Award for Excellence

On Friday March 18th, Mia was given an award for outstanding achievement in the classroom.  Each trimester, they select two kids from each class to receive the award.  Mia lives for awards and recognition, so this was really thrilling for her.  I was pretty excited myself.  

This is when they called her name to come up in front of the school.  Great Job Mia!

They talked about some of her great qualities.  I'm so proud to be her Mom.

 Her friend Aspen was also recognized (which just so happened to be on her birthday-  that was pretty cool).

 And it was great that Daddy could attend.  He could help manage the little ones while I took pictures.

Although my iPhone does a pretty good job of managing this little one.

St. Patricks Day 2011

St. Patricks Day landed on a very busy day this year.  Cole had soccer practice at 5:30, and Mia's soccer was at 6:30, so we had to do our annual "Green Dinner" right when they got home from school.  The kids are always so excited for this, which surprises me because they aren't traditionally fans of green foods.  So I have to be creative, in order to make them happy.  We always do pesto pasta (which is green enough).  At least the kids will eat it.

This year I mixed things up by doing a rainbow fruit salad and this was a huge hit.  Grapes, blueberries, kiwi, pineapple, oranges, and strawberries with whipped cream clouds.  Doesn't get better than that.  

And of course we have to have green jello.

I made these the night before and snuck them into their lunch boxes as well.  The instructions to make this yummy treat can be found here.

The kids played outside and ate their cupcakes until it was time to go.  It was a lot of fun.

6 Tunnel 5K Race

So, I've never been much of a runner before, but as I get older and travel through my mid-life crisis age, I figured that now was a good time to challenge myself a little.  It started when my sister Jill (who's not a runner either) called me and told me she wanted to run a marathon.  Crazy, I know.  She wanted me to join her and I quickly said "No Way".  Within a few days my friend Marquessa told me she was going to run a HALF marathon on April 30th.  Which is still crazy, but I figured it was possible.  So I called Jill up and asked her what she thought.  After talking it over we decided to go for it.  We started the 10 week trainer and discovered that it might be possible to actually finish this goal.  So it's been fun so far.  

On March 12th I was able to put my training to the test by running in my first official race.  LOTS of my friends were participating in the 6 Tunnels to Hoover Dam race in support of our friend Patricia who is suffering from a debilitating illness that affects her muscles and glands.  She really wanted to accomplish this goal so we decided to go out there and support her.  And I must say, it was a WONDERFUL experience.  We were able to run through these amazing tunnels that years ago served as the path to carry supplies to the construction of the Hoover Dam.  So cool.  

I ran the 5K in just over 28 minutes, which gave me 9 minute miles.  I took 13th place for my age group (of like sixty something women).  We ran on gravel, which was different than I was used to, and much harder.  And I wasn't used to weaving in and out of people on a small trail.  It was a great learning experience.  

Here's a photo before the race started.  

 

And after we finished and received our medals.  

After finishing we headed back up the trail and met up with Patricia and the rest of the group and followed her in to the finish line.  Patricia (number 316) ran the last part of the race.  We were so happy for her.

Too bad I don't have a photo of the back of the shirt.  It's says "I finished the Dam Race" with a pictures of the Hoover Dam Bridge.  Patricia had them made.  Love it.

Ella at 10 months

Here's the latest picture of my little baby Ella.
I love her so.

Valentines and Melissa's 34th Birthday

After Christmas we didn't do much.  I spent most of January cleaning up after the holidays and taking a much needed break from all things creative.  But I'm back to blogging now and all that other fun stuff.  So here's an update on the past month.

I had a wonderful Birthday this year.  My biggest present... Ella learned to crawl on my big day.  

 She has been such a fun baby.  At 10 months old she has 6 teeth and loves to get into things.  She talks all the time and loves her brothers and sister.  And just like Luke she's constantly sucking her thumb.

 I had to take this photo.  It's a common sight at my house.  My kids sitting at the counter waiting for something to eat.

 Soon, Ella will be right there with them.

 Drew got me this yummy cake.  And he was so sweet to invite several of my wonderful friends over to help me enjoy it.

These roses from Drew were awesome.  They were striped like a tiger.  I loved them.

34 candles make quite a blaze.

 Instead of killing myself trying to blow them all out, I figured it would just be easier to use a piece of card stock and fan them out.

Geneva, me, Jen, and Kristen, with sneaky Darin in the back.

The next day was Valentines day, so I started the day off with pink heart shaped pancakes.  The kids loved them so much that I'm going to have to make them a tradition.  

Another great thing this month...The cute Activity Day girls gave me us a "Heart Attack".  So fun!

And one last shot.

I went to the church to Help Jen decorate for the RS activity and she was running a little late.  Of course Luke would need to use the bathroom and of course the church would be locked.  I had no choice but to send him to the bushes.  I tried to be sneaky about it but Luke doesn't know the meaning of the word and walked right over there and proceeded to pull his pants all the way down to his ankles.  So I was hanging out the window trying to tell him to only pull them down a little bit, when a group of teenagers walked by.  Embarrassing.  Anyway, I just had to take this funny shot and I hope I don't get in trouble for it.  It didn't work out well for me though.  Turns out he hasn't mastered the skill of "aiming" and ended up peeing all over his pants and shoes.