Joseph's Mountain Biking Race Experience

Last weekend, Joseph drove 3 hours to Maine to camp with his bike in the back of our Honda Fit.  Yep, he got to cuddle with his loved Trek all night long.  :D  But I made sure it would be as comfy as possible - two pillows, sleeping pad, home-made Italian pasta salad for dinner (carb-loading the night before), sandwiches, jerky, Sunny-D, and even a cookies and cream milkshake!

 

  

The race was a 12 hour relay.  Joseph's team had three people, each would ride the 9 mile loop and then "hand the baton" off to the next person, and they would do that exact loop.  Around and around for twelve hours.  Joseph was pretty consistent with his time of 52 minutes and a 53 minute for the first two loops.  But then the final loop for him was ten minutes slower as most of it was done in the dark.  scary.

When Joseph came home finally, he could hardly move.  It was pretty funny - but at the same time, it wasn't (as I sit here and giggle!).  He had a great time and said that he will be doing it again next year!  

All in ONE day's time

Avannie goes to the library in this outfit:  plain white shirt (backwards and inside out) with her High Heels on.

After Avy came back out side from running to the ladies room, our conversation went like this:  "Avannie, what did you eat?"  "nothing."  "Avannie, did you find the chocolate chips?" "uh-huh." "did you eat lots?" "yep, and they're so yummy!"  "I couldn't tell..." (in my mom voice that knows everything ;D)

 After her confession of eating lots of chips, we had a talk about how she shouldn't eat things that aren't hers.  A few minutes later, she had to go back inside for something.  When she returned, I asked if she ate more.  Her response was "no."  But a few seconds later came this in her super excited tone:  "Mom, can we eat chocolate chips in winter?"  "Sure dear."  "And can we put them in containers?"  "What do you mean?"  Avannie then led me inside to her room where I found her "babies" sleeping with a container full of chocolate chips nestled right along the side.  She assured me that the chocolate chips are for WINTER and that she won't eat them.  The funny thing is, she has no idea when winter is.  The next day she asked if it was WINTER yet.  Not quite sweet pea.

Some of the fruits of the garden:  oodles of tomatoes, loads of hot peppers, handfuls of raspberries and blackberries, a few green peppers and purple onions, and now, four-inch-super-sweet carrots!  Not to mention, our good-sized pumpkin that is hanging off the fence.

Avannie thinks she is Mary Poppins.  I am Micheal and Sadie is Jane.  And we sing Just a Spoonful of Sugar and all the other classics over and over and over again while dancing with umbrellas (indoors and outdoors).

Sadie is now standing on her own and pushing cars around.  Wow, she is a cutie.

Notice, this is now the third outfit of the day.  And still the same shoes.

It's School Time Again!

First day of school with the friends for Church.  Kaddiz had an incredible lesson on being different.  Look at how cute the craft is!

Also, this year, I am doing a preschool group with a couple of the neighbor boys.  This week's lessons have been on Apples and School Buses.  So far its been really fun!  And Avannie loves it.

New York City

After boarding the Fung Wah bus from Boston, we had an adventurous ride to NYC.  Sadie had a tantrum fit for about 45 minutes until a sweet old lady in front of us offered her "nutter-butter" cookies.  Yep, nothing like a package of bite-size cookies to calm a baby.  Sadie was fine for the final two hours.

After arriving in Chinatown, it was a bit frazzling about what we were getting ourselves into.  We are not city people.  But we finally made it Grand Central Station and walked a few blocks to where my friend, Allison, took our huge back-pack (as it was too big to be permitted in the 9/11 Memorial) before we were off to see the city.  We went to see Ground Zero and wow, what a reverent place it was.  It was truly remarkable.  

South Tower Pool with the WTC Museum behind us.

 We were there four days before the 9/11 anniversary, and lucky for us, NYC had the tribute lights one just a couple of blocks away.  It was such an incredible experience, especially as I tried to explain to Avannie why it was such a quiet place.  She really did feel something there.  She even wanted to have her picture at the "Survivor Tree".

 The next day, we were off to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  We also met up with Joseph's best friend, Justin, and his sweet little girls.  Joseph and Justin got "caught up" with the past few months/years while I had the wonderful priveledge of teaching all the girls (four including Sadie) about immigration.  I loved Ellis Island!  I can't wait to go back to these places so I can go on the audio tour.  Sadie didn't allow me to wear the headphone and Avannie couldn't keep hers on her head.  But one day....

After the Statue of Liberty, our two families were off to the USC vs Syracuse football game at MetLife Stadium.  Wow, it was huge.  Wow, USC fans are die-hards.  Wow, football games are hard to watch with four kids.  Wow, it was totally worth every penny.

This is a picture of Avannie trying to imitate the dancers on the side of the field.  I wish I would have gotten a video because it was too funny!

 After a long day, we stopped at the Shake Shack for a tasty hamburger and shake.  Sadie's favorite part was talking on the buzzer-waiting-thing.  She was charming the whole area.  Kids are so rare in NYC that we were getting smiles from all the people around us.

What a great trip to New York it was.  But one of the best parts of the whole week was being able to stay with such great people.  To the Riley's, you are great!  Thank you for opening your home to us and thank you for not kicking us out for your sleep-less nights as our children were causing a commotion.  And thank you for your generous hospitality!

Best part of New York City - being able to be with good friends!

Levain Bakery in NYC

We stayed with some friends while we were in New York City and we took them to lunch on our way out of town.  While eating, Allison (my friend), mentioned a great bakery (Levain Bakery) around the corner that had the most incredible cookies.  Well, you say the word "cookie" and Joseph goes googly-eyed.  So we went and had to wait in a line that went out of the store!  By waiting for the cookies, we were cutting it super close to catching our bus home.  We literally ran to the subway, my bookbag got caught in the doors (thankfully, because the doors had to open for it to get out which allowed Joseph and Sadie to rush on to the subway!), and then we had to RUN through Chinatown and Little Italy and a scary-black-man-town in order to get our bus (14 blocks while carrying 2 book bags, a bag of cookies, and two little girls).  

All for two $4 cookies.  Was it worth it?  ABSOLUTELY!

Huge (2 inches tall, 4 inches wide) , thick, and gooey but crisp on the outside.

Its amazing that the bag survived as my hand were so sweaty while running!

Meet the Potato Head Family

As Avannie introduced me to the new family in town, she said, "And this is the mommy, she has a baby in her tummy."  And sure enough, as I was putting the potato heads away later, Mommy Potato Head really did have a "baby" potato head in her "tummy"!  Ha!  The imagination on this little girl!

Franconia Notch Retreat

We left the girls with a wonderful family and we were off on our first Retreat!  This was the first time away from Sadie.  We went to Franconia Notch State Park were we went up the "Flume" and then hiked the "Falling Waters" trail where we witnessed several waterfalls.  It was a wonderful day with my best friend!

Joseph climbed out on a fallen tree that is over the little stream

The Flume

At the top of a big waterfall

Beautifully conditioned hair, Miss Blueberry Muffin-top

Ten minutes later, I can laugh at this.  Not then.

I went into the bathroom to get Avannie out of the tub and wondered what the foam suds were from around Blueberry Muffin-top's little bathtub (an old yogurt container).  I didn't think much of it as I tried to hurry Avannie out of the tub so I could get on the with morning and ready for a YW meeting.  Well, as I went to get Avannie, I noticed my new (as of 2 days ago) bottle of really good, really expensive hair conditioner bottle with the lid off.  Picking it up, I realized it was empty.  AHHHH!!!

Blueberry Muffin-top has the best conditioned hair I have ever seen on a doll.  Her hair is so soft and shimmery!