Friday, October 22, 2010

letter O for octopus and owl

Octopus
Brielle was telling her Aunt Megan about octopuses.  Aunt Megan asked how many arms they have.  Brielle looked at her and said (in a nice know-it-all voice) 'they're called tentacles'.
Books:
Octavia and her Purple Ink Cloud by Donna Rathmell (a fun way to learn about colors)
Tickly Octopus by Ruth Galloway
Gentle Giant Octopus by Karen Wallace
Song:
Oscar the Octopus

Owls
I saw this idea for an Owl Snack and couldn't resist.  The kids promptly realized the eyes were chocolate chips and those were the first things to disappear.
Tracing the letters in owl
Books:
Owl Babies by Martin Waddell
The Barn Owls  by Tony Johnston
Owl  by Mary Ling
Song:
Hoot, Hoot went the Little Brown Owl

Other Activities

 Nothing fancy, but there is a lot you can do with a giant letter 'o' on the floor.  We walked on it, marched around it, danced in it, did the hokey pokey, played ring around the rosies.  All kinds of fun entertainment.

We went on a hunt through the house to find objects shaped like and o and then used them to do circle painting.

We listened to (and acted out) the Standin' Tall story about Obedience.  The kids are using the puppets and they formed a marching band.  

Sunday, October 17, 2010

letter n

Noah's Ark
We read multiple versions of Noah's Ark.  Played Noah's Ark games, Sang Noah's Ark songs.  We were immersed in Noah all day.
Today it was raining.  Ellie asks. "is it going to rain for 40 days?"  

Nature
We love nature walks!  The kids were so excited when they looked under this tile and found crickets hiding there.  
 Necklaces
The kids loved making fruitloop necklaces.  They loved eating them even more.  
Nests
Books
The Best Nest by P.D. Eastman
and
The Best Nest by Doris L. Mueller
(yup, two books with the same name)
Seven Hungry Babies by Candace Flemming

This is a favorite activity.  We've done it before, but it was more educational this time after reading a book about how birds make nests.  We used 'sticks', 'grass' and 'mud' to weave together a nest to put our eggs.

We used these activities to work on patterns

and sorting capital and lowercase letters

and we used or 'donut' chair as a nest.  We flew around the house and then back to the nest for safety.  Don't worry, Ellie's knee did not end up knocking out Lissy's tooth.

Food
nectarines
nachos

Friday, October 15, 2010

Nothing to Say

In this post I kept track of the words Brielle said for a 2 hour period when she was 19 months old.
Well, Ethan is now 19 months old.  It's crazy to think that I still think of him as my baby.  I think part of the reason he is still a baby to me is because he doesn't talk very much.  I'm not trying to compare my kids, it is just an observation.  They are SO different, and it is interesting to note the differences.

So, at 19 months (and 1 week) from 7am-9am here is what Ethan had to say:

Ball (he found a golf ball, carried it around for a while, got a bread pan from out of the cupboard and put the golf ball in the bread pan.  He then giggled as he carried the golf ball in the bread pan around the house.)
Woah!
Oh!
Mama
More
No
Bug
Amen
Bye
Cat
Dog
Done

Now, this is not to say that he is quiet.  He is a LOUD kid.  He is constantly yelling, squealing, grunting, and clapping for himself.


Other major differences:
*Even though Ethan doesn't say as many words yet, he is much more outgoing and likes to say Hi and Bye to everyone.  Brielle talked a lot more, but mostly just to people she was comfortable with.
*Ethan still takes 2 naps.  Ellie had dropped her morning nap by 15 months.
*He still only has 8 teeth...well, 9 and 10 are currently popping through but aren't all the way in yet.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Letter m

So many things starting with m, it was hard to narrow it down!

This week we did 'm' for:

Marbles
I try to rotate through toys, so that the kids don't get use to the toys we have and thus bored of everything.  The marble track had been put in the closet for the past month or so, so it was new and special all over again for this week.  The kids loved watching their marbles go down.

We talked about earning money and that we need to do work to get money to spend.  (The kids 'earned' money by cleaning up the playroom). I used these printables and we opened a pet shop.  The kids were able to match up their coins to the size circles that were on the cards to buy pets.  We played pet shop ALL morning.  It would have continued, but I needed them to put the money away before Ethan ate it all.
We also played this game where you have to fill up all the piggy banks with pennies by rolling the dice.  It was good number practice.

Letter M food we made/ate this week:
macaroni and cheese
mangos
muffins
marshmallow treats aka rice crispy treats

Mickey Mouse
Monday we went to Disneyland for a few hours and found lots of things that started with M.  Mickey Mouse, Monsters, Matterhorn etc.

Magnets/Music/Maps
Thursday was a free day at the Huntington Gardens. There was a plethora of 'm' activities for us there as well.
 We had fun playing with magnets
enjoyed listening to music made by putting rocks down the nail shoot
and learned about reading maps

 Mail
The kids had a great time writing letters and putting them in the mailbox.  We were able to talk about addresses and where they live.
Books we read:

Marshmallows and Movies
We ended the week roasting marshmallows over the fire
and having an outdoor movie night with some friends

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Because 26.3 Miles Would Be Crazy

After running in the SoCal Ragnar Relay in April, Meg got the crazy idea that she wanted to be in the 1% of the population that runs a marathon in their lifetime.  She entered the lottery for the St. George Marathon and was picked.  She was lucky enough to get to spend the next 6 months training to run a distance that killed the first person who completed it.

We left for St. George, UT after James got off work on Thursday evening.  The plan was to have the kids fall asleep on the drive up.  Yeah right.  Since the kids were awake at 10pm we thought it would be fun to stop in at the Bellagion in Las Vegas to see the amazing garden (click on the picture to see a larger version and see the weight of that pumpkin) as well as their water show.

We ended up watching 3 of their water shows which feature bursts of water synchronized to music.  Despite being tired the kids could not be pulled away from the fun.  We loaded back into the car and drove the rest of the way (with two soundly sleeping kids) to St. George.

The house we stayed in had a pool so after hitting the marathon expo hall we took a dip.  You can see Ethan was really pleased with that choice.

James dropped Meg and her brother-in-law (Nathan) off at the buses at 4:30 am so they could be shuttled to the start of the race 26.2 miles away.  James went back to the house to get a little shut eye before getting up with the kids and other family members to have some breakfast.  Meg would text James every 5 miles with her location so that we could meet her along the route.  Pictured above are Brielle and Ethan waiting for Mom to come by.  To pass the time, Ethan ate rocks.

Brielle passed the time by giving high fives to random runners and showing them her cheer sign.  According to her, it says "Good job Mom, you are awesome."

At mile 23 we saw the runners coming close.  We gave them words of encouragement and sent them on their way.  They were in surprisingly good spirits, or at least pretended to be so.

Finally, they made it!  They crossed the finish line still moving at a good pace.  Both runners came in under 4 hours 30 mins.  James was very impressed with this time as it was over 30 mins faster than what Meg had planned.

Brielle got a few of Mom's favorite treats for her after she completed the race.  She told her before giving her the candy "Mom, I see some peanut butter cups in your future."  Right she was.  Sadly, despite running for 4.5 hours that is only enough to burn off 13 of these peanut butter cups.  That should make us all think twice before we have a taste!

Below is a video clip of the dash across the finish line.  A true accomplishment for everyone who ran.

Marathon Details

(or in other words, a long wordy post to accompany the pictures in the post above.)


Everyone that runs a marathon I'm sure has a completly unique experience. It is a personal story that takes place among the thousands of others around you. Everyone is attempting to run the same distance, but for some its the first time, for others their hundreth or more. At this event there were kids as young as 11 and adults as old as 84 all out to make a new memory in their life.
Was it hard? Yes. Would I do it again? Maybe.
Here is my story:
Have I always wanted to run a marathon? No, I don't think so. I have admired others that have done it, but I never thought it was something I could do. I enjoy running, but haven't stuck with it consistently, so getting back into running is always hard and slow. Before this year my longest run was about 6 miles, and at that time I thought I was amazing. I signed up for the Marathon on a whim. I enjoyed the structure of training for the Ragnar and after it was over I was looking for the next goal to work toward. I was thinking a half marathon would be good, but hadn't found one that worked yet. I found out that it was time to enter the St. George lottery and did it without thinking. The next week I found out I had my name drawn out of the hat and knew that I had a lot of work to do for the next 5 months.
Finding time to train was tough. It took a lot of planning with James to know how early he had to leave for work, if he would be home long enough I could run without kids. I found a training program online that I followed. I ran 4 times a week. I would have liked to have done cross-training on my off days, but running was a hobby, not my job, and there was only so much time I could put into the training and still have time for my responsibilities at home and with others.
I had some runs that I took the kids in the jogger for, but although pushing the stroller is a great workout, stopping every 5 minutes to break up the kids from picking on eachother is not an enjoyable way to get a workout in. Most often I would get up before the rest of my house woke up, drive to the Sante Dam, run on the bike trail and get home in time to get James out the door. Some runs I had move to different days or cut short because of other things going on, but because of James' help in making the training a priority I felt well prepared.
Running is not just physical, at times I was mentally exhausted getting through a workout. A 19 mile run can feel great, but a 2 mile run could be a challenge. It depends on sleep, food, how hot it is...there are just a lot of factors that go into making it a good run.
As my mileage started to taper I started getting more and more nervous that the marathon was approaching quickly. I had a hard time sleeping at night and worried about the upcoming event. I was confident with my training that I could complete the marathon, I just didn't want to hate it. I wanted to feel like it was worth all of the work that I had put into it.
The night before the event I went to bed at 10:30 exhausted from a busy week. I woke up 2 hours later and couldn't sleep. I tried relaxing every muscle in my body, I tried counting backward from 100, I soaked in a warm bath, I worried and wondered how the race would go.
So, it's not just running 26.2 miles, but doing that with no sleep. Yep, it is quite an experience.
I was mostly worried that I had trained mostly at sea level and was running at about 4500, so was concerned that breathing might be a problem. Breathing is kind of important when you are running. I was also scared of the weather. A predicted high of 99 degrees that day. I hate running when it is hot. It drains the run right out of me.
I decided I was going to just go for it. I couldn't control the weather, I couldn't change the elevation, but I knew I had done the best that I could with the time I had to train.
At 4am it was finally time to quit pretending to try to sleep and get ready to go catch the bus. James took Nathan and I down to the bus stop where we climbed abord along with the thousands of other runners to drive the 26.2 miles from the finish line to the starting line in Central, UT. It was a long drive. Maybe in a bus it only takes about 1/2 an hour, but knowing that you then have to run back to where you started from makes you realize you are a little bit crazy. We got up to the start and stood among the 6000 other runners waiting in anticipation to be told to start moving. I ate a granola bar hoping it would give me the energy I wanted for the next 5 hours. I looked around and saw people of all ages, some sitting patiently, others dancing nervously. Some women had taken the time to do their hair and make-up (maybe they couldn't sleep either and didn't know what else they should do or maybe they thought they could run that far and still look good, I'm not sure.)
So, at 6:45 they finally gave us permission to start. The crowd slowly moved forward then crossed the starting line and took off running.
For me the first 5 miles flew by in a blur. I was trying to keep things slow and not start too fast so I could maintain my energy the whole time. I was half listening to a book and half watching the scenery as I mindlessly put one foot in front of the other and moved forward. Mile 8 came with a big hill that made me have to start concentrating on the breathing and pushing myself mentally foward. There were other hills that came later, but that was the tough one for me. Mile 10 came and I realized this was easy, I was enjoying myself, I was having fun running. I came to the half way mark and was feeling good knowing that I was going faster than I thought I could and I wasn't dead. yet.
It did get tougher. Miles 10-15 felt like they stretched a little bit longer than the first 10 had, but I kept moving forward. At mile 20 I was excited because I knew my family would be there to cheer me on. I looked and looked and realized the weren't at mile marker 21 like they thought they were as I saw miles 21 and 22 and 23 go by. I spotted them just past 23 and was excited they hadn't given up on me and left. They were there cheering me on, and I knew I was almost done.
But this was the hard part. We had come out of the canyon and it was getting hot. I was so glad that I had met up with my brother-in-law Nathan at this point. He stuck with me and we pushed each other on one step at a time. The last mile was tough. I saw a girl that had feinted on the side of the road with only a mile left to go. The ambulance was there checking on her. I didn't want that to be me. Finally I saw the balloons and realized I was there. I scanned the faces and saw James had made it in time. He cheered me to the end. I was done.
With the heat, the elevation, being the first time I'd ever run 26.2 miles I had no idea what to expect. My anticipated time was 5 hours. My dream time was 4 1/2 hours. My final time was 4:29:37. Not too fast, not too slow, just an average marathon women runners pace...but for me, it was perfect.
I didn't die, I didn't get injured (well, one huge blister, but that's not too bad), I am stiff but can move, I can finally sleep. I accomplished something I said I was going to do. It feels good.