Fun with Friends

On the last Friday before school ended Sofia went to her friends house for a playdate while I brought Ali to gymnastics.  After gymnastics we headed home and changed and went over to our friends house to meet up with Sofia and hang out for a BBQ.  Our friends live right down the road from us so it didn't take any time to get there and they are very laid back so we had a relaxing time chatting with our friends while the kids played.  Sofia had a couple injuries from the blow up water slide but she didn't seem bothered by them and kept playing.  Ali joined in the fun as well.  It is nice to be at an age where we don't have to worry about what the kids are doing every second and it is nice to have good friends around for us to hang out with.  Having moved here a year ago it was a concern but one I can now put aside as we have made some good friends.  We stayed until after it was dark and sat around the fire pit roasting marshmallows.  I snapped this picture (not the best quality) of Sofia sitting with her friends by the fire listening to her friend Kiki tell a ghost story.  It struck me as another stage in her growing up...the beginning of her solo friend time without mom.  She is getting so big!

First Grade Field Day

Ali school held a field day for first graders.  Field day, at least for first graders, is not the competitive athletic event that I remember from child hood.  It is more of a fun day filled with games.  The kids had ten different stations that they moved through as a class.  The had a bag toss, sack race, egg and spoon race, leaky cup race etc.  The kids were very excited at every station.  I had volunteered to help on field day and ended up at the Popsicle station.  Not a very athletic station but one of the kids favorites!  It didn't take them long to suck down their Popsicles though so we filled the time with bubbles and Simon Says.  Since we had a break in our station I took the chance to run over and video Ali in her sack race.  She is a good hopper!

Golf

We decided that this was the year for our family to pick up the game of golf.  Jason has wanted to play for years but it is such a commitment I have not been willing to get into the game.  This year I realized that we make the time and money commitment for so many other activities that there is no reason we couldn't make room for a sport that interested Jason so here we are picking up golf.  I took my golf lessons while the kids were in school.  Thanks to many years of chipping and putting in our back yard I wasn't a complete newbie.  I played my first nine holes with Jason and played it with a final score of 59.  Not the best score but not bad for the first time on the course.  We took the kids out to play nice holes with us.  We weren't sure how it would go but figured we had to start somewhere.  We chose the course were I took my lessons (and where the kids will take their lessons this summer) since it is nearby and on the weekends kids play free after 3pm (with an adult).  The course was empty at that time so we had no pressure to play fast.  We let the kids hit off the tee and then picked their ball up and dropped them near ours.  The guy who works at the course told us that we should let the kids hit from anywhere on the fairway with their tee and if there was a top of a hill the kids could hit from to let them so that they can also fee some satisfaction of seeing their ball go a good distance.  We thought this was great since we weren't expecting such a family friendly attitude.  By the time we made it to the sixth hole the kids were pretty much done playing golf so Jason and i played on while the kids watched.  On the seventh hole the guy we spoke with on the first hole came buy in his cart and asked us if we wanted him to take the kids club and leave them up at the house on the first hole so we wouldn't have to carry them.  Again we were surprised at the helpful family friendly attitude.  It was great.  We all had a great time playing and we are looking forward to many days on the course this summer.

Timlin 5K

The girls have really enjoyed running road races in the past and we have done a couple with them in Prague.  They had a lot of fun and surprised us each time we did a race with how well they ran.  With Sofia's school having the marathon fitness challenge the girls and I have been running more together and with all my races they wanted to be able to race also.  We decided that we would run the Timlin 5K race together as a family.  As in past races Jason paired up with Sofia and I paired up with Ali so that the girls could each run their own pace.  In previous races we have ended up really separating since Sofia liked to go really fast and then really slow and Ali always kept a very consistent pace.  This race was different.  Since the girls and I had been running together and I was able to teach Sofia more about having a consistent pace and forcing her to keep pace with me since we were running on roads she seems to have found her natural stride.  So while we stayed paired up we were always really close to each other during the race.  The longest run the girls had done before the race was 2.17 miles so we still figured they would end up walking some of the 5K but again the girls surprised us with their ability and determination.  They ran the entire 5K (3.1 miles) without stopping to walk at all and ran it at an 11:45 per mile pace.  They did AWESOME!  We are so proud of them!!  Above is a picture of Ali and I coming into the finish line with Sofia right in front of us.  We are still waiting to see if the photographer caught Sofia's finish.  All the other photos we have missed Sofia...she is so little that she is behind someone in every photo!  The kids had a great time running the race and loved being able to run in a race with us as well as their cousin Michael, Aunt Jenn, Aunt Carrie and Uncle Joe.  Running the race in town meant we knew some people running the race and cheering on the sidelines which was fun to see and to be cheered.  Grandma and Grandpa also came to the race too so it was a real family event.  With the whole family in attendance for the after party we headed back to our house for a BBQ.  We look forward to running it again next year! 

Birthday party with friends



Back Row: Amisi, Amisi's sister, Raelyn, Maggie M, Sydney, Natalie
Front Row: Erin, Jas, Ali, Maggie J, Sofia, Chloe

Since this is our first year back in the States we decided that the girls could have a friend party and a family party.  We wanted them to be able to make good friends this year and have time to play with them but we also wanted a chance for the family to celebrate their birthdays since we haven't been able to do that for the past four years.  Ali decided she wanted the same party as Sofia which meant back to the gym where the girls do gymnastics.  This was fine with me since it meant I had to do very little work for the party.  The gym does such a nice job with the kids that the kids have a blast.  The hour on the gym floor is over very quickly with the kids wanting more time but since the gym time is followed by cake and ice cream the kids eagerly leave the gym floor.  After cake and ice cream Ali opened her presents.  I'm always surprised at how eager the other kids are to watch someone open gifts to which they are genuinely excited for the birthday child.  It is nice to see all the kids happy and having fun.  We finished up the party by giving everyone Chinese jump ropes.  I'm hoping for a resurgence in Chinese jump rope playing on the playground at the kids school next year :)!

Pollen

For our friends and family who don't live in the area I thought I would post about the pollen this year.  The pollen this spring was unbelievable.  Over the long weekend (and our rib making) the pollen was definitely at its worst.  We could see clouds of pollen floating in the air towards us.  Everything was coated with a layer of yellow and we cleaned off our patio table three times before we had dinner!  We had a short rain storm and I thought it would wash the pollen away but it just washed it down the driveway.  I took a picture of the pollen on the driveway because I have never seen anything like it.  Here is the picture so you can get a sense of the amount of pollen flying through the air.  Fortunately none of us have a serious allergy to pine pollen!

Memorial Day Weekend

To kick off the summer we decided to start with yummy BBQ ribs.  We hadn't made ribs in a long time and Jason wanted to make them start to finish on the grill.  So he manned the grill and I made the BBQ sauce.  Yes, we make our own BBQ sauce.  We make it for a couple reasons.  First off it is way better than any store bought sauce we have ever tried and secondly I make it with out any onion product so I can enjoy it without feeling awful after.  The ribs turned out great and made for a nice BBQ dinner out on our patio.  Ali cracked us up when in the middle of eating her ribs she turned to me and said, "mommy, I love pig!".  We definitely do not have vegetarians in our house!  Sofia also made us laugh when she realized while she was eating her corn on the cob her tooth came out and had stuck right into the ear of corn.  We finished it off with s'mores. Yum!

After a relaxing Saturday we headed over to our friends house in Sunday to hangout with them by their pool.  The kids had a great time playing in the pool with their friend Chloe and made new friends with the other kids who were there as well.  The kids played well together and really had fun.  Jason and I had a nice time hanging out with our friends and meeting a another couple from town.  It is nice to feel like we are finally settling into to our new town.