Annie's first race!

Annie and Toby "ran" Annie's first race last weekend.  It was so cute from start to finish.  We started with high hopes and the joy that comes from planning to run a race with one of your best friends.  In our case, the ever-discussed Nolan.  Annie talks about him nonstop - if you've spent any time with us lately, you probably feel like you know him personally.

Here they are, getting Annie all pinned up.  She was a big fan of the fire truck in the background, but not a fan at all of the three giant mascots roaming around...a dog, a frog and a dragon.  She did not care for them at all. (Note to my husband:  when the child is scared of the mascots, don't tell her that the mascots may "warm the racers up" before the race.  I'm pretty sure that just terrified her, espcially since she doesn't know what "warming up" is, but does know that warm things can be hot and therefore dangerous. And now she keeps asking why the doggie didn't warm her up, which probably sounds unusual to her teachers.)

 

Annie and Nolan, making the best of having to wait for the race to begin. 

No, she isn't kicking him, and he isn't playing her like a guitar.  I'm pretty sure Annie started out trying to show different yoga poses and then got carried away.

After the above-mentioned mascot terror and then waiting for faaaar too long for the race to begin, this is what I saw run past me. Toby promises that Annie did run quite a lot, but both times I saw her, Toby was carrying her and she was crying.  I can't blame her for the second time, as they came towards the finish...I wouldn't run straight into a crowd of screaming strangers, either.

And post-race medals and happiness all around.  We celebrated with a "donup" and then headed off to Annie's first gymnastics class.  She loved it and the instructor declared her to have remarkable upper body strength, so I loved it too!

Nana and Grumps come to visit!

We had a fantastic visit from Nana and Grumps!  Despite rotten weather for probably half of the 10 day visit, we hit all the hot spots, including a trip to the zoo and a couple trips to the pool.  I never remembered to take my camera, but Nana and Grumps have promised to send along some photos, which I will share when I receive.  I took a few while we were home.

The Coopers were so sweet to bring lots of gifts for Annie, and she loved them all.  This one, however, takes the cake since she talked Nana into wearing the chef's outfit.

And Nana with sweet Finn and his omnipresent monkey.  I bought another one this week so as to stop living in fear that we might lose it.

And the Cooper boys hanging out on the couch.  If you look closely you might notice a family resemblence.  Or perhaps if you look quickly.  Or glance out of the corner of your eye. 

This post doesn't come anywhere at all close to expressing how happy we are that Nana and Grumps came to visit or how much fun we had.  (Just like those videos Nana took don't come close to showing the constant movement and exhaustion in our house...)  Our current lack of any kind of meaningful sleep is eroding my wit, along with my ability to remember recent events.  We very much look forward to the next visit!

Hannah, Travis and Tristan start school!

Kindergarten, watch out! With these three all in the same class, the year is sure to be an adventure!

Finn's two month check up

Now that we have recovered from the shots, here are the stats:

Height: 23 1/2 inches - 75th percentile
Weight: 12lb, 15 oz - 75-90th percentile
Head: 15 3/4 - 50th percentile

So he is 2 inches taller, 2 pounds heavier and has a smaller head than Annie did at the same age!

Weekends

Looks like a bed full of fun is how we will start each weekend morning for a while. Not a bad way to start the day.

Saturday morning at Lucky Ladd Farm

We had a great time visiting a farm this weekend. Annie loved feeding the animals until an unfortunate event with the goats swarming her caused us to move on to the playground area. She terrified me by sliding by herself down long steep slides, including one where you sit on a burlap sack, but she had a blast. The one in the video wasn't even the scary one. At the end of the video, you can almost make out where she says, "That's crazy!"

The horse video is underwhelming, but I thought the family might want to see it.  The crazy sounds in the background are peacocks.

"Pea-nups"

This photo was taken about 2 minutes before Annie declared, "Look! Finn has a little peanup and Daddy has a big peanup!"

I can't stop laughing!