10K - for fun and friendship

This weekend my friend Christa & I ran a 10K together.  Our goals were to not stop running and to make another good friendship memory.

We reached all our goals easily.  It's amazing how quickly time running can go by when you're with a friend with whom you just never run out of conversation.

Our cheering crew was definitely the loudest and cutest!

There were all kinds of fun kid activities afterwards. Helena & her friend Holly have just started holding hands all the time.  It is so sweet.

The iRobot Scooba

Our neighbors were gone for the last 10 days, and while they were gone, they let us borrow this beautiful machine:

The iRobot Scooba

This version of the iRobot doesn't sweep and doesn't vacuum - it MOPS!  Plus, it really works.  Could there be anything more glorious?  Our floors haven't felt this good ever.

Small Group Kids

This weekend was the Men's Retreat for our church.  Since the dads were all gone, the moms & kids got together for a sleepover. 

photo courtesy of Christa D.

Can you believe we got all the kids in a photo, awake and not crying?

Friends from the Other Side of the World

Lorina and I have known each other for a long time - 12 1/2 years to be exact!  We've been able to share in each other's lives in various ways and at various times, but for the last 7 years it's only been a meet-up every 2 or 3 years since we live 12 time zones away from each other.

But they were in North Dakota when we were in Minnesota, and they so wonderfully took a drive to come spend the morning and to each lunch with us.  It took awhile for Helena to warm up but Lorina's daughter is so sweet and eventually Helena loved her.  I sure loved all the chatting.  Thanks again for taking a trip to see us, Lorina! 

Ballet with a friend

 

Helena was invited by her friend Lily to attend ballet class two Saturdays ago.  

Despite the fact that she stood with very little movement the entire class, she seemed to have really enjoyed herself.  Sometimes it just takes a bit of time to feel comfortable.

Longboat Island Run - for the second time.

Two years ago John & I ran in a 5K race on Toronto Island.  It was John's first running race and he called it a "marathon."

 

This spring John brought up the race in a conversation with friends and they decided to all run it together.

John had some cute fans cheering him on:

 A quick note from a spectator - I have to just mention all that happened during John's 26:26 run: Benjamin ate and had his diaper changed, the race's bagpiper gave Helena a thorough explanation of how the instrument works, we walked to the other side of the island, had a snack, and Helena fell & skinned up her knee.  It's amazing how much happens with little kids in such a short time!

What a summer we've had!

Blogging has obviously not been #1 on my to-do list this summer - but not because there was nothing to report!  We have had an extremely full AND absolutely fantastic summer.

We had great visits from grandparents and then in August my brother & family came to Toronto for a week.  It was so much fun to see the cousins playing together.  Helena adores Emma, and Charlie loves Benjamin!

A highlight of their visit for me was taking the three older kids on a log flume ride.  Their reactions and then excited faces when we got to go again were just the best.

 

Another activity of the summer was housesitting for one of John's colleagues.  Having a house of our own was such a treat.  I may have told John every couple hours "I love living here."

First thing we did after arriving at "our house" was buy a kiddie pool to use in the fenced-in backyard.

A few blocks away was a ravine so we took evening walks.  As soon as we got to the entrance, Helena would hop out of the wagon and just run run run.  Or pull the wagon :)

We made at least one meal a day on the grill.  Hamburgers, brats, barbecued chicken, grilled pizza - so good.  We also ate almost every single meal outside!

 

It was possible to squeeze a few fun Toronto festivals into our summer schedule.  Helena & her friend Zoe had a lot of fun at Dundas Square's (think Canada's Time Square) 10th birthday!

The huge Toronto Buskerfest (Festival of Street Performers) was held 10 minutes away from us.  She liked the acrobats but Helena's favorite were the seagulls.

 We wrapped up the summer events with our annual camping trip and apple picking with friends.  

 

Benjamin was such a good camper.  (Thanks again, Millie, for this great baby chair.  It helped protect Benjamin from bugs and the girls loved turning on the nature music, as if we needed it while in nature.)

 

We had a few gorgeous beach days while camping, as well as a few days of rain.

It's sad summer has come to an end, but with the brisk breeze coming in our windows right now, we're looking forward to wearing hoodies, drinking hot chocolate, eating squash and crunching leaves this fall.  Life is full with these two kids and so so good!

Being Outside

The weather has been all over the map this past month, but we've been enjoying all of it.  Yay for summer and outside activities!

Lots and lots of park dates with friends

Snacks outside on the balcony

Walks outside with umbrellas and rain boots

Joy rides & running errands with Daddy on their new bike

Rainy days do take us to the science museum, but they have fun outside toys too!

Grass, sticks, stones, trees, branches can occupy us for hours

Dipping our feet (and Helena's babies' feet) in fountains

Back On Our Feet with Friends

Due to our apartment's flu epidemic, we went 8 days without any socialization.  That's a long time!  We did a number of things that needed to be done around our home - got caught up on paperwork, painted the bathroom (actually this occurred right before the epidemic, leaving the apartment a MESS for the first 4 days of sickness), rearranged the living room, worked on toy organization...and many hours were spent on the couch or in bed.  But even with all those projects & recovering, we are still more than ready to see friends and more friends and yes, once again, friends.

Wednesdays are currently Mom's Group days for Helena and me.  This week was our week to host, and while Helena had to work on getting in the sharing groove, we had just a wonderful morning.  Here are a few fun pics for the morning:

Helena's toddler bed was quite the attraction.  All 3 girls took a nap together.

Pretty dresses, necklaces & horn pegs!

Seeing an Old Friend

 

Last weekend we had the wonderful opportunity to see a dear old friend of mine, Ellen, and to meet her husband, Gerry, while they were in Ontario.  It was really nice to catch up and to see that while we had changed, we hadn't changed that much!

Happy Belated Halloween!

After showing Helena who Minnie Mouse is through a youtube clip, she was very excited about her Halloween costume. 

Only after showing Helena that Holly had a headband and a bag to carry too, was she willing to wear her ears and hold on to the bag.

And after visiting a few houses and learning that candy went into her bag, she was very unwilling to let go of that bag!

photo courtesy of Christa

A Great Trip

Helena & I had a wonderful trip while John was in Israel.  I honestly couldn't ask for a better trip.  We had a great time with John's mom with lots of other family members thrown in at various times, we had a fun time in Bemidji, and we ended our trip with 3 relaxing yet full days with my friend Mandy & her fam.  I was ready to get home to see John & not be a single parent anymore but I do wish the trip could have gone on because it was so good.

Visiting Chickens at Grandma's friends' house

All the cousins traveled to Grandma's house for a big picture party one day.  Lots of good pictures were taken and lots of fun was had!

Visiting Mutti in the nursing home - pushing a wheelchair is like pushing a stroller :)

The big highlight of Bemidji was fishing!  Uncle Rob and Papa helped us catch lots of fish.

Hmmm....worms...

She loves to kiss so why not kiss a fish?

Papa & Uncle Rob made Nani & Helena's mom kiss fish since we made Helena kiss a fish :)

They also made me pretend to kiss Rob's big catch.  I swear that fish stuck his tongue out at me.

Pizza and Play in the Park with Kay :)

Tea Party before we left - there was real food!  It just hadn't been served when I took the photo.

Watering flowers & a mini watering can were both big hits. The water just didn't always go to the flowers.

Helena made so many dog friends on our vacation.  Whenever we Skype with anyone we visited, her response IMMEDIATELY after someone answers is "Arfff?  Arfff?"  This is Moses.  At one point I had to explain to Helena that dogs chew on the sticks but kids don't.  From then on she liked to feed them to him.

Baby Caleb is great.  He's got a CUTE smile and such a content demeanor.

When we went out for ice cream, I ordered Helena a toddler cone off the menu.  It was a full-size ice cream cone.  And she ate all of it :)

Mandy, it was so nice to live life with you for a few days.  I can't believe we're both moms!

The trip ended with a "Fashion Makeover in 10 minutes flat" by my nieces.  Don't we look fabulous?