a trail race, vive la france & a church luncheon

my friend rachel and i did the heels & wheels 5K a few weeks ago. it was partly paved but mostly trail and it was HARD. you had to go up a mountain (steep hill), jump over a creek (that was fun) and run through a field or two. oh yeah, i saw a big snake and stopped for a few minutes to gawk (there was a crowd).

my race bib

rachel's first 5K - she basically crushed it

i liked the race, my first trail race but probably not my last. i have a running buddy that loves trail runs so maybe i will do a few more with her.

the race season is starting up! i am doing the run for the schools with a bunch of friends on saturday, it's great because we do the zoo with the kids afterwards. lottie is already very excited.

 click on the image to learn more or to sign up

and then my favorite race of last year will be on the 7th. it will be matt's first 5K (since we've been married, he did do a marathon about 10 years ago), so i am taking the kids in the jogging stroller. are we cute and active or WHAT? the race for the deaf is routed through the lovely island home neighborhood. it is so cute and quaint, i can't wait!

 click on the image to learn more or to sign up

last week lottie's school had a "book character" day - all of the kids had to dress like their favorite book character and they had a parade. it was cute. i tried to get lottie sue to be fancy nancy (those are her favorite books) but she wanted to be sleeping beauty. as you can see, she is kinda both. vincent was an elephant and looked so cute (good job, lisa!), i forget the book he likes so much.

lottie sue and vincent, bffs

here are a few shots of the parade...

that weekend it was our turn to host dinner group - we went french. matt and i love the french! vive la france!

here is the menu...

i know, yummers

here is the table, we thought it looked french

matt literally cooked for about eight hours that day, it was delicious. maybe the best meal he has ever made, and that is saying something because he is the best cook i know.

after dinner the nerf gun came out, much fun was had.

then somehow rick, amy and matt exercised. maybe it was to burn off some of the calories from dinner? rick is a HARD CORE athlete person, he was showing us some of the moves he can do in his sleep.

rick and amy feel the burn

this is matt after he did a move rick showed us,
he is smiling because he is happy it's over

then the next day our community group at church had a luncheon. lottie sue and rowdy had a great time, the food was plentiful as well.

and now i leave you with these items of interest...

• the 2011 pulitzer prize winners were announced...i have read (and loved) the book that won for fiction - a visit from the goon squad by jennifer egan
• the times has a q&a with tina fey
• if you like "radiolab" (i do), then you can read about the hosts here
• go check out the atlantic's how genius works - get inside the minds of some of the most creative people
• here's a story on what you don't know about the muppets
• better safe than sorry: four ways you might be mishandling your cheese
• slate has a story on the politics of parks and recreation
• here is a story on lorne michaels

and oh yeah - we made homemade ravioli the other night with the smiths. it was so great, a labor of love...

mario would have liked it

and now i leave you for real with this photo of rowdy sleeping in the car. he's so cute.

 

 zzzzzzzzz

alrighty, this was a quick post. i have an Easter one in the works for you - it was a wonderful day and a full weekend. the carsons and gilmores were in town. yippee!

snow (!!!), the big 3-5, macaroni n' cheese & the smokin' parlour

I know I posted yesterday but I have another one ready for you, I am on fire.

We woke up this morning to snow, I didn't know it was supposed to snow but it's been pretty neat. When we came downstairs she pointed out the window saying "sew! hiiii sew! hiii! hiii!" - we didn't know that she knew what snow was honestly but she picked it up somewhere. I took her outside early this afternoon and she was so happy, she would wave and say HI to the snow (adorable). We took a few photos outside when Matt got back from work (side note: we've been out of it and Matt didn't realize it was a holiday today, he went to work and was the only one there - hahahahahaha). Becce also sent a few photos of Harlan that I have here, he's too cute and I can hardly stand it.

Lottie Sue really loved the snow until she felt how cold it was, after that she was DONE.

our little snow bunny

And here we have Mr. Apple looking too cute. Becce said that he loved it but could hardly move from all the layers.

h-dub playing in the snow

We tried to get Lottie Sue to play around in the snow but this was a futile effort, she wanted to go inside.

looking for daddy to save her

This is a photo we took of Lottie Sue after she came home from the hospital - talk about BED HEAD. The first day she was there they did an EEG and put gel in her hair, this is what happens after days of no bath.

she looked like yahoo serious

My birthday was on Saturday and we didn't do much, Matt cooked a meal and the Smiths came over - just a regular Saturday night.

me and my hubby (kisses!)

this is the meal matt created
(beef tenderloin with a mushroom reduction sauce, lemon butter asparagus and smoked gouda risotto)

me and megs

tommy and myself

And here are two Venable items for you. The first image is a photo Matt created for Sam's smoking (food, not tobacco) hut he built. It's gracing the walls of the structure. It's a very manly place, well, maybe not Tommy...

boy tommy really cracks me up

And this is a crockpot recipe for mac and cheese, Mary Ann makes this and it is wonderful (plus, it couldn't be easier!). Enjoy.

nom nom nom nom nom nom nom

OK, more posts to come. Buh bye!