A Week of See you Later's

G2 & his Buddy
This is really straight trouble.

 I do not like good-bye's....especially with people who have a special place in my heart...so this past week was kind of rough for my sensitive self.  First, I had to say farewell to my friend Michelle.  I met Michelle at the library storytime probably seven years ago and would see her and talk to her about once a week.  Then we were both pregger's with our youngest kiddos at the same time and we were about the oldest pregnant people hanging around the library (I'm not joking...like 15 years older!!!) so we bonded as we laughed about how people would think we were the Grandma's of our babies instead of the Mom's.  Then, we both had boys and so they have grown up attending the library together and our play dates have expanded to other places as well.  Michelle and I also both like to run so we talk about our aches and pains, our running schedules, and upcoming runs.  We tried to do a couple of the same runs so we could encourage and cheer each other on and I was so proud of Michelle when she completed her first marathon earlier this year. Well, Michelle's hubby got an awesome new job so they are off to Texas.  I will seriously miss Michelle.  I'm not sure she even knows how much I will miss her.  But ya know that friend you have who brings you a treat when you are having a bad day to cheer you up???  That is Michelle.  I wish their family the best of luck though...cuz this isn't all about me right?!?!?  And I feel pretty secure that I will get to see Michelle again....her Mom still lives in town.

Ms. Marcia and the boys

So if that wasn't enough, the librarian announced she is taking early retirement and also leaving. WHAT?!?!?!? Ms. Marcia has been the librarian for the past 7 years (knowing someone 7 years is apparently not my lucky number right now!)  and, as dorky as it sounds, we are faithful library story time attenders.  We pretty much never miss a week unless we are out of town or sick.  We started with Book Babies, graduated to Terrific Two's, and are now in the Big Kid story time.  My kids enjoy it and now that they are all above the age of 3, I get a 30 minute break where I can catch up with other Mom's (like Michelle!) or check out books for the next week for the kiddos.  My kids LOVE Ms. Marcia and she has done an excellent job.  We wish her the best of luck and I have a feeling we will see her again.  Her new home is sort of near where we drive to get back to our family and she said she would love to meet us for lunch sometime while we are driving through.  We are already looking forward to it!  



Snow Day

The Kozmo Kids Snow Creations

Second snow of the year and it was actually pretty decent so we attempted sledding and cross country skiing...Not sure what was up but the ski's were sticking a bit...maybe the ground was still too warm???  It still felt good to get out and get a couple of miles in on ski's. The kids are ALL looking forward to skiing and sledding and playing in the snow.  Personally, I enjoyed the couple days of snow, but I know it will still be cold in June so I am trying to delay winter's arrival as long as possible!

Just Cuz 2012

This is a pretty funky pic of me in my opinion!
 But I love the afro and our matching shirts.
Lucy actually ran with that wig the entire 13.1 miles!
  What a trooper!

It's that time of year again for the Just Cuz 1/2 marathon.  I really like this run....it's got a quick start, rolling hills, the option of eating Twinkies at an aid station, and then a brutal finish with a gradual uphill that leads to a steep uphill that descends a short block to the finish line.  Plus, it is a themed run so every year you can dress up.  This year was Joe Fro or Zombies.  Neither theme was speaking to me, but my friend and I found some Jimi Hendrix t-shirts that worked out just fine.  My friend's sister in law went all out and found an afro wig so it completed our groups look! The weather this year was absolutely perfect...especially compared to last year when we slipped and slided down the first 4 or so miles!

This year I kind of had to talk my friend Michelle into running this race because she didn't think she would have enough time to get in some good mileage as her hubby has been transferred for work and she is living life as a single mom to four kiddos.  But, she humored me and signed up.  I'm so thankful she did because the family's move date got moved up and she will now be leaving next week instead of in 6-12 months.  I'm so glad we could get in this last race together.  Michelle has been a great friend and I am really going to miss having her in town.

Halloween--Round 2

Halloween shirts

 Super fun for us that Halloween fell on a 1/2 day of school for G1 and no school for W.  Since the weather was predicted to be bEaUtiFul, Brad took the day off from work to go on a mountain bike ride.  Riding season is ending so I see a little withdrawal/depression when his fav warm weather hobby ends. Glad he could get in another ride!  We have been so busy lately that our pumpkins have been sitting uncarved on the  front porch for about 6 weeks.  Yikes!  Time was definitely short so this was our project for the afternoon.

These are knives specifically for pumpkin carving
so they cannot get injured--remember, we are the OSHA family--
we are safe!

We asked the kids what type of pumpkins they wanted to do....this family is absolutely not artsy so we have to try and visualize what we want briefly before making our first cut. 

W does pretty good at carving his own pumpkin. 

G1 said she was making a bunny pumpkin. I said "cool" and reminded her that if it didn't turn out how she wanted, she could not get mad. W wanted a smiley, happy pumpkin. G2 wanted an angry pumpkin---what?!?!? Last year he wanted a mad pumpkin. I guess there is some inner turmoil going on with him.

G1 did not want ANY help at all this year. 

 It's hard to see G1's pumpkin but it turned out really cute...not nearly as cute as it is showing up in the pictures! I was impressed with her. Maybe she will someday carve a really awesome design that involves more than triangles (that's my specialty!)

The Happy Carvers

 Now the wait til Trick or Treating had begun.  W was SOOOOO excited!  He is really my candy guy right now.  That boy can eat some treats!  G2 was acting a little tired so we suggested he take a nap.  Please realize, he never takes naps.  And he hasn't for about 2 1/4 years (i know, big bummer!).  Well, he went in and laid himself down and feel asleep.  Hmmmm.

Taylor Swift and SpiderMan

 When G2 woke up about two hours later, he was on fire hot.  I had never felt a kids' legs be so hot with fever.  And the cough he sorta had before his nap was now deepened into a really croupy sounding seal.  Poor guy.  103 temp meant no Trick or Treating for him.  A dose of Motrin and off to bed.  This is how the poor guy gets when he gets a cold.  The upside???  He will more than likely be just fine in the morning besides a cough.  He is a tough guy!

Poor little guy.  What a sad night to feel sick.

 Our friends who live up in the mountains join us, in what has now become a tradition, for trick or treating as they cannot walk along the winding mountain roads for treats.  All of the kids look forward to this each year!  We've come a long way since the youngest were slowing toddling along trying to keep up!

The Crew.  We only go about 3 blocks and call it good!  They don't need that much candy anyway! 
Now that they are older though, they were kinda wanting to go a bit longer!!!  Promises of some candy before bed
and they were easily distracted to be finished.

 The pumpkins looked pretty cool all lit up on the front porch. 

Bunny, Mr. Happy, and Angry Pumpkin

 And then apparently the Motrin kicked in and Batman was up and crying because he knew what he had missed.  He put on his own costume and was pretty determined to go trick or treating.  So, off we went.  We let the Kozmo kids walk around with him to just a couple of neighbor houses but only G2 was allowed to take candy.  Since the neighbors knew he was sick (because he hadn't been with us the first round!), they were rather generous and he did pretty good for just hitting a few places!

Happy Halloween 2012

Halloween--Round 1

Taylor Swift and Spiderman.
The tempermental 4 yr old was inside throwing a fit.

 My kids LOVE to dress up.  Love. Love. Love. I'm sure those of you who read this and know us remember G1's pioneer dress days with as much fondness as we do.  So Halloween is the time when they can dress up and go out in public, which has been something we normally draw the line at (ok, so if you are remembering the pioneer dress....I could wash that!  A lot of dress up things you cannot easily wash so it is illegal to wear them places if you live in this house b/c I cannot de-germ!)


My Two Superheroes.

I love how W loves Spiderman and G2 loves Batman.  Too bad they aren't in the same worlds because they are not normally fighting crime together in any books or comic strips.  But in Kozmo world, they are a crime fighting team.

Finally got the Kozmo Crew together
A chilly afternoon so Taylor had to throw on some extra layers.

 The afternoon started out with the Fall Festival at the kids school.  They have been so excited about this all week.  It's a pretty cute little event and the revenue supports various projects at the school.

Taylor didn't take her guitar to the Fall Festival. 
I figured I would just end up holding it and the potential
for getting broken seemed high.

 It helped that Taylor just released her latest album "RED" this week so G1's costume was rather appropriate.

I wish you could see the signature "cat eye" look
I attempted to do on Taylor's eyes.  I'm not too craft with make-up
but I was impressed with how it turned out.  The glasses kind of hid the look though.

 In the evening, our church held their annual Halloween party as well.  G2 INSISTED on wearing the fairy princess costume, this particular hat, wearing white princess gloves, and carrying a maraca.  Whatever.  By the end of the day we are worn down by this Little Man.  A ton of his church family took pictures of him.  This boy's boy is never gonna live this down when in about 10 years this pictures resurface.  In his defense, almost all of his friends are girls and he said he was dressing up like them. 

 W has discovered vampire teeth and he is obsessed.  He got another pair tonight.  It cracks me up because this kiddo is the biggest gagger in the world and can about vomit on command but he can wear these teeth with ease.

Happy Halloween (Round 1)!!!!

David Moore

G1 spends quite a bit of time at dance and once again this year she had the opportunity to work with David Moore.  I did not know a lot of him myself, so last year I had to Google him.  His resume is quite impressive and the girls are really fortunate their dance studio works hard towards providing these types of opportunities for the dancers.  He is great with the kids and they all seem to enjoy their time with him.  I will let you Google him on your own....I thought about posting one of the awesome video's he has danced in, but they contain a lot of questionable language and since my kiddos like to look at our blog, well, no posting that!

Fall Soccer

We don't have a ton of posts this fall because most of our Saturdays (like at least 3 hours each week....and that doesn't include travel to and from the games!) were spent at the soccer fields watching the kiddos play soccer. 

G2 LOVED playing soccer this fall.  He was super serious about each of his practices and he was pretty focused during most of the his games.  He scored quite a few goals throughout the year which was very exciting for him.  His team was full of kids who "got" the game of soccer and I was kind of surprised at how many of the teams seemed to have kids who "got" the concept.  Seems like I remembered more crying and cartwheeling at this age when G2 started playing!  In this video, G2 doesn't score a goal but he gets pretty darn close and you can see how he kicks the ball and runs around the field.  G2 had a great coach who kept things energetic and exciting for this group of 3 and 4 year olds!

W also loved soccer practice but was not at all thrilled with the actual game.  He told us he liked practice how he had his own ball and could kick it around without anyone trying to take it from him.  He was pretty ineffective on the field during games for his team because he didn't want to get in the mix of kids kicking and fighting to win the ball.  But he loves his uniform and the excitement of game day. And he wants to play again in the spring.   Have to remember he is only 6 and if he loves the game, that is what truly matters right now.  Don't really have any pictures of W playing soccer because, well, he is never really playing during the games.  He is trotting along behind his teammates.  W also had a great coach who was so kind to him and always so nice to each and everyone of the kiddos regardless of how well they did (or didn't) play.  W loved how fun she made practice each week.

We missed the team pictures this year due to dance so this was our after
game shot to prove she played soccer this year.

G1 had an awesome fall season of soccer.  Due to her hectic dance schedule, she could only attend once practice a week and then play in her Saturday game.  I'm not sure what clicked for her but she really stepped up her game and was passing really well and was also scoring quite a bit....almost every game.  We were so proud of her teamwork.  Her whole team is really coming together--she has a group of really nice girls who has played together for quite a few seasons (this is G1's 3rd season with this team and some of the girls have been on the team their entire soccer "career").  The team is led by an incredibly awesome coach who makes sure each girl is getting playing time at each position so they can try to see where they perform best.