Jayden the Rattlesnake

Jayden jumped off the bus a couple weeks ago totally excited and shouting, "Mom!!!  YOU have homework!!"  I'm like, "What the???"  Come to find out Jayden's class is creating a class zoo and each student got to pick an animal to research and do a presentation on and then create a costume for.  The costume was MY homework.  Jayden's animal of choice : Rattlesnake.  Rattlesnake? Where in the world do I find an idea for a costume for a rattlesnake.  Pinterest had nothing!  So I was like, "Let's just grab some paper sacks, make you a hole for your head and we'll draw on snake skin."  Jayden thought that was the worst idea he'd ever heard.  Turns out, he already had an elaborate plan for his costume and it needed to go over his head and have fangs and a really long tail that rattled.  Oh, man.......

So I went to the fabric store with Jayden and we found some snake skin material - the colors weren't quite right, as the fabric was "python" and not "rattlesnake", but I told Jayden he couldn't be THAT picky, the material looked like snake.  :)   And then I found an old hooded sweatshirt in my closet, cut the arms of it off, traced a pattern for it and sewed the snake skin material right over the top of the hoodie.

And created a 3ft long tail that I then stuffed and sewed onto the bottom of the sweatshirt, but not before putting a toilet paper roll filled with Mardi Gras beads in the tip of the tail for the rattle.

Sewed on some eyes, stuffed some fangs and voila! 8-10 hours later we have a snake costume that Jayden approved of!

I think it looks a little more lizard like than snake, but I'm not telling him that!

The class zoo was super cute and everybody had memorized a script about their animal, so you walked from animal to animal and they told you all about what they were dressed up as.

Sun and Snow

This past weekend, we got a taste of summer.  80 degrees (with stupid winds), but it was hot and sunny.  Royal and I did more "fixing up the yard" projects.  We put down more landscaping bricks and then I convinced, forced Royal to expand our flower bed and rip out a bunch of grass.  He was not really pleased with me, but I'm not really sure what else he thought he was going to be doing all day.  :)  I had asked earlier if he had anything that he wanted to get done during the weekend and he said, "No".  Big mistake for him as it turned out.  :)

It was hot and the kids had their first water fight of the season.  I filled up a big garbage can with water for their refilling station, but they turned it into a pool. :)

And after our fantastic summer day on Saturday, Sunday brought a thunderstorm that cooled us off from 75 to about 50 degrees in 15 minutes, then that night, it snowed and we woke up Monday morning to this.

Kansas Spring Schizophrenic Weather Strikes Again.
The End. ( Please can I move somewhere else???? :) )

Super Hero 5K

It was another 5K kinda weekend!  There are so many races going on sometimes it is hard to figure out just what ones we want to do!  I haven't ran too many 5K races in the past few years, but now with the kids wanting their own collection of running medals, they are asking to do one all the time.   We're shooting for maybe 1 a month, but we'll see.  :)

Jayden picked out this 5K to do.  Obviously he was drawn towards to the whole Super Hero thing, but his real criteria was, "Will I get a medal at the finish line?"  We ran the Say Grace 5K on Thanksgiving and they didn't hand out medals for that particular race unless you had also done the Turkey Trot the weekend before, so for next year Jayden is now constantly reminding me to sign him up for the Turkey Trot 2 mile AND the Say Grace Run so that he can get a the special Double Gobble medal.  These kids take after me in picking races based on what kind of swag you are gonna get.  :)

We brought capes for the kids to wear, but Royal and I ended up wearing them.  :)

We all started off running together, while Royal and I tried to teach the kids some running etiquette - don't swerve all over the place, keep your eyes looking forward, don't pass someone and then cut right in front of them and run them off the road (they did that to Royal like 5 times).  Some of it was for their own safety as we watched a guy with a stroller run right into the ankles of another runner...ouchie...

We ran together for about a mile and a half before Willow finally declared she needed to walk.  The entire time leading up to it she kept saying, "My legs are feeling tired, but I am telling them to just keep going!  They might be tired, but I'm not going to stop!"  So, I stayed back with Willow while Royal ran ahead with Jayden.  Willow walked and ran the rest of the way.  She's a tough cookie, that Willow.

 Royal said Jayden ran all the way to the 2 mile water station before stopping and then only walked once more after that.  So he figures he ran at least 2.5 out of the 3.1 miles.  He did amazing!  He ran it in 35:20 and placed 3rd in his age group!

Willow and I finished the race in 44:10.

Diva Dash 5k

This weekend, Willow and I were signed up to run the Diva Dash 5k.  Willow couldn't decide if she wanted to run the 5k race or the Lil' Princess race, and in the end she chose the shorter race because her best friend, Emery, was doing the Lil Princess race and "if I run the big race then my legs will be too tired to run with Emery".

So, I ran my fastest 5K race ever with Tonya at 25:29, placing us 6th/7th in our age group.  I figure the longer I continue to run races the fewer and fewer people will be in my age bracket and eventually I will be top dog.  :)  We'll see how my theory pans out...

I'm turning into my dad...."hello friends!"

Turns out the kids pretty much just ran around the entire time I was running.  They'll be doing the 5k in the next race.  :)
Me right after the race with Willow's best friend Emery, waiting for Emery's mom to cross the finish line, and I'm not sure what exactly Willow is doing.

I love these two girls together and am so sad Emery and her family are moving in just 6 weeks...:(
We had a little bit of time to kill before the girl's Lil' Princess race started, so we just took silly pictures and ran some more around the field.  :)

Willow is one of the happiest kids I know, except when she's whiny and cranky....

Starting Line for the 5-6 year old Lil' Princess Dash

Fixing Up the Yard :: Part 1

Holy nice Saturday!  Finally a break from winter that landed on the weekend.  Saturday we had a 65 degree day with no wind.  Un.Freaking.Heard.Of. (the wind that is)  No wind.  It was amazing and it almost made me love Kansas.  That's right, I said Kansas and love in the same sentence.  I wore a tank top knowing I'd get a little bit of a sunburn on my shoulders, and I did, and it was awesome.  However, today (Sunday), the Kansas love has totally disappeared and I have been reminded just how much I can't stand Kansas and it's wind.  Today is 75 and windy and by windy I mean 25-30mph sustained winds.  Winds so hard and loud you have to yell at the person standing 5 feet away.  With wind like this there is no point in even having hair because all it does is whip you in the face.  It makes me feel crazy, really crazy, and I'm pretty sure that is not a good thing....

Anyway, let's go back to Saturday.  We had a Saturday that was awesome weather and we had nothing on the agenda.  So we decided to stimulate the economy with some of our tax refund and pretty up our yard a bit.  First up, we raised the swings up and Willow spent the rest of the day swinging without dragging her feet on the ground.  Then we began to start fencing off the garden box to keep Sam, who has recently buried 1.5 apples and a rawhide chew in them, out. He is not pleased and was slightly freaking out when we closed it off.  I'm sure he's already salivating over the tomatoes he's going to be missing out on this year.
We first removed the temporary fencing that really didn't work at all.  Sam either jumped over it, or squeezed in between.

And put up some garden fencing.

It was so nice out that Willow demanded we have a picnic and she drug all this food outside, and for once it wasn't windy so it didn't blow off the table.  That was nice.  Real nice.

Then we started putting landscaping bricks around our trees and flower beds.  Jayden was really interested in the part where we had to bust a brick apart to make it fit.  Safety first!

I think it looks nice!  Now we just need some more dirt and some flowers!

Royal's weedeater died a few years ago and we've been limping by on a battery powered one that can't make it though the whole yard without needing a recharge.  So, we stopped by the Stihl shop and bought Royal a piece of equipment we're pretty sure we can pass onto Jayden.  (We have my grandpa's Stihl chainsaw that totally still works.)  And because he was getting a fancy new toy, I got an attachment for it.  You know me, I like accessories.  This thing is going to make turning over the garden boxes so much easier!

Jayden was all over wanting to use the power tools, he helped fix part of the fence because he got to used the drill,  and he really wanted to use Royal's new toy.  "Please dad?  Is it my turn yet?  Please?"

So he got a turn and the thing had so much power (he pulled the throttle all the way in)....

...he walked right out of his boots....

We have got much more to do.  Fencing off the rest of the garden area, finishing laying the bricks.  I need to clean out and pour vinegar and cinnamon in the sandbox (to sanitize and help keep critters away).  And soon we will be planting the garden and flower boxes and hanging baskets.  I can't wait!  I just really hope that we don't get any freak snow storms in April.  I am really over winter.