Off to the Races

Saturday was the day for the kids’ relay race.  Our team looked awesome in their freezer-paper stenciled tee shirts, even if we didn’t win the tee-shirt contest.   

Here is E. in her part of the race, paddling.  This was probably the toughest part of the race, since the kids had only a few chances to practice in the kayaks prior to race day.  E. did great, though, apart from getting a bit tangled up with one of the other racers who couldn’t control his boat.

A. was in the obstacle course part of the race with one of her best friends.  They had a ton of challenges, including piggy back race, wheelbarrow race, army crawl, basketball shoot, rock wall, balance beams, hurdles and tire flip.  The girls had a ton of fun!  Here is E. dodging through a slalom course:

And all the girls together running for the finish line.  I was glad I had the accidental foresight to make the shirts bright pink, because it really helped me find the girls in the midst of the crowd.  We had a lot of fun doing this race!  The kids are already planning their team to do it again next year!

E-Boy at the Ice Rink

E-boy started ice skating lessons this week.  He wants to learn to play hockey, so we figured skating was a good place to start.  He has loads of self-confidence about his abilities, since he pretends to play hockey daily, and “ice skates” in his socks on our hardwood floors.  When we told him we’d signed him up to learn to skate, he was so excited he was counting down the days on his calendar.  At the lesson, I got him suited up in snow pants, gloves and helmet, along with his rented skates, and he took off on the mats, getting used to the feel of the skates on his feet.  By lesson time, he was ready for the ice, and went happily out on the ice with his teachers and the other skaters.  I wielded the camera, like a true mama-bear and recorded his first skating lesson for posterity.  He had a great time, and did awesome learning to fall and get back up, and skate around the rink a bit.

At the end of the lesson, the teachers had the kids all skate over to a box of toys for some fun before going home.  Inside the toy box, E-boy found a little hockey stick and puck.  Then he took out two cones, skated over to the goal markings on the ice, and set up the cones for a goal, before hitting the puck through.  This was a laborious effort for my little skater, with lots of bending to pick up the objects, then carrying them where he wanted to go and placing them.  But he was determined that what you do in an ice rink is play hockey, and that’s just what he did.  He’s already counting the days until his next lesson.

Freezer Paper Love

My girls are going to be part of a local relay race this weekend.  The race has four parts: running, kayaking, biking, and a two person obstacle course.  They organized a team with three friends, and I had all five girls over at the house on Friday to make team tee shirts.  My dilemma was how to create a tee shirt craft for five girls, ages 7 through 10, that would result in nearly identical, great-looking shirts.  Freezer paper stenciling was an ideal choice.  I designed a little logo with their team name “the best girls team ever” and some icons to represent the different parts of the race.  Then I printed it out and layered it over five pieces of freezer paper before cutting out the pieces with an X-acto knife.  This was definitely a grown-up task, as our logo was fairly complicated.  It took me most of an hour to cut out the design, and many times during the process I was grateful that I could cut all the stencils at once, rather than repeating the process five times over.  I then ironed the stencils onto the backs of each shirt.  The girls’ part was to paint the stencil.  After the paint was dry (I couldn’t wait so I used a hair dryer to help speed the process along) we peeled off the paper, revealing the finished design.  We personalized each shirt with the girl’s name and the icon for their part of the race on the front left chest.

Why, yes. I do still sew.

This week I sewed up some more undies.  These are for the daughter of a friend of mine, teeny tiny size 2’s.  They turned out so cute!  I have the pattern for sale in my shop, if you’re of a mind to sew some for your kids.

A Boy and his Dog

The other day I stepped around the corner into the family room and found my boy and the Moose-dog watching television.

Here Fishy Fishy

Last week, A. went fishing with Hubby and his dad.  They came home with 7 trout.  Hubby caught 1, A. caught 2 and grandpa caught 4.  Here are the happy anglers with their haul:

Although he skipped out on the photos, the Moose-dog went along on the fishing boat.  He enjoyed the ride, even though he didn’t get to catch any fish.

It’s been a while…

Wow, the time has flown by!  I’m long overdue for a blog update post.  Seems I left off somewhere in February and all of a sudden it’s April.  How did that happen?

In February E-Boy celebrated his fourth birthday.  We celebrated with chocolate cake, and surprised him with a new bike.  Here he is about to blow out his candles:

And riding his new bike:

Later in February, the kids and I played hookey from school and joined Brian on an out-of-town trip for his work.  For the kids, staying in a hotel is all about one thing, the swimming pool.  The kids happily jumped, splashed and swam for many hours.

We made some time to head up to the mountain for some skiing and snowboarding.  Here is Hubby and me, along with E. about to head down for another run.

During Spring Break, we took off for an early season camping trip at the lake.  I have to admit, I brought up a book from the library and took regrettably few pictures.  It was cold.  Really cold, like below freezing at night.  We had the Moose dog with us, and he loved camping, and even did well with riding on the boat.

And the last of the updates for today, the obligatory Easter Egg Hunt pictures.  I promise, the kids looked more put together than this for church, but by the time the Easter bunny came to our yard, they had come untucked and changed out of their nice shoes.

Moose.

My little puppy is growing, fast!  Here he is today, at just 3 months old.  He’s already changed so much, and is on his way to becoming a really big dog.  We still can’t convince him to play fetch with us, though.  Hey dog, you’re a retriever!  Start bringing that ball back to us!

Another Weekend, Another Gymnastics Meet.

This time with better pictures, thanks to our new camera lens.

E. hits the springboard for her vault.

A. finishes her shoot-through on the bars.

E. is fearful of beam, but she managed a little hop and made her coaches proud.

E. poses at a pause in her floor routine as her teammates and coach look on.  She did awesome, and even finished the routine with her roundoff-back-handspring.

A. is caught mid-jump while performing her floor routine.  Look at the height she got!

Both of the girls showed improvement in their scores, and were pleased with their performance at the meet.  Our level four team finished in third place, and brought home a new trophy to display at the gym.

Gymnastics: First Meet

My girls competed in their first gymnastics meet this weekend.  They both did very well remembering their routines and performing in front of so many people.  I was so proud of them!  Here are a few pictures that hubby snapped during the events. 

E. on the balance beam:

Both girls watching some of the other gymnasts compete:

A. during her floor routine:

A. on the bars: