Monday was back to school for the three oldest. We weren’t
that great at getting up on time either but they made it to school in more than
enough time. The twins and I hung out at home-they played with their trains and
Kindles while I did a bike/run workout. I also got our Easter/spring decorations
out and put away all the winter ones. After a dreary and foggy morning, the sun
came out and it was a beautiful day to get in the mood for spring. The twins
weren’t very excited to go back to school the next day after being out for so
long. Miles said school makes him sick. They were fine once we got there though
and when I got home, I noticed on the papers that I just brought home from
school that Bennett was supposed to bring snacks that day. So I just pulled
right back out of the garage, made a quick trip to Hy-Vee and dropped the
snacks off at the school.
Caroline got into town on Tuesday but since I had to take
Ellie to gymnastics that night we didn’t get to see her until Wednesday. I got
most of my cleaning and prep done for small group earlier and then the twins
and I went over to my parents’ house after lunch and hung out for a bit. Then I
picked up the other kids from school and brought them over for a little while
before we had to head home. On our way home, we stopped by the TCC and picked
up our race numbers for the St. Patrick’s Day 5K which was the next day. We
started up small group again that night after a couple weeks off. We started a
new series called Follow which I am
hoping will be good. Our first discussion was a little stilted but hopefully it
will get better.
Thursday was St. Patrick’s Day and the leprechauns visited
at some point in the night, messed up the family room and left a few treats for
the kids.
The rest of the day I was busy getting stuff ready for
our girls’ weekend in Branson. I made some cookies and peanut butter bars to
bring with us. Then I also made a big batch of spaghetti sauce-some to have for
dinner Sunday night when I got home and some to freeze for later. Our afternoon
and evening were pretty busy. Jackson and Ellie had K-life so I just had to
pick up Lincoln from school. Andrew went for a bike ride and then he picked up
Jackson and Ellie a little early so they could get ready for the race. Ellie
was so nervous (her ribs/abs had been hurting a bit) while Jackson said he was
a little nervous but okay. I usually get really nervous before a race but since
I was running with Ellie, I knew I wouldn’t be feeling the pressure to run fast
and didn’t feel nervous at all. I took Jackson and Ellie and got up there a
little before the race while Andrew brought the younger three a little later.
Jackson saw some boys from his grade and one of them was joking around telling
Jackson he would be waiting for him at the finish line. Jackson kind of took it
as a challenge and decided he was going to beat him J. When it was time for the
race to start, we all got lined up, the old guy shot off the canon with his
cigar and we were off. Ellie took off much faster than I thought she would and
was weaving in and out while I followed her. Jackson was a little ahead of us
and eventually I couldn’t see him anymore. Ellie and I finished our first mile in
just over an 8 minute pace but then she was beat. I guess she didn’t learn the
whole pacing part J.
She was desperate to walk so I made her wait until a little after a mile before
we first walked. Then we would run for a bit and she would want to walk again.
I kept pushing her, cheering her on and would even drag her along every now and
then but she didn’t quit. She picked up her pace when she could see the finish
line and Andrew. Once we crossed the finish line, she grabbed a cup of water
and went to sit down for a bit. I was so proud of both of them for doing a
great job. Jackson actually finished with a time of 26:27 and Ellie and I were
30:37 and 30:38. We didn’t get to sit around much as we still had to eat dinner
and get to Ellie’s music program. We ran home to quickly change and freshen up
then went over to my parents. They had green pancakes for us that we ate
quickly and then we all left for Ellie’s music program at her school.
The gym was already packed when we got there so we had to
stand in the back. There were a few seats here and there but not enough for our
group. Andrew’s mom came and my parents along with Kaitlin, Caroline and Molly.
I am sure that is how they had planned on spending their evening, but it was
nice of them to come. The program was pretty short-they sang a few songs and
then Ellie was part of a group that played xylophones during one song. They
also did a few Irish songs and had dancing leprechauns. Andrew took the kids
and headed out to the car while they were finishing up the last song while I
waited for Ellie and then we took a quick look at her art work which was a
beautiful blue bird.
The next morning I got a bike ride in before I had to get
ready to leave. While I was riding, Ellie came in complaining of her ankle
hurting. She had talked about it hurting while we were running but I wasn’t
sure if it actually was. I had her get a bag of frozen corn out of the freezer
and she laid on my bed with her ankle elevated with the corn on it while I
biked and we watched a rerun of Project Runway. Then I quickly got ready and
made sure everyone else was ready to go. Andrew got back from the office at
about the time he needed to take the kids to school and I waited for my ride to
show up.
While I was gone for the weekend, Andrew had a good
weekend with the kids. They went out to the ranch after school on Friday so
that he and Jackson could move his cattle while the other kids had an Easter
egg hunt at his parents’. He said they ended their day by doing the congo line
to bed while listening to Lime in the
Coconut. He made sure Ellie got to her dance classes and a birthday party
the next day and then I got a text from him with a picture of them all at La
Fuente for dinner.
Our weekend at Big Cedar was pretty low key. We all met
up at one of the restaurants at Top of the Rock for lunch and then got to check
into our cabins. We spent most of the weekend just chatting and eating all the
snacks we brought. We thought we may play some games or something else but we
never did. And it was pretty cold outside to do much outdoors. We did do some
shopping but it was really just at Target and TJ Maxx along with a quick return
at Kohl’s and that was it. We didn’t even go to the outlet malls. I think we
all just liked not having anything to do and relaxing with each other for the
weekend. We had a little shower for Caroline at one point-just a few
decorations we put up, most of which were some my mom had made for Amanda’s
birthday party a couple years ago. Kaitlin got a cake and my mom wrapped up
pictures of the stroller and car seat we already got for them that had already
been delivered to their apartment. Then we also couldn’t resist some cute
little girl clothes. Even though it went
by pretty quickly, it was nice to get to hang out with everyone and I was
thankful my mom got it all organized. And it was all so beautiful.
After breakfast at Devil’s Pool restaurant with everyone
we got back to Kirksville around 2:30. Andrew and the kids had just gotten back
from the ranch and were eating lunch. I was so impressed because they had
cleaned the house. Andrew had the kids clean their rooms and they picked up
around the house. They even started the dishwasher and a load of laundry.
Andrew said they were all really good over the weekend and the older three
brought home awesome report cards for third quarter. Ellie also decided to
start learning Italian with Andrew’s Rosetta Stone. Andrew headed to the office
for the rest of the afternoon while I unpacked, picked up some more around the
house and start going through the mounds of laundry.
Later that afternoon we did some quick work of decorating
eggs. Lincoln was at Alex’s so it was just the other four that did it. I got the
fake eggs and decided to forgo the dipping dye since it doesn’t really work on
them and went with some sponge painting dye and dye sticks that looked like
q-tips with dye on them. I thought it worked pretty well.
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