run now. brag later. (feets don't fail us now!), a friend/kid gathering, a nyc dinner & analogies

this weekend i have a lot of friends doing a pretty cool thing: running! a very long distance!

the adorable megan smith will be doing her 4th (i think, but it could very well be her 10th) marathon. that girl is an animal!

and my other adorable friend, amy d., is doing her first half marathon along with amy m. and kelly j. (this is my fleet feet gang - they know how to repreZENT). i am super excited for them! their first big race, 13.1 miles is far far far.

it is quite the accomplishment, just think about it...megan will be running 26.2 miles on sunday and the amys and kelly will be pulling in 13.1 - it takes a lot of dedication and lot of hard work to get to a place where you can put out that distance.

oh yeah - i cannot blah blah blah on this without giving a big shout out to amy h. (i know a lot of amys) - she completed the nyc half-marathon a few weeks ago.

she is AWESOME and rocks so very much. whee! i entered the lottery for that race but didn't get in, but i am so happy amy did - she did so well!

here she is before the race, happy

and here she is after the race, even happier i am sure

i signed up to get texts from amy's run, we were in community group at church and i kept checking my phone. i hope they don't think i was being rude but i was so excited for her. forgive me.

amy h., lisa and i are running the 5K on sunday - it makes it one year for me and my running. the covenant 5K was the first race i did in my recent running gig - it was a terrible race for me but i am sure sunday will be way better!

oh yeah, i also signed up to run the chicago half-marathon in september. i'll be doing it with mike and i figure i have enough time to get my rear in order for that. yikes, though.

here's a random photo of lottie sue, she had a booboo on her eye and loved it that she got to wear a band-aid there.

disclaimer: she didn't even need one but she is obsessed with band-aids. she will put them on any booboo, be it me grazing her leg as i walk by - oh no! she needs a band-aid. right away! i oftentimes walk past her bathroom and find a band-aid wrappings littering the floor. now i know what we are getting her birthday...

the bandaid is 100s times bigger than the booboo

matt said she looked like nelly.

he's right

so a few weekends ago we had kitty kat (and jasper) and the gilmores (and cj) in town at the same time. since it's hard to coordinate seeing everyone we threw a lunch party so everyone could come over to one gathering and catch up. kitty kat has a baby girl in utero, so everyone had to see her and her cute belly.

matt and i moved furniture and brought any toy we thought the kids might like. we thought they all had a great time. brad even made a video of the event - it's great. check it out!

they DID wreck the place, but they are cute it's no problem

there was the video and here are some photos i pulled off the camera...

rowdy puckering up to give me a smooch

(that boy is still loving his mommy strong)

an overall shot of some of the party

(please note carrie and scott in the background, they both

had on navy and white striped shirts. dorks in love)

cj eats goldfish and cassady pushes the popper around

lottie sue and jasper play in the tent

(lottie sue called jasper "my prince" all afternoon - it was cute)

this is all you saw of lottie crawling through the tent's tunnel

cj taking a cautious look at the grandfather clock

jasper on the trampoline

kids on the roller coaster

it was such a fun time, if we would have gotten together three years ago there would not be any kids and here we are - they almost outnumber us! we like it!

we kept the tent up for a few days since the kids liked it, i usually just bring it out on rainy days (which we have been having a lot of those lately).

matt and kids stuffed in the tent

on to another subject...the smiths and masons went down to new orleans for mardi gras and came back with a LOAD of beads/cups/frisbies/and the like.

can you find me?

next up lottie sue, she thought it was soooo funny

(although rowdy did NOT like it when i was covered
with the beads - see, loving his mommy)

but he was fine chewing on the viking horns

lottie sue took these from the stash and i found
them like this in the dining room later

katie came over with hudson since they were in town (yay!). lottie sue loved to play with hudson and she was so proud of herself for picking him up.

don't worry, she had a spotter

wonder woman

she then tried to pick up rowdy but couldn't, this is

as far as she got - that boy is a load (built solid)

the hussars hosted our last dinner group. they based it on one of their favorite restaurants in nyc, i will have to check but its name is the red cat - anywho...it was fab.

the gracious hosts

sidenote: the hussars used blackboard paint to make the board, it's in the butler's pantry and is so great. the twins can color on it and it just honestly looks cool. PLUS, amy found these awesome chalk markers. they are what restaurants use and are so neat. everyone commented on the board. amy got them at michael's but i found them on amazon if you are so inclined.

i am trying to figure out what wall we can paint so i can buy these

i only have one group shot of the night, must have been too busy eating...

jo, always camera-ready

lemoncello straight from italy

and i should really thank carrie, she is feeding my nutella obsession. she sent me a recipe for nutella cheesecake brownies - i am totally making these. i don't have much of a sweet tooth but i do have a nutella mouth.

click here for the recipe

she also sent a link for nutella cupcakes...

and then click here for this gluten-free recipe

if you are on facebook then i am sure you have seen this. it's pretty cute.

i have no idea what they are saying, but it's super cute

ok. and last but not least - a few items of interest...

• 10 must read books for girls and boys, by boys and girls
• the washington post held a contest in which high school teachers sent in the "worst" analogies they'd encountered grading papers. you can see the full list here but i am listing a few of my faves...

Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center.

From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

The lamp just sat there, like an inanimate object.

They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.

• david foster wallace, in his own words
• we have to wait until 2012 to see the new season of mad men :(
• sarah silverman is going to guest star on the the good wife (i LOVE that show)

ok, enjoy your thursday - tomorrow is TGIF. word!

matt scorsese, sharpies, flipping out, easter & lesley the buzzkill

this is out first foray into imovie, matt did most of the work while i did what i enjoy - being a critic here and there. with his creative genius and my discerning eye we have the final product. i LOVE it, it made me cry to be honest but what can i say - i love my family!

directed by matt scorsese

this past weekend the apples came down for Easter. the kids got along very well most of the time but sometimes notsomuch. the first night they decided to draw on themselves and each other with sharpies. becce and i went out to get a pedicure and came home to this...

matt and mike were babysitting, btw

here's a close-up of lottie...

matt went in to the study and found her drawing on her arms, body art

when we came home and saw them my first thought was how this was blog GOLD. it's hard to get upset when something is funny. i was truly happy they didn't draw on my precious chair, now that was honestly the first thought that ran in my head. full disclosure and all...

ever since my trip to the gymnastics place with the hussars i have been wanting more trampoline time. it is so much fun. so we took the kids on friday morning and of course had a great time. the adults played as hard as the kids, we were all pretty gross when we left. i had to take rowdy to his 6 month appointment and had to apologize for my appearance. BUT i am totally awesome, i did a front flip on the trampoline. i cannot tell you how great it felt, it has been YEARS upon YEARS since i did one. matt and mike tried to do one as well. they were very close, but no cigar. see for yourself!

flipping out

here are a few more photos from that morning...

matt digs lottie sue out of the foam pit

where's mike (a la "where's waldo")

matt got some major air on floor exercise, check out harlan running after him

mike doing a herkey on the trampoline

we have video of harland and lottie at the gym (and having a dance session at home to beyonce's "single ladies" - it's harlan's favorite song) that we'll put up for you soon. we are all about movies now. we're so hollywood.

we were lucky enough to have a visit from the gilmore family - little cj was in the house and looking as cute as a baby can. geez. seriously, he needs to modeling contract. stat.

becce with little man gilmore (and with a little BOY in her belly)

cj sleeps. a lot.

again...sleeping

after church on sunday we met family over at the crown plaza for lunch. we don't have many photos because we were managing kids but i have a this ONE of granray and rowdy.

both are super cute

lottie was eating and saw harlan in the floor so she then wants DOWN RIGHT NOW to roll around just like her cousin.

i am sure the floor was relatively clean

after lunch matt took a family portrait of the apples since everyone was dressed up and respectable looking.

matt showing mike a few shots as becce goofs off

the winning shot, i think it's so GOOD - it's going on our mantle

this is one shot of lottie sue in her dress, we didn't get a family shot due to rowdy going straight to napland once we got home. oh well, one day we will get a family shot.

little miss lottie sue picking me a bouquet of weeds

becce and mike drove harlan around campus to show him a few places from their past. mike took a shot of the rock, it's HILARIOUS.

geez, lesley - don't be such a buzzkill

i leave you with this, lottie sue participated in several easter egg hunts and had a ton of eggs filled with candy. i kept them hidden and out of reach (or so i thought) for two weeks but then i saw this...

she denied eating chocolates even when caught red-handed

i was in the kitchen and heard candy wrapper crinkling, when i went in the dining room she was under the chair on her belly with her feet kicked up about to eat her third chocolate.