Peace Out Preschool- Hellooooo Summer Vacation

I swear I've been busy and not just avoiding blogging. I swear! This week has been pretty busy. Z had his last day of preschool *sob* and we have kicked off summer vacation with lots of outdoor fun. Well here, take a look for yourself

Ms. Jen & Ms. Julie talking to the kids

Z with his teachers. He got the award for most artistic

picnic after class

playing with his class

Pool Time!

Olivia LOVES to slide

at the park

Perry Dell Farms Field Trip

Yesterday, Zachary's class took a trip to a local farm. They bottle their own milk and make their own ice cream there!

We got to take a tour of the farm, feed a baby cow and learn all about the life of a cow. It was a GREAT trip. The best part was the end when we got to have fresh chocolate milk. mmmm-mmm-mmm

all of the kids had to say "mooo" to the cows before they could go visit them. 

petting the calf

z got a kick out of the calf sucking on everyone's fingers

she was hungry!

milking the cardboard cow

my little Z cow

checking out the bottling room

snack time! 

Training with Children

My marathon training is 20 weeks long. The past 16 weeks I have used all of my runs as "me" time and it has been wonderful. The only catch to all of that "me" time is that I miss a lot of family time in the evening. It isn't all bad, but lately with the increased mileage, I have missed being home for dinner and playing with the kids before bedtime.

So today I decided that I would take the kids out to the trail for my 5 mile run. Z, my soon-to-be 4 year old would ride his bike, while Olivia, 13 months, would ride in the jogger. Perfection! Before you *tisk* *tisk* my idea of making my almost 4 year old bike for 5 miles, he did it on Monday like it was nothing.*

I filled the jogging stroller with snacks and drinks and we set off. The first 2.5 miles were GREAT. Z rode his bike and listened to all of my pre-set guidelines. He stopped at every intersection, stayed within ear shot of me and didn't whine for a drink every 30 seconds. Olivia was almost the perfect companion, minus throwing her shoes out 1/2 a mile in. Hey, who doesn't want to ride in comfort?

The bad part came when we turned around at the 2.5 mile mark. We took a nice long drink break and I did a little pep talk about how we only had to make it back to the van. "You're doing awesome, Z! I'm so proud of you!!!"

We turn around and take off. My Garmin rings at the 3 mile marker and I am ready to take off. I turn around and Z is going strong and looks happy. Then, it happens. "MOMMYYYYYYYYYYY I'M TIRED!!!!!!" He is wailing. Bawling. He scared horses, seriously. So I try to coax him into riding nice and easy and just looking at nature. He wanted nothing of that. He wanted me to push his bike and carry him. CARRY HIM.

I got him to walk his bike another mile and then when I couldn't take the crying for one more second... I decided to throw his bike into the stream, put him on my back and just run as fast as humanly possible back to the car. Then, I came to my senses and remembered the bike cost a lot of money and that was a pretty mean thing to do. Plus, I'm not really equipped to carry 40lbs of kid and push 70lbs of jogging stroller and baby.

So the next best thing I could think to do was this:

and I ran, the rest of the way back to the car. People stared at me and I wanted to cry.

Here are better photo's of the "contraption."

The baby used one of her shoes and hit Z on the back for the entire mile. He complained that she was hitting him and all I could do was laugh to keep from crying.

Marathon training with kids = FAIL.

*While screaming at my husband in the middle of the trail about how the children ruin all of my family fun ideas. He informed me that Z did not do well AT ALL on the 5 mile bike ride Monday. I would have known this if I were not running far far ahead of them (to get away from the beautiful screaming coming from Olivia). So, my bad. Whoops!

Playing Catch-Up

Sorry I have been MIA! My training schedule has gone from insane to brutal in the past couple of weeks. Last week I ran a total of 36 miles! I have 1 more week of super long runs, my 20 miler is next Saturday, and then I start to taper before the marathon. I'm getting so excited (and pretty exhausted).

First, we have Easter.

collecting the eggs the bunny left

checking out his loot

checking out her loot

ready for church

handsome man :)

olivia wasn't in the mood for pictures

my beautiful family outside of church

daddy and daughter

he looks so grown up!

easter egg hunt at grandmom & grandpops

z found one!

Z, O & KK

Grandpop & his littles

Second, we have Olivia the model

ponytail! (sorta)

flip flops!

Third, we have me getting old. 30th!  I'll spare you the rest of the pictures... the night got a tad ugly ;)

Fourth, we have the happiest, craziest little lady around!  Who now has 7, almost 8, teeth!

So that's about it! We are really enjoying the frequency of nicer days and we're counting down to vacation in June!

Eighty Easter Eggs

This past weekend was another busy one! First, this lovely lady, whom I refer to as 'Grandmom,' turned 80! Doesn't she look wonderful? She is one of the most amazing women I have ever know. I'm so blessed to have her in my life. We celebrated her birthday with the rest of the family in Westminster (before the tornado hit, shew!)

On Sunday, we took the kids to the Maryland Line Fire Department for an Easter Egg Hunt. Zachary loved meeting the Easter Bunny and ran right up to him. Olivia wasn't feeling 100% but she was content to sit in her stroller while he came to say hi.

They had a really nice set-up where all age groups were divided. Olivia enjoyed sitting on the ground putting near-by eggs in her basket.

The older kids collected their eggs so quickly I missed getting pictures. Z managed to get a lot of eggs. He was very proud of his loot!