....

...BIKE RIDERS!!!!
Boy, it has taken a long time! But we are finally there!! The boys are in LOVE with bike riding! There have been some bumps and bruises along the way.....and i am sure this is only the beginning. But they have been troopers and get back up on their bikes immediately after falling off!!! So proud and excited for them!




02 May 2011

Bloomsday

Hey. Happy May! Can't believe it is actually May! Well, yesterday we joined +/- 50,000 other people in walking the Bloomsday 12k. The little boys have been participating in twice weekly "Fit for Bloomsday" afterschool running sessions. Our great friends from Oregon drove over to join us. We had a great time. The weather was fantastic, and we were all officially pooped out!
 The wheelchair racers were first
Aaron Gordian - Mexico - 28:03
 Followed by the Elite Women
Misiker Mekonnin - Ethiopia - 40:25

The Elite Men
Simon Ndirangu - Kenya - 33:58
That's him 5th runner from the right side of the picture! And strangely enough, as they whizzed by us, I decided that I was going to pick #107 to win. And he did. Maybe Mr. Simon Ndirangu ought to share some of his $7,000 dollar winnings with ME!!! :)

 The beginning of the rest.....
 And here was our group. The Lilac group. From where the previous pictures were taken, we had to walk 7.5 city blocks to almost the very back of the line-up. The announcer said as we FINALLY neared the starting line, "Okay, the Lilac group is not the fastest group, but they seem to be, by far, the happiest group!!" To which the many thousands of people in the Lilac group gave a fantastic cheer!!!!
Our lovely friends - Danna, Homero, Gio & Yaira Garcia.

Our littlest racers

Excellent pic of Austin & Lance

 I don't think you can even see the starting line in this pic. The clothes in the trees are a bloomsday tradition? I am under the assumption that they will all be donated to the homeless shelters in our city.



 Yay!! I think it took us 25+ minutes to get to the actual start line! When we arrived here, the little boys asked, "Did we make it? Are we all done?" Much to their disappointment.....we had only begun....
 Doomsday Hill
 crossing the finish line. Just over 3 hours....and that included a stop for a hot dog! :)
HOORAY!!!