Neighborhood Weekend Away

I don't think I've ever mentioned this on the blog, but we live in the most incredibly amazing, awesome, super-terrific, fabulous, fantastic neighborhood in the entire universe. I'm not kidding. We will NEVER move because our neighbors are the best neighbors in the history of mankind. I'm not exaggerating either.

Our neighborhood crew consists of six households, and one of the families owns a lake house. Next door to their lake house, is one of the neighbor's parents' lake house. Over the fourth of July, the entire neighborhood spent three days together at the lake. We shared the neighbor's parents' house with the "F" family, the "S", "R", and "M" families shared the "M" family's house, and the "McGs" stayed in a hotel. It was a blast! Good food, good company, fireworks, and nothing to do but have fun. It was awesome.

Canoeing with Luna, the dog

Catching fish

The swimming cove

Diving board fun

All the neighborhood kids

Our five year old neighbor told Cole, "You look like a grandpa in that chair."

This is Eli. I honestly thought he had fallen asleep.

 The whole neighborhood. I mean, seriously, who goes on a neighborhood vacation?! Loved it.

Mommy/Son Event

Back in March (was it really that long ago?!) I helped plan the annual Mommy/Son Event for my Mom's Group. We planned a "Block Party", as in building blocks. It was a huge success! My Mom's Group has SO MANY BOYS! We also have boys of all ages since we are not an age-specific Mom's Group....just one of the many reasons we rock. ;-) This was the perfect solution. Each family brought their favorite building medium and bonded for a few hours on a Saturday morning.

A mom and her boys

The Anderson work space. We brought Trio blocks, wooden blocks, and Lincoln Logs.

 

Lego everything!

The Door Prize

I cut the #@$ out of my finger slicing this tube in half. I bled a LOT, and my co-organizer and I even thought stitches might be a good idea. I powered through, stitch free.

Our Legos for building race cars

Duplos for building race cars

The race track

T-Ball

Ian played T-ball this summer! It was a quick, six-game season. Ian was on the blue team. A lot of field time was spent rolling on the ground, and most bench time was spent holding the water bottle between his thighs, squeezing it, and announcing, "Look! I'm peeing". He ran screaming, with his arms waving over his head between all the bases, but he was having a good time, and at this age, that's what it should be about.

13.1

Cole ran his second half-marathon this year. Although the morning got off to a ROUGH start, (someone I left his time bib at home and we didn't realize it until we'd already made it to Champaign), we somehow made it back to the house to get the bib and then back to Champaign in time for Cole to line up in the right starting corral. Thank goodness we got an early start! He didn't beat his first half-marathon's time, but he finished in a fantastic 1:52:41. Way to go, Cole!

Start time was 7:00 am

All smiles

Cole is coming up the field. He's right below the right side of the "N" in Finish.

High School Preschool Take 2

Eli went to "High School Preschool" again this year. He LOVED it! His helpers were amazing. He had Miss Hailey and Mr. Colton. Each of them was fantastic, and Eli had a blast with both of them. He was definitely the most daring child there when it came to fashion. Eli frequently wore blue Speedo swimming goggles, capes, and bike helmets to school. In fact, he became well known around the High School as the "kid that wears goggles." Oh, Eli. To know him is to LOVE him. He even made the front page of the local paper for attending the Preschool.

First Day, April 2013

First Day, April 2012

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