Heidi's Spring Soccer

Heidi's Spring soccer season has begun. She is on the Dolphins! She is having a great time and they are so fun to watch. The team is made up of 4 and 5 year old girls. They've had two games so far and Heidi scored her first goal of the season yesterday.

At this age, they don't have practice in addition to games, they just have about 10 minutes before each game to do some drills. Here they are practicing dribbling and stopping the ball.Waiting for the corner kick to come in.Going after the ball.It seems like she is having a good time and learning more and more about the game of soccer.

All in the Cr-V

Wednesday afternoon while I was waiting to buy gas, I noticed the temperature gauge on the van was really close to hot. As I drove it the gauge would go down while moving, but go back up when idling at a traffic light. And then it had trouble starting. Thankfully I was able to get to Heidi's school to pick her up and back home without incident. But Jason went ahead and made arrangements for us to take it to the mechanic on Thursday morning. Long story short, it was continuing to overheat on the way to the mechanic, so I pulled over less than a 1/2 mile from the shop and AAA came and towed it the rest of the way. Two days later, we had a new water pump. Thankfully that seems to have solved the problem.

But, with the van in the shop, we had to figure out how to get around in one car - one car that we have NEVER all 5 been in at the same time ('cause we didn't think we could). Well, Jason worked at it and with Rachel's car seat in the middle and the two booster seats on the sides, it is practically the perfect fit. The armrests of the booster seats fit just right under the armrests of Rachel's seat. Buckling the two booster seats was a little challenging, and I had to slam the doors to make sure they closed all the way, but the girls seemed to like riding RIGHT next to each other.When we found out the car wouldn't be ready Thursday night, we went to pick up Jason from work after Emma's riding lesson. We had a little bit of time to kill before he was ready and it just so happened that there were two C-130's doing fly-bys and touch-n-go's. We watched them flying around as we made our way closer to the runway. One flew right over our car at the end of the runway. I knew the other one was coming soon, so I turned around and we went back to park in a parking lot so we could watch it come in. Some people chase tornadoes, some people chase trains, we had fun chasing airplanes! The girls loved it.

After picking up Jason, we went to the Marietta Square for dinner and then fun around the fountain. The girls always want to throw money in to the fountain - luckily I had 3 pennies. So they each tossed one in. Rachel & Jason after tossing her penny.And they had fun following each other walking up on the brick borders around the fountain. Here they are each on a different step.It was a fun evening. Who says having car trouble is all bad? I'm thankful to have the van back, but we had a good time and it's nice to know that we can all fit in the Cr-V if we have to.

Evening Fun

Tonight we sat down to dinner at a good time and everyone amazingly ate in a timely fashion (not always the norm these days). So we had time after dinner to take advantage of the late daylight. The girls enjoyed Popsicles outside.Checking out the ants...Then Heidi got out her bike (which is new to her - I found a 16 inch bike at a consignment sale a few weeks ago. She is really enjoying riding it! She also really likes the basket on the front and the bell. :-));Rachel got out a scooter;And Emma got the other scooter.It's SO nice to live on a cul-de-sac!
So glad we had the chance to enjoy the nice evening!

Half Marathon

Jason and I ran the Publix Georgia 1/2 Marathon last March. They have a registration blitz right after the event, so we signed up last March to do it again this March. (And yes, we are already signed up for the 2013 1/2 marathon.) Despite the fact of having a year to train, we didn't really start training 'til January. If you are "friends" with me on Facebook, then you've seen my training log. We both did pretty decently with a couple mid-week runs most weeks and long runs on the weekends. Thankfully our friend Travis joined us in this training too (thankfully for me in that he and Jason would take the girls in the strollers for the long runs and I didn't have to push them. Now that's what you call a good friend!)

So the 1/2 was this past Sunday and it was a great day to run. A bit warmer than most of our training runs, but not bad. I was hoping to complete it in under 2:30. My official time (which includes a 3 minute potty stop) was 2:28:51; so taking out the potty stop, my watch time was 2:25:48. I was VERY pleased with that. Jason completed it in 1:55:25. And Travis was just over 2 hours. Here are the happy finishers!

Rachel's Pledge of Allegiance

At BSF, they say the Pledge of Allegiance each week, so Rachel has been learning it. Usually one child holds the flag. Rachel's "flag" in this video is a cat toy. :-)

Winter Break

Heidi & Emma's school calendars have not matched up completely this year. So, Heidi had Winter Break the week of 2/20 and Emma still had school. On Tuesday of that week, about 6 of Heidi's preschool friends came over for a play date. I had been watching the predicted weather for the week before and Tuesday looked like the best day for an OUTSIDE play date (we invited a lot of kids and I wasn't sure how many would be able to come and thought outside would be best). As it ended up, it sprinkled on and off throughout the morning and it was rather chilly. All of the kids brought bikes and/or scooters to ride, they jumped on the trampoline and played on the swing set - and eventually we all came inside. It was a fun time and Heidi really enjoyed having so many friends over.

On Thursday, Rachel, Heidi & I took advantage of a special pass to the Georgia Aquarium. We went with some other preschool friends and had a good time. Heidi liked the beluga whales - in fact that was her souvenir as you'll see - a stuffed one.They both liked the penguins (who doesn't like penguins???). They have a tunnel where you can walk underneath the penguin habitat. Rachel is in the tunnel and I just happened to snap this picture at the right time.The aquarium has added dolphins and a dolphin show since we went last. The girls waited patiently for the show to start.However, the story that they put with the dolphin show was scary to both of them. They liked seeing the dolpins, but before the show was over, Heidi was crying, they were both in my lap, and Rachel had her head buried in my shoulder. So, the dolphin show did not leave a very good impression on them.

They did like seeing the big fish in the big tanks and the colorful fish in the Great Barrier Reef area.We did come away with souvenirs - one stuffed beluga whale, one "baby dolphin" and one Magic School Bus book for Emma.So I think we've done the aquarium for awhile. Winter Break was fun, busy and exhausting. I was so ready to get back to regularly scheduled programming. Now it's three more weeks 'til Spring Break!

Valentine's Day

One of the fun things about preschool is all the holiday parties! These are some pictures from Heidi's Valentine's Day party. They enjoyed a very pink and red snack.Then several Valentine's stories (look at them all paying attention so intently!).And Heidi always enjoys doing a craft. They got to decorate a Valentine's heart with glitter glue, shiny gems, and markers.She had a fun time.

Valentine's Day at our house is usually pretty low key. So we didn't really do much to celebrate. But Jason did order a dozen chocolate covered strawberries for all of his girls. Lucky for this girl, the younger three girls in the family were not very interested in them - so Jason and I ate most of them. Yummy!

Pennsylvania Trip Pictures

We left for Pennsylvania late in the day on Christmas Day. It was a good trip and the girls traveled well. We made a stop on the 26th at a rest area somewhere (I don't remember what state), that had a great tree for climbing and taking fun pictures!What really makes these trips work is a portable DVD player. This is how we roll on long trips.As I mentioned in my "official" Christmas and trip post, while we were in PA, we celebrated the life of Jason's grandad.At the reception after the memorial service.Back at the guest house.Playing with cousin Jamie.Me and my curly girl.Uncle Nate & Aunt Laura gave the girls the cutest hats.Later in the week we went to the train museum. Here we are on the train we rode.Photo op on one of the trains inside the museum.And the girls enjoyed playing with all the toy train layouts.We did get to see a light dusting of snow while we were there. When we walked out of the train museum, it was snowing. This is the backyard of the guest house where we were staying.After leaving PA, we headed down to NC to spend a couple days with Jason's sister and her family. That included having a fun time at a park down the street from them.So that's our trip in pictures. I think the next post will be back to current events. :-)