Mud Run

Brenden and I did the mud run today.  It was 3.6 miles and Brenden did awesome.  He was the only kid who ran the race!  The rest were all adults.

Doug calls the first series of pictures “Cut off and throw down.”

Double super powers!

Nolan waiting with my flowers for finishing.

Brenden and I won the award for the best entrance to the mud pit.

We won a canned ham because we “hammed” it up.  Brenden promptly opened it and my car smells like cat food.

Matt, Brenden’s best friend’s dad, came from the fire department to hose off the finishers.

Unfortunately, upon entry to the mud pit, we forgot to take off Brenden’s implants.  One was lost in the mud for about 10 minutes and they had to drain the mud pit so we could find it.  Ooops.

We’re still not sure if it works.

Brenden and I had a great time together!  We finished in 51:10 and we’re watching for ourselves to be in the paper tomorrow.

Last Day of School!

Today is the last day of school.  Last week the whole school made tie dye shirts and all of the kids and teachers wore them today.  Every year on the last day, the school has a picnic, but it is raining so we “picnic”ed inside.

Yesterday was Ethan’s Pre-K graduation.  His teacher, Miss Pala, was also Nolan’s teacher last year.  She has been so fun.

The morning and afternoon Pre-K classes.

Classic Ethan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ethan and Thayne (or “Fayne” as he says it)

Cameron loved the cake balls and the balloons.

Melanie made an awesome cake. Each of the crayons has a graduate’s name on it.

Teacher gifts:“I am so fortunate to have had you as my teacher.”  The chinese takeout boxes have fortune cookies kind of like this:

(the ones with the sprinkles), but I forgot to take a picture of mine.  The Extra gum says: The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is the little extra. Thanks for giving that “Extra” for me!  You’re extraordinary!

Also, for Miss Pala putting up with the Boehme boys for 2 years straight, I made her this:

I am very happy with the final product, but disappointed in how the picture shows it – that’s what happens when you try to take the picture at midnight instead of with natural light during the day.  The cardstock is under the glass, but the crayons are glued on top of the glass and modge podged over so they have a nice looking finish on them.

It has been a great school year and the boys have had great teachers.  Brenden’s teacher is retiring, Nolan’s teacher will have Ethan next year, and Nolan will have one of Brenden’s former teachers who had Brenden for two years in a row.  Well, that’s all true if I get the teachers I requested.  I am relieved to know that our speech therapist is not retiring (yet) and we’ll get another year with our deaf ed teacher too.  Next year is panning out to be just as great!

Fun for Mom

The day before Mother’s Day, Doug told me I had to leave the house for a while, so I did.  Doug’s plan was to have the house totally clean when I returned, as a special Mother’s Day treat.  What he doesn’t seem to understand is the reason the house is never completely clean.  We have 4 boys.  Cleaning never progresses as it should.

Ethan thought he needed the whole bottle of Clorox wipes to disinfect the toilet.  It was really clean though – until the first boy went into the bathroom and peed all over it again.
Doug eventually gave up and told me I might as well come home because the clean house thing just wasn’t happening.  I came home to find Ethan up to his armpits in dishwater while scrubbing dishes, Brenden folding laundry, Nolan in time out for refusing to clean, and Cameron undoing the cleaning that had happened.  It was a good effort though.

Doug bought me my new mountain bike that I used for my triathlon as a Mother’s Day gift, so I wasn’t expecting anything else – at all.  Mother’s Day morning, Doug made a delicious breakfast – bagel sandwiches with bacon, eggs, and cheese.  Each of the boys gave me an orchid plant.  We went out to get in the car for church and I glanced over and saw this:
in the back of Doug’s truck.  I had been complaining about our grill a few days before – one knob doesn’t turn without using a pliers, the gas is temperamental, and in general, it sucks.  We found it on the side of the house when we moved in, so obviously the previous owners didn’t think it was anything great either.  It lasted us 4.5 years though.

Grills are important things.  It is all thanks to a tiny Coleman camping grill that I can call Doug my husband.  I was outside my apartment cooking chicken on my new grill when Doug spotted me and had to meet the girl with the grill.

Doug made me dinner – grilled salmon, asparagus, and corn on the cob.  It was delicious.
The following weekend was the father and son campout.  I was planning on keeping Cameron home with me so Doug and the other boys would have a chance to ride bikes, hike, and scale large boulders.  The morning of the campout, Brenden asked if Cameron was going and when I told them no, I was confronted with 3 begging big brothers who wanted Cameron to be there with them.  Fine with mom!

I asked our friend Matt to save Doug a camping spot since he had to work and the boys loved camping next to the Quiners last year.  Matt said he left for a few minutes to take one of their kids to the bathroom and came back to find several boys had a dirt fight while he was gone.  I wish these pictures did it justice.

Cameron had tons of fun.

Nolan found a walking stick.

Nolan also fell down and scraped up his nose.

And it appears Brenden was having too much fun to stop and pose for any pictures – or maybe Doug was too busy chasing a one year old to take very many pictures.  They took their bikes and scooters and Brenden took his bow and arrows.  They all came home dirty, stinky, and exhausted.

As I was laying in my bed not listening to snoring, children talking in their sleep, or the buzz of the baby monitor, I realized it was the first night in over 9 years that I have spent alone.  I missed my family, but boy did I sleep well!

Cinco de Mayo

May 5 was the Polar Bear Pink Cheeks Triathlon.  It is a backwards triathlon, but if you can swim a 900 in under 20 minutes, you can buy an early swim time.  I swam at 8:40 and was able to go back to the hotel and shower and get dressed before the rest of the race at 11:00.  I am happy with my swim time (13:06) especially for not swimming for the last 6 months.  It put me 6 out of 96 and second in my age group.

My run went well.  There were lots of hills.

My bike was not great.  Lots more hills and on a new bike.  I just wasn’t as prepared as I wish I had been, but since we still have snow here, there haven’t been many opportunities to ride.

Nolan just finished the wrestling season.  He just can’t seem to find it in him to fight with people other than his brothers.  He usually ends up like this:

We had probably the best winter ever since we moved here and we have lots of pictures to show for it.  I’m going through them.  (I know, you’re thinking “promises, promises, Erin.”)

Walker

At 17 months to the day, we have a full-time walker.  Ok, he still crawls a bit, but he mostly walks and falls down maybe every 25 steps or so.  Cameron is our latest walker, but not by much - Nolan was 16.5 months before he walked, a mere 2 weeks before Ethan joined our family. 

I know, I know, I am FAR behind.  I apologize, but make no promises at this point.

'Twas Five Days Before Christmas

I went to Brenden with the first line and a half and told him I needed help writing a poem and he took it from there.

'Twas Five Days Before Christmas

by Brenden Boehme - age 8

‘Twas five days before Christmas and all through the house,

The decorations not up and Mom scurried like a mouse.

We went to the Internet to find stockings there,

In hopes that St. Nicholas won’t have to use our underwear.

The children raced around, their faces red,

With the words “HURRY!” and “QUICKLY” stuck in their head.

Mamma insane and I in my thinking cap,

Trying to figure how to decorate in a snap.

Out in the garage there was such a clutter,

I went to find something and started to mutter.

Away to the store we went for some shopping.

The kids slowed me down, but there was no stopping.

There were hundreds, and hundreds of so many rows!

Of toys, trains, candies, and bows!

When, what to my tired eyes should appear,

But the perfect star and our friend, Mr. Deveer!

Just as we finished, my brother got very sick,

And threw up all over the store’s St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles, home we came,

But then there it was just more of the same.

We continued to clean and decorate in a hurry,

Then, we decided that it was worth all the scurry.

We made cookies to eat and left Santa some,

We’re all ready now, for the big man to come.

As I fell in bed the world was all right,

Merry Christmas to you and have a good night!

Background: We are in search of the perfect star for our 11 foot tree, we really haven't decorated, our garage is full of boxes containing the Christmas decorations, and Brenden helped me search for stockings online last night.  As for the end, we have not made any cookies and are in no way ready for the big man to come - here's to hoping that our day will end just like Brenden's poem.

**If you would like to comment on Brenden's poem, please follow the link to his blog on the right hand side.  It is called The Good Life.  You can comment there and it will go directly to him.

The marriage of eggnog and pumpkin

Although I do not like eggnog, while trying it for the something-like-the-11th year in a row, I decided it might be okay if mixed with pumpkin.  That became this year's Thanksgiving challenge - create the perfect dessert to combine eggnog and pumpkin.  Tomorrow, or rather later today, we will be eating pumpkin eggnog swirl cheesecake.  That will be plenty of dessert for our family for Thanksgiving, but the next in line is a pumpkin/eggnog layered pie, perhaps followed by a layered pumpkin/eggnog pudding pie.  We're gonna be HUGE by the time this holiday season is over!  Hey, I used light eggnog and 1/3 less fat cream cheese - we're still being health conscious.