Young Party of Four

Today we ventured back to what is probably very near the top of my favorite races that we do. They all really have their high points... Iron Girl is girls and women only and along the water in Clearwater Any Disney race is... well... Disney The Track Shack races are so well organized and always a good time ... but this one is one of the favorites round here for a few reasons. The main one being that we get the chance to run through our alma mater including around the baseball field and the football stadium. Can't beat that. The other is the distance. It isn't as far as a 10k, but it is farther than the traditional 5k that we often run so it is more of a challenge but not so far that it is really difficult (though we know we can handle the 10k too). We knew without a doubt that we would make this race happen again this year. We started our morning by getting up around 5:45 to head out to UCF. That was after a long night spent cheering on our Knights (at UCF... so we m...

About a week ago, we did something for Kenzie that I swore I would never do... welcome to real life parenting. Haha! We put training wheels on Kenzie's bike. Yeah, that doesn't sound like a bad thing, and it isn't. Yet it was something I wanted to avoid. We started Kenzie on a balance bike, which she still does really well on and then Santa brought her a bike last Christmas but left the training wheels just in case though they weren't on. Some kids take to riding a real bike really well and some apparently don't. It's not that Kenzie couldn't do it necessarily. She lacked the experience of pedaling so that didn't help and she is our "nervous" child. She isn't huge on being put in situations in which she isn't in full control (like mother, like daughter). We also never had the opportunity to truly work a lot with her to help her feel she gained that control. So, with our help, she was okay but she still lacked confidence and wasn't a...

When Will's birthday was approaching we talked with him about what kind of party he would like to have this year and it wasn't long before we settled on a Cars theme. The kid loves anything and everything with wheels and a motor. So, when we were thinking of themes, cars were on the top of his list. Being that the Cars 3 movie came out in the last few months (which we all saw together in the theater so it was mega-exciting for Will), and was super popular, there were plenty of ideas out there and it was really easy to find decorations related to the franchise. As is customary in this house, planning started at least a month in advance as we like to split up the cost of a party over time and it gives us more time to create some things along the way. Will was super excited this year to see us buy things or make things along the way. This was the first year that he was really into his own birthday party. The first year he truly understood what was going on and that the party was h...

Honestly though. Can anyone say that without singing it? I certainly can't. Since Fall is here now (believe it or not despite our 100 degree heat index the last couple of days...) we are quickly approaching Christmas season and for some reason this song has been stuck in my head. Which lead me to thinking about how I have some "favorite" things right now. Thought I would note some of those because I like looking back at old blog posts a year or more later and seeing what was going on with us at that point. These big coloring page books are awesome! They can keep a kid busy for ever and a day if they are into coloring like one particular kid I know is right now. Kenzie is turning into quite the artist lately. It's so funny that as the kids that hated coloring until she was almost 3 and a half or so, she is so obsessed lately that if we give her an extra minute, we can always find her coloring. She gets easily distracted by it. She will often disappear into her room t...

Dear Will, Will! Slow it down, Buddy! You are growing up way too fast. I'm not ready for this. You are supposed to be my baby. You are supposed to stay small forever and always need me. Yet, here we are. Celebrating your third birthday! Third!! That's just nuts. To start, you are getting tall. We are going to the doctor in a few days to get a formal height and weight but for now we have the measurements we take. We think you are somewhere around 38.75 inches. That puts you around the 82nd percentile. If those calculations are correct, you will officially be taller than your sister was at the same age for the first time in over a year and a half; however, your percentile is still slightly lower because of that whole boy vs girl thing. The doctor said eventually you would start to catch up to her growth and eventually pass her so this could be that or maybe you just hit a growth spurt earlier than she did. Granted, we could also be off some so your formal height measure...