Our Backyard Adventures

We made some pretty big improvements this summer to the outside of our new home. Our first purchase was this fun swing set for the kids...

They have spent many hours this summer swinging, sliding and playing house!!

We also added a paverstone patio outside our backdoor. We love it and it has made the backyard a great place for parties and barbecues this summer.

We also love the $15 patio table with six chairs that we found at a yard sale this summer...SCORE!!!

Perhaps the best investment though was our new wood fence. It was been wonderful to be able to let the kids and our dog run and play outside without worrying about them escaping from the yard.

Please excuse our nasty grass. It has been an extremely DRY summer so "crunchy" grass has become the norm around here!!

Half Marathon

Last Saturday I finished my 4th Half Marathon (but my first since 2003!) I have gotten so into marathon running the last few years that I really had forgotten how much I enjoy the half marathon distance. It's enough of a distance to train for and feel accomplished about running but not enough to completely take over your life like marathon training can sometimes do.

I trained really well, but unfortunately became injured about two weeks before the race. I ran a pretty painful race last week, but I survived and even managed to come in under two hours (1:56). I was hoping for a bit better, but with being injured and all, I'm happy that I was just able to finish. You can read a more detailed description of the race over at my fitness blog here.

It was a beautiful and flat course long the Western Maryland Rail Trail and the weather was gorgeous.

The weather around here has been so wonderful this last week...until yesterday that is. We had a little tease of fall and now we're back up into the 90's again. Oh well, it will hopefully cool off again soon. I sure do love this time of year!!

Our Little Preschooler

A group of us decided to do a preschool co-op this year for all of our children who will be starting school in the next little while. They meet once a week (Thursday) for two hours and we rotate among the five different houses for hosting responsibilities. Abby was so excited about finally going to "school" like all of her friends (she's one of the only ones in her group of friends from both church and in the neighborhood who didn't start kindergarten this year.) She woke up extra early on her first day and requested some "Sleeping Beauty" curls for her hair.

Ready for her big day, backpack and all...

Striking her model pose...

I swear this little girl seems to get more and more beautiful by the day (and is growing up way too fast for my liking!)

This day was all about excitement for Abby and she loved her first day. Landon on the other hand was not a fan of having his sister leave him. He was hysterically crying in the car after dropping her off and it took him about 30 minutes to calm down.

I actually think this little preschool will work well to prepare us all for when Abby starts kindergarten next year. I think Abby will have the easiest transition of all of us because she adapts so well to new situations, makes friends pretty easily and is so excited about riding the bus and going to school with all of her friends. I still have a hard time thinking about missing my little girl for that much time during the day (full day kindergarten around these parts) and Landon, well he will definitely have a rude awakening when missing her for a couple of hours each week turns into all day every day. We'll just enjoy her while we can now though!!