Week In Review

Collin and Reagan really enjoyed these books this week:

I am especially fond of Won Ton!

Collin finished this book, the last book in a four part series,

and he is a little sad that there is not a fifth book.  Thank you for buying him the first book, Auntie Karen!

Collin built these Lego sets that he received for his birthday:

and he is in the process of building more!  He never tires of Lego; it amazes me.  I heard there is a local Lego group that competes; I have to look into this for him.

Collin and Reagan made sun prints:

Reagan made a flower, a sun, and an elephant and rhino walking over a bridge.

Collin had a Ninjago theme; he used the broken popsicle stick to make Cole's scythe, two stars for Zane's shurikens, and a popsicle stick for Kai's sword.

Collin and Reagan are one hundred percent responsible for their sun print designs; I think they did a great job planning them and I LOVE the final result.

We celebrated Collin's birthday at Grandma's house:

Tyler went to the gym and played a lot of tennis.  Collin and Reagan had their weekly tennis lesson.

Reagan learned how to play field hockey with her friend Karlie.

She seems to like it, though she has made it clear that she does not love it.  

Today, Collin is in Boston at the Museum of Science with Papa and Grandma for his special birthday outing.

It's amazing how busy our summer has been!

UNDEFEATED

This year, T's high school freshmen football team finished the season undefeated.  They scored 358 points over the ten game season, while their opponents only scored 32 points collectively.  As a whole, this great group of kids (many of whom we have known since they were little) had an amazing season.

T played tight end on offense, and cornerback and defensive end on defense.  He was also the punter but rarely had a chance to punt because his team usually scored when they had the ball.  T had two interceptions on the season.  I didn't make it to all of his games this year (but Dad did), but I thoroughly enjoyed the games I saw.  He played well and really seemed to enjoy the sport.  We are so proud of him.  Congratulations T!

Running for a Cure

This past weekend, my husband ran the New York City Marathon.  I am so proud of him.  He completed the marathon in less than four hours, and even though he would have liked to finish in less time than he did, I think it is an amazing accomplishment. 

I also want to mention that he ran for the American Cancer Society.  He raised thousands of dollars and ran over twenty-six miles to help this great organization.  Collectively, the marathoners who ran the New York City Marathon for the American Cancer Society raised over one million dollars.  Amazing.

My husband prefers to remain anonymous in the blogosphere, but I refuse to let his achievement go unmentioned.  He is a wonderful example for our children, and I am so proud to be his wife.

Climbing, Sliding, and Swinging

We completed another fun item from our Summer Bucket List - visit a new playground.  We had actually visited a new playground already this summer, but this particular playground is the one I had in mind when I wrote the list, so we didn't check it off until now.  Once I get something in my head, that is just the way it has to be - hmmmm, I sound a lot like C in that respect.  Anyway, this playground is very cool and C and R both loved everything about it.

If you look in that bubble, you will see C looking out.

This is a fantastic playground.  We will definitely go back again soon.  I should have taken pictures at the end of our playground visit, because C and R both had bright red faces from all of the climbing, running, sliding, swinging, and playing they did.

Tennis

T, C, and R all played tennis this summer.  T has been playing for a few years now, but this is the first year C and R played. They all had a great time and learned a little about the sport.

Here is T warming up before playing one of his matches:

This is a picture of R's back.  I should have walked around the court to get a better picture.  Oh well.  You can also see T on the right side of the photo in the green shirt.

Here is C in the black shorts, preparing to serve (I don't mean to say that he actually knows how to serve, but that is what his instructor told him to do.  He tried!):

They all made great progress this summer.  C and R are just learning and they are both thrilled just to get the ball over the net.

T's First 5k

T ran in his first 5k yesterday.  He did a great job, and we are all very proud of him! 

Our First Road Race

C and R ran in their first road race on Saturday. The race for children ages 3 - 5 was 100 meters.


C is warming up for the big race.

The starting line. On your mark, get set, GO!


Here comes C.
You can do it R! Yay!
The finish line - woo hoo!

You may notice that I don't have a finish line photo of R. That is because the kids had to make a turn and when she got to the turning point, she ran off the road and into the crowd. Luckily, a friend of mine saw her crying and brought her to me.

Maybe a race for 3-5 year old children should just be a straight line.