Spring Break, Part One





We have been super busy so far during Spring Break!  Here are a few of our adventures for the first part of break.  Since we had to postpone our dinner plans on Friday night we decided to go to Chili's and eat outside on Saturday.  Yummy!  After dinner we headed down to the pond to see all of the fish and turtles.

Feeding the turtles after dinner

Sunday was a fun day filled with church, looking at possible new houses, and doing some much needed garage clean out!  It was beautiful outside so we all enjoyed just being out of the house, even if we were working. :)

On Monday the day was filled with errands.  Poor kids!  We did manage to finish their Easter outfits and get a lot of items checked off of my to do list. :)  So Tuesday we had planned to go to Discovery Place, but my friend Kelly organized an event at Krispy Kreme.  The kids chose to do that instead so we ventured out with a lot of their friends on the much cooler day.

Watching the doughnuts being glazed

He crammed half an entire doughnut into his mouth

Yeah for a fun Kristy Kreme adventure!

Most of the group

We ran a few more errands and then came home to get ready for dinner and egg dying!  We boiled the eggs and chose our favorite colors of dye to make.  This year I opted to make our own colors with food coloring and for the most part it worked well!  See ya later Paas . . 

In their jammies dying eggs

Our batch of Easter eggs

To Be Continued . . .

Waxhaw 5K

Earlier this week I saw a local race advertised in the running store.  Opting for a fun way to kick off Spring break and for something new I asked Dave if he could come home early on Friday so that I could run the night race.  In the back of my mind I was thinking that I might be able to finish first in my category since I'd been running longer distances and since they advertised that there was only one "moderate" hill.  But, I had never run a race at night (7pm) after a day of eating and I didn't opt to skip my morning Y class of athletic conditioning at 5:35am so needless to say I didn't quite finish in the time I had hoped for.  Actually, it was my worst 5k time ever!!!  I finished in 25:50. ;(  I was the 8th woman to finish and 46th overall, but still I was pretty bummed with my results. 

Savannah with the Publix dinosaur (wearing the sign she made for me)

Preston with the Publix dinosaur

However, I loved the fact that it was a family event.  The kids spent the entire afternoon once Savannah got off of the bus making signs cheering me on.  They came complete with pom poms, megaphones, and lots and lots of signs.  Their cheering didn't disappoint either . . actually it was the highlight for me. 

Almost at the finish line!

Afterwards we hung around for awhile watching others finish and enjoying the amazing weather.  I really had no appetite so we opted to skip our Chili's dinner plans and just do a quick something at home. 

 

 

Post race picture with my own cheerleading team

Now Spring Break has officially begun!!  Here's to a fun week in the Queen City!

Warm Weather Fun!

Savannah got herself stuck in the baby swing!  Check out Preston's face laughing at her! :)

We have been blessed with warmer weekends lately and have spent a lot more time outside, especially on Saturdays.  Last week after soccer Dave and I were working away enjoying the warm air outside and happened to catch this picture of the kids playing.  Apparently their new "special" trick is getting into the baby swing without the help of chairs.  Only this time Savannah decided to buckle herself in and got stuck!  She was begging Preston to help unbuckle her before I took a picture! :)

Me with My own Peanut!

 This weekend we travelled to Charleston for the Cooper River bridge race.  It was another amazingly beautiful weekend, perfect race weather.  We picked Savannah up early from school and headed to Charleston to arrive just in time for some walking around at the market and dinner on a rooftop.  Of course we had to stop for samples and a picture at The Peanut Shop.

On Saturday morning Dave had an awesome race finishing in under 50 minutes.  It's hard to see him in the picture, but he's wearing blue in the middle of the photo.  Afterwards we loved walking around and collecting the freebies in the park.  We then met up with the Annans at another park before heading back to Charlotte.  Since we had already eaten pretty bad we topped it off by enjoying pizza for dinner and the seasons first Brusters ice-cream for dessert. 

Alyssa's Birthday

Ashley was a speed demon and drug Savannah around the rink

Savannah trying to get the hang of the ice skates

The two little ones waiting for the bigger girls to finish skating

The Birthday Girl!!

This weekend we celebrated sweet Alyssa's 9th Birthday on her actual birthday!  She chose to have all of her friends go ice-skating with her and then to finish the party back at her house with some yummy cake.  Although my kids struggled a lot with the ice skates I was super impressed with their willingness to try . . and with Savannah's determination to keep on skating with the ramp assistance.  Oh, and once again daddy came to the rescue with his "super daddy powers".  After running a 10 mile race early in the morning, he laced up ice skates and assisted the kiddos on the ice.  I was so thankful he was able to stand in the skates and try to help the kids.  Once again he gave more energy than he had all while never complaining about sore legs. :)

Happy 4.75th Birthday Preston!!

That's right, happy 4 (3/4) birthday to our Peanut!!  In his class at school they have a week long celebration to honor each child's birthday and well, since Preston has a summer birthday, they asked if they could do his celebration this week.  It worked out perfectly since his 3/4 birthday was today, the day of the actual party, that even daddy came for!

 Of course he chose Luke to be his buddy and sit beside him for the big celebration.  He loved every second of the birthday song, cookie cake, ice cream, balloons, and of course the birthday box!  He was covered with huge smiles the entire party, except for when he was blowing out the candle. :)

As you can see they all enjoyed the cookie and ice cream. :)  Afterwards he wanted a picture with JUST Lukie . . and then the girls started flocking for their own pictures too.

Finally it was time for the long awaited birthday box!  Preston has been talking for weeks about getting to choose a very special item . . and from the picture it looks like all of the kids enjoy seeing inside the special box!

 

Each day this week Preston shared a special book and toy that he loved.  His choices were:

Hot Rod Hamster Birthday Book & his orange dump truck

Hot Rod Hamster Book & his Thomas ride on toy

School Dog, Cool Dog Book & Uno Cards

Lama Lama Mad at Mama Book & I Spy Cards

 

It was such a fun week and he loved every second of the celebrations!

 

Blessed

Yesterday was a very rare day for me.  I woke up in the middle of the night and knew I was sick with some sort of stomach bug.  I was up pretty much all night, but tried to convince myself that it was something I ate or just an upset stomach because I never threw up.  So I got up like normal and decided to do a slow run to get at least 3 miles in before going to class.  Needless to say that did not help my health and by the time I got everyone out the door and arrived in class I was feeling pretty awful.  I can't remember ever calling out sick, but after 30 minutes of trying to teach I had to leave.  I got another teacher to take over and came home to go straight to bed.  After sleeping most of the day I realized that indeed I am truly blessed.

Blessed that a friend was able to take over my car pool duty and bring Preston home
Blessed that another teacher was able and willing to teach my class for me at the last minute
Blessed that Preston played solo for over 2 hours while I slept on the couch
Blessed that once Savannah got home she did her homework independently and watched Preston
Blessed that I had friends offer to take my kids to church for dinner and Wednesday activities
Blessed that Dave is content with microwaved fish sticks for dinner
Blessed that we had enough food in the house that I didn't have ot order out or go to Harris Teeter
Blessed that by dinner time I was feeling better
Blessed that I never threw up!

And the list goes on.  I'm just thankful that in the midst of such a rough day God reminded me that I truly am one blessed girl!  Now I'm praying that no one else gets what I had.  Yuck!

Bachmanns Date Night

On Saturday, after her last cheer leading game, Savannah attended her first Y Guides Daddy Daughter date night!  It was a fancy event . . . complete with  a nice dinner, dancing, flowers, and of course pictures with princess Ariel. 

 

Savannah & Dave ready to go

Savannah & Lilly at the Painted Pony Princesses table

Savannah & her date, Daddy

So while Savannah and Dave were on a date, Preston and I also had a date!  It was free ice cream night at Brusters (if you wear your jammies) so BEFORE dinner we each had our own full size waffle cone of the ice cream of our choice!  Yum!!!

Preston with his birthday cake ice cream, complete with eyes!

Enjoying our treats