Archie's first race!

rchie finished his first race running one straight away on the track finishing at the person dressed like a panda bear.  Archie was excited about the race, but wasn't too sure about the Panda bear so he took it real slow and steady with Mommy running along side him the whole time!

After the race, Archie said "Avie did the circle race, Archie did the straight race, and Mommy did the mountain." Yes, I did the mountain race.  Love it!

Avalon said "Daddy did the longest race, Mommy did the next longest race, Avie did the next longest race, and then Archie."  Yep, that sums it up!

Jarad ran the 10k finishing with a PR at just under 41:00 minutes (average of 6:30 per mile).  And he finished 8th overall and 1st in his age group.  Camille bested her PR by an entire minute finishing the 5K in 26:19.  Avalon ran one lap around the track for her race and did a great job.  After the race, she kept asking us if she ran really fast and whether she ran faster than Archie.  Too cute!

Unfortunately, we didn't get a video of Archie, but we did get one of Avie finishing her circle race!

Things the kids say..

Nov. 13 - right before bed
Archie:  "Daddy, wait until you see my pajamas, they are going to be so cool, you'll say Happy Birthday to me."

September - October 2013

Avalon:  "I can still feel preschool coming through."

Avalon: "Today is going to be a really special day for me at school because we are going to get our own special letter spots for today, just for today."

Archie:  "Whenever the rain comes on that thing (the windshield wipers) comes up and washed the rain away because we need to see.  Right, Mommy?"

Archer:  "No, I can't."
Avie:  "Yes, I can."
Archie "No, I can't"
Avie: "Yes, I can."
Archie: "I said no I can't to my water bottle."

While in Roseville, MN for our friends' wedding:
Archie:  "I wish I had pink hair like Melissa has pink hair."  (The bride at the wedding dyed her hair pink/purple for the wedding)

On the streets in Blaine, MN where there were trees in the middle and on both sides that mostly covered the houses so you couldn't see them.  It was also getting a bit dark:
Archie:  "This looks like a campsite.  It looks like a campsite but it's not a real campsite."

When Smyles (person dressed like a big blue dog from the Ames library) came to visit Archie's preschool:
Archie:  "I don't know if Smyles is going to be in the big room or the small room."

On the way to preschool:
Archie:  "When Avalon is in Kindergarten, I wish I could go in 1st grade.  When Avalon is in 1st grade, I wish I could go in 2nd grade. (Archie continued this train of thought all the way up to 20 grade).  When Avalon is in 19 grade, I wish I was in 20 grade.  Then we will stay there in 20 grade."

Orange Elephants!

Here is what our family was up to tonight...Orange Elephants!  What were you doing?

Archie sings ABCs...Flashback

It's been a while since I posted and there are so many things I'd love to share, so hopefully I can find some time to get up some new posts in the near future.  I'm not sure when Archie started singing the ABCs, but it was likely a couple months before I captured this video of him on April 2nd.  Now he is able to recognize all his letters by sight.  He still loves singing his ABCs!  Enjoy!



As I was looking back for the first time he sang his ABCs, I realized that I've already made this post in January of last year and it was the May before that in 2012 that he first starting singing the ABCs with us.  But, needless to say, he still loves singing them!  Here is one more video with one of his favorite apps on the IPad.