She's Had a Birthday {Shout Hooray!}

{Warning -- Total Photo Dump coming.  And see that bunting up there?  I totally waited until the last minute to make it (as in I was cutting out the felt and stringing it up minutes before the party was to start) and as a result, didn't have time to sew the letters on.  I was frantically holding out hope that the felt would provide enough static cling for the letters to stick to for the party, and it totally did for the majority of the time!  Hahahaha.}

I don't even know where to start!  This past Saturday, we finally got around to celebrating Jane's 5th birthday.  Even though I had an extra week to prepare for the big day, I was still running around and scrambling last minute on Saturday morning to make sure everything was in place for her very first "friend" party.  {For those not in the know, I can only handle throwing a full-on party every so often.  The kids get a "friend" party when they turn 5, 8, 12, 16, and 18.  After that, I've told them they're on their own to throw themselves a party!  Hahaha.}

Oh Jane, my sweet little space cadet.

After running my 8 miles Saturday morning, I was still on the run for most of the rest of the day, as I ran to Target and Michaels and Whole Foods to procure all the last minute little things that I needed for the party and then proceeded to set thing ups, host a party, and then get everything cleaned up afterwards.  Grace and Sophie were my assistant party planners/helpers, and their input was actually pretty great as I was trying to find things for party favors and activities. 

{A giant roll of banner paper was one of the items purchased at Michaels.  It has consistently been a hit!}

After getting home, I got started right away on making her cupcakes and put the girls to work assembling the goodie bags and filling the pinata.  I tried a new recipe for the cupcakes which I found on allrecipes and which I modified to make vegan due to the egg and dairy allergies that would be present at the party.  The ingredients called for grape jelly and mayonnaise (which I subbed out for vegan "nayonnaise"), and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised to see that their texture and consistency came out amazing.  The only problem was that they weren't super chocolate-y.  Or awesome tasting.  Don't get me wrong, they certainly weren't gross, but they could have been better.  But they were for a bunch of 5 year olds, so I wasn't really that concerned.  I was hoping to up the chocolate factor with the frosting, but that was a no-go as I discovered after starting the "butter"cream frosting that we were almost completely out of cocoa powder.  Oh well!  They were fine enough, and I was good with that.  Hahaha.

The agenda for the party included:

• Coloring a birthday banner
• Decorating crowns
• Decorating cupcakes
• Eating cupcakes and ice cream
• Opening presents
• and Hitting a pinata

I was shocked to see how much better THIS group of kids did at focusing their attention on the tasks at hand than the ones at the LAST 5-year-old party we threw when it was Sophie's turn.   With Sophie's party, it seemed as though every activity we had on the agenda lasted half as long as the time we allotted for it!  This time around, we managed to fill up the entire hour and a half with all the activities planned. 

Coloring in the Birthday Banner was supposed to be just a waiting-for-everyone-to-get-there activity, but they ended up happily working on it for a good 15, almost 20 minutes!  I was shocked.  Hahaha.  Eventually, we did need to move on, though, so while Grace worked on hanging up the banner, everyone else moved into the dining room where the crowns were set up and the glitter and glue and stickers were waiting. 

Alex's handiwork.  I think he was pretty proud of his coloring-in-the-lines capabilities here.  Hahaha.

Meanwhile Ethan opted out of the whole coloring thing.  :)

Seriously -- so much time spent on the banner!  It was amazing. 

After sufficient time was spent decorating the crowns, the girls laid them out to dry, and Grace took over as my Pied Piper of Hamlin and led everyone in some rousing rounds of "Mother May I" and "Simon Says."  She's going to be a fantastic little preschool teacher one day.  :)  While they were playing, Ethan and Scott helped me get the table cleaned up (including vacuuming up all that glitter) and then getting the cupcakes and sprinkles all set up and ready to go.

Alex opted for a mask rather than a crown.

I've never met a kid who DOESN'T like decorating a cupcake with sprinkles, and this crowd was no exception.  Once everyone was finished, we sang a quick "Happy Birthday" to Jane, and then let them dig into their creations and added some ice cream to the mix. 

{I (heart) this picture of her.}

After the chowing was over, we helped the girls get their crowns on and had everyone pose for some pictures.  Once the photo shoot was over, it was present time, and Jane was so excited to see what everyone brought. 

Marina, Lucy, Katelynn, Jane, and Lucy

Kids always love a silly poses picture.  :)

{The "J" was the only letter to start to peel off by the end of the afternoon.}

Once the presents were finished it was time to move on to the final activity and piece de resistance -- the pinata!  This was the one thing that Jane was insistent upon every time I asked her what she wanted to do for her party.  Hahaha.  There was rain in the forecast for the day, but even though it was still clear throughout the whole party, Ethan was too excited about swinging the pinata over the railing into the front hall to NOT set it up that way.  :)  After handing a bat over to the kids, they went to town!  Hahaha.  It took a few rounds of everyone whacking away at it, but when it finally cracked open and spilled it's goodies everywhere there was a chaotic dash to gather it all up -- just like there always is.  :)

The pinata was cracked open at exactly 4:26, which ended our party almost PERFECTLY on time.  Hahaha.  While waiting for moms to show up, the girls all ran to play in Jane's room and had a fabulous time.  All in all, it went better than expected, even if it DID leave me wiped out and happy that I won't have to plan/host another "friend" party until February when Sophie turns 8.  :) 

And that is that!  If you've made it all the way to the end of this post and through all these pictures, you deserve a prize.  Hahaha.  Thank you and goodnight!

Wiped Out

Completely and totally wiped out.  That's me.  It feels like I have been on the go since 6:40 this morning.  Probably because I have!  I was planning on recapping Jane's birthday party tonight, but my brain is too tired to think.  So, instead, I'll present you with a recap of my day from start to exhausting finish...

• Woke up at 6:40 and went downstairs to start breakfast -- since I was up slightly earlier than usual, I thought I'd whip up some waffles that Sophie could eat as well, and that would hopefully make everyone else happy, too.
• Woke up Grace and Alex by 7 -- Sophie, Jane, and Ethan were already up and at'em.
• Helped get kids ready for school -- which was a pretty easy task this morning because they were all SUPER stoked about their after school "5K Training Club" that was meeting for the first time today.
• Accomplished Scripture Time and making it to the bus on time, then tackled the morning tidy up of the kitchen.
• Changed for the gym and packed some clean clothes for after {I knew I had a PACKED day -- and WEEK for that matter}, and knew I'd be cutting it close to run some errands before lunch and the bus for Jane.
• Ran 5 miles of speed-ish work that left me absolutely dripping in sweat and EXHAUSTED by the end, but happy to see that it was my fastest 5 miles yet -- 45:26.
• Changed and picked up the kiddos from the Kids Club and ran over to the Girl Scout store to pick up Jane's uniform and a Daisy binder and to price out what everything will cost for the other parents -- which was thankfully all a lot easier to accomplish than I thought!
• Realized I was STARVING, thanks to that frantic 5 mile run, and that the kids needed to eat before they could go to school anyway, so I made a last minute executive decision to go to Panera for an Asian Sesame Chicken salad for me, and a kids mac and cheese for Jane, and a cinnamon crunch bagel for Alex.  It was a good call.  :)
• Made it back in the NICK of time for Jane's bus, and then had a couple minutes to breathe before getting Alex ready for his big first day of preschool!
• Still managed to run late for his drop-off thanks to a failed First Day of Preschool photo shoot in the backyard, but I was able to at least snap a shot of him at the drop-off that pretty much captured the essence of Alex anyway -- you know, since he IS a superhero and all.

 Only pose he would give me -- these are his superhero moves.  And no, he wouldn't look straight at the camera for anything.

 But he did pivot around to give me an alternate angle of his pose.  Hahaha.

• Went straight from Preschool to Costco, where I had just enough time to pick up some new contacts, do a GIGANTIC grocery shopping trip, and get home to start unloading before I had to head back and pick Alex up.
• Heard all about Alex's day and the fun he had playing with superheros and reading a "No, David" book, then excitedly helped him fill out the last boxes on his potty training chart which we started last Thursday in earnest after discovering via email from the Preschool director that children need to be potty-trained without Pull-ups in order to be in the class he's in.  Yikes!  That would have been good to know a couple of months ago.  Hahaha.  I have no idea how I skimmed over that crucial bit of information in all the registration paperwork.  Thankfully, the reward of a trip to Target to pick out a new superhero was JUST the right carrot to dangle in front of him, and he hasn't had an accident since then!  :)

• Had just enough time to finish putting away the groceries before it was time to walk across the street and wait for Jane to get off the bus, and then after another quick breather -- 15 minutes this time! -- we loaded up to go and pick up the runners from school.  :)  From the looks of things, they had a blast.  Which is awesome.

They were all beet red and sweaty --Ethan ran 2 1/4 miles, and Grace and Sophie each ran 2.

• By the time we got home, it was 4:30-something and I told the kids they could relax for a bit and have screen time while I went upstairs to lay down -- I borderline threw out my back while hauling boxes of Costco groceries out of the car and into the house, and I just wanted to rest it for a bit.
• What ended up happening, however, is that I was so exhausted, and so comfy laying down and taking a break for the first time that day, that I totally fell asleep!  Hahaha.  It only lasted for about 10 or 15 minutes, but it was sublime while it did.  :)
• The rest of the afternoon/evening was the same old, same old -- make dinner {hamburgers and fresh green beans}, try to do Family Home Evening {very unsuccessfully}, get kids in bed {slightly more successfully}, and FINALLY have some time to blog.  

It's been a LONG day.  I'm pretty sure I should just head up to bed right now.  Especially since tomorrow is looking almost as busy, and there is something going on on the calendar for every day this week -- doctor's appointments, girl scout meetings, book club, baby showers, curriculum night, and boy scouts (just to name a few).  So, if the next time you see me I look like a total zombie, you'll know the reason why.  Hahahahaha.  Stay tuned for a review of Jane's birthday party happening at SOME point this week...

Flashback Friday -- A Quilt Story

"Gideon's Kaleidoscope" -- all bundled up and ready to send. 

For today's flashback, I thought I'd go back in time to the beginning of the summer when I first started working on a quilt for my good friend, April.  By going over the process for making this particular quilt, I think it will highlight what my methods are for making quilts in general. 

Whenever I'm making a quilt for someone, I try REALLY hard to make it "match" who they are.  If that makes sense.  Whether that be through color palette, quilt pattern, fabric choices -- or hopefully all of the above -- I take everything into consideration as I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to make.  Once I get a flash of inspiration -- usually through one of those mediums above, everything seems to just fall into place and I can piece away to my heart's content and then quilt it and bind it and send it away where my greatest joy comes in hoping that the quilt will actually be used.  :)  Yes, the hand-quilting makes it heirloom quality, and sure, I like to think of it as a work of art, but it is a QUILT.  And quilts should be used.  And that's my opinion on that!  Hahaha.

But back to baby Gideon's quilt.  With this particular gift, the inspiration came from a specific swatch of fabric.  As soon as I saw it, it just screamed April to me.  Like I said before, I really try to make the quilts match who they go to, and since April's style {or at least my interpretation of it} is slightly vintage-y, with a touch of trendy and a sprinkling of whimsy, while being colorful and classy and non-boring, I thought this fabric would be perfect in an old-school kaleidoscope pattern using other fabrics pulled to coordinate with the inspiration piece. 

Inspiration piece unfurled on the bottom there.  The funny thing was that when I was asking the kids for their feedback on if they thought this fabric looked like April, Ethan was the only one to respond and he said, "Yeah -- it looks like something she would have as a dress."  Hahahaha.  How funny is that??  I love that he was my sounding board.  :)

I was originally going to use a background of white or gray, but when I auditioned them with the other fabrics, it just didn't look like the right combination for a baby quilt .  When I found a piece of light blue fabric in my hutch leftover from another quilting project, I knew right away that it was the PERFECT touch to make the quilt just right for a cute little baby boy.

After cutting all the pieces out and sewing them together, I was left trying to figure out what to use for the back.  Because the front had so much going on, I felt like the backing fabric needed to balance it out somehow.  The aviation print I found on a solid navy background was just the right piece to make the whole quilt work.  

Front {I found the pattern and tutorial at Don't Call Me Betsy.}

Back {Robert Kaufman's "Patriots"}

Close-up of the planes.  :)

I quilted the background diamonds and the center squares and then bound it all in Kona Charcoal {my second favorite shade of Kona gray -- Ash is my first favorite} and washed it with Dreft and dried it in the dryer.  Seeing it all crinkly and wrinkly when it's done is my favorite part of the whole process.  :)  So there you have it -- How I Make a Quilt.  I love every part of the process!  Except for the binding.  I hate doing the binding SO much and I don't know why.  Hahaha.  It's not that hard and it doesn't take that long and it's LITERALLY the last thing to do to finish off the quilt, but it just sends my impatience levels through the roof. Oh well!  That's the story, morning glory.  The making of a quilt by me.  

Meet and Greet

We had a "Meet and Greet" today for Alex's preschool class!  You wanna know what he spotted as SOON as we walked into the classroom??  Some super hero action figures.  Hahahahahaha.  Oh Lover Boy.  He parked himself on the carpet and played with the super heroes and a giant viking ship until I finally convinced him it was time to go.  I have a feeling he's going to really like preschool.  :)

Looking for Silver Linings

Miss Grace has started another school.

I'm going to call today a victory.  Even though the day started out rough -- Sophie refused to go to school because "her stomach was hurting" this morning -- I think I handled the situation with the best version of my mom self, and I'm really happy about that.  I was able to recognize in the moment that she was REALLY tired {for some reason the melatonin didn't kick in last night and she wasn't able to fall asleep until almost 10:30} and her high-stress tendencies certainly didn't help to calm her down and help her want to go to school. Rather than blowing up at her and engaging in a trip-to-nowhere shouting match {which unfortunately is my initial inclination as a reaction to ALL of her freak-outs and melt-downs}, I responded instead with patience {what??!??} and kindness.  It helped me realize once again that all Sophie really needs when she's so wound up is to have someone hold her and hug her and show her some love.  And THEN she can start to calm down.

Once the older two were off to school, I was able to focus on Sophie and finally get to the point of calmly offering her two options:  1.) She could choose to let me help her get dressed and ready for school and I would drive her there, or 2.) She could choose to stay in her room all day long and "rest."  And with that choice would also come early bedtime and grounding from electronics for the entire week.  When she chose the latter even WITH all the consequences, it still felt like a win-win situation -- she was able to make her own choice {calmly and rationally} and I was still able to implement consequences to that choice without forcing the decision on her.

And you know what?  It worked out pretty well.  She stayed in her room without any problems for most of the day, and even though having her home all day long put quite the cramp in my plans for getting back on schedule for the week, I did my best to find the silver linings and find some I did.  For one thing, I was able to talk to the school office and her teacher and explain the situation, and they were very understanding and willing to work with us -- which was VERY nice to feel, considering I never exactly felt any warm fuzzies from the school LAST year when Grace was the one refusing to go to school left and right.  Also, because we were parked at home, Jane made the bus for Kindergarten on time.  AND, with nowhere to go and nothing else to do, I figured it was finally time to work on potty-training Superboy, and we managed to get off to a pretty good start on that!

Once everyone was home at the end of the day, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Sophie acquiesced to the whole no-electronics thing even though the others were watching TV, and instead sat at the kitchen counter while I made dinner and worked on the homework packet that Grace brought home with her from school.  Meanwhile, Grace -- our resident pied piper of Hamlin who has spent the last couple of days setting up a classroom in the dining room to play school with the little ones -- managed to get everyone {except for Ethan} on board with being her pupils by the end of the day and spent a good chunk of the evening playing creatively and nicely with them and having lots of fun.  And then, once the little ones were all up in bed for the night, Ethan and Grace had an impromptu dance party in the dining room while listening to their favorite radio station and singing along to some Ariana Grande.  Hahahaha.  It was epically hilarious.

So that was my day!  Thankfully, Sophie fell right asleep tonight, so I'm REALLY hoping that everything will be smooth sailing in the morning.  Until next time, peace out!  Haha.

Boom Shakalaka

Oh hey. I'm here.  It's been quite the weekend.  In addition to the fact that I ran my second half marathon on Saturday night, it's also been quite the day off around here for Labor Day today.  I can guarantee that nothing that happened here today is of any interest to ANYONE, so I figured that tonight's post would be the perfect time to recap the big race for all those who are curious to hear the details.

So here you have it -- the boom, the shaka, and the laka.  Hahaha.

Interesting tidbits to note:

• The race started at 7 PM
• It was the inaugural run of the Boom Shakalaka in Indianapolis
• There were NOT a ton of people running this race
• The race was a looped course of a little over 3 1/4 miles -- so we ran 4 laps
• And according to my Garmin the race was actually 13.29 miles, not 13.1

Oh and my race shirt will need some censoring before I'll be wearing it out in public.  Hahahahaha.  Ethan got quite the kick out of it when he saw it the next morning.

Some of the crowd who came to watch.  And maybe some of them were there to run, too.

When signing up for the race, I was kind of intrigued/excited about the idea of the race not starting until 7 at night.  I'm not really a morning person, so the thought of being able to sleep in and get a full night's rest before the race was really quite appealing.  Going in to the big day, my biggest concern was the weather.  It was like deja vu of my last half marathon!  And thankfully, just like last time around, my worries were for nothing.  There were high temperatures, high humidity, and high chances for thunderstorms in the forecast, but in the end it was actually kind of PERFECT.  While still being a little warm, it was cloudy enough and breezy enough that it really didn't matter.  It really made for quite a lovely summer evening run.

Rachel and I had LOTS of time to spend together as it took a couple of hours to drive there, more than a couple of hours to run, and another couple of hours to drive back home.  Having a good running buddy makes all the difference in the world!

As a second-timer running this half, I was surprised by a few different things.  The thing I was most surprised about was to see how simultaneously nonchalant I was about covering the distance while still having butterflies in my stomach.  Of course, the whole waiting around all day for the race to start may have contributed to and prolonged the nervousness feeling, but still.  It was kind of weird. 

Once the race finally started, though, it was great.  Like I said, the weather was amazing.  It was so nice and breezy, and the scenery around the race course loop was really beautiful in parts as we wound through different side streets and parts of the campus there.  In a lot of ways, it felt like just another long run but even better.

Going in with zero expectations/goals was a good thing, and it was really fun to just run with Rachel and be a part of the race.  In the end, I beat my time by a couple of minutes from last time around and finished in one piece -- so, overall it was another great and awesome experience to run a half marathon! 

So those were the highlights.  And now for the lowlights.  :(  Having a race at the end of the day ended up being more taxing than I was expecting.  Our average pace ended up being a minute slower than on any of our long runs during this whole training experience, mostly because we ended up walking quite a bit.  About 5 miles in, my calves started to feel really tight and strained and stayed that way the remainder of the time, and then about 8 miles in, I felt a blister forming on one of my toes, which has NEVER happened EVER during any of my runs!  It was so weird.  By the time we finished it was pitch black and even though it wasn't THAT late -- 9:32 PM -- we were obviously wiped out from the running PLUS just plain getting tired for it being the end of another day.  And THEN we still had to drive home!

After collecting our medals and grabbing a banana to eat, we decided it would be better to head out sooner rather than later, so we hit the road.  After driving for about an hour, we stopped to get some food at a Subway inside a Walmart, and I have to say that the tuna sub on honey whole wheat with tomato and mustard that I got was pretty much the most delicious thing I've ever eaten in my life.  Hahahaha.  I remember feeling the same way after my last half marathon when I finally ate something when the race was done.  There's nothing like torching over 1300 calories in a 2 1/2 hour period to make food taste AMAZING. 

We got home SOOO late, but the worst part was that after showering and getting in bed, I could NOT fall asleep forever.  And then I still had to get up for church in the morning!  I made it, though, and even though I felt like a complete zombie for the whole day, I was happy and surprised to see that I didn't feel sore at all from running the race.  Two days later, and the only residual issues I'm having are some twinges in my hip flexors, but still, not a lot of muscle soreness!  I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing -- good because it must mean that I was prepared and ready for the run or bad because I should have been pushing it harder and faster for the big race.  Oh well!  I'm not done just yet.  Call me crazy {or HALF crazy} because I think I'm going to run another one at the end of September with Scott's sister in their hometown.  Hahahaha. 

All in all, I'm glad I ran the Boom Shakalaka, but I have to say that I don't know if  I would do another night race of this distance again.  Definitely not one that was so far away!   And that is that.  :)

I've earned a new sticker for the "new" car.  It was one year ago this weekend that the mountaineer went kaput and we got ourselves the Odyssey!

Showing the kids my medal the next day!  The kids were definitely less interested in hearing about the race this time around.

Happy Labor Day everyone!