You Call This Fun?

The night before Thanksgiving most people are busy preparing for tomorrow's festivities.
Baking, cleaning, decorating.
Not me.
This is what our family was doing the night before Thanksgiving.



Yup! We hit the gym.



Let me explain....I did a spin class yesterday with some friends while the kids swam in the pool at the gym. After the class the kids noticed that there were little iddy biddy kids size stationary bikes and after asking the instructor about kids coming to the classes she assured me that they were very welcome.
So....all day today it has been...
"Can we go to a spin class with you, Mum? Can we? Huh? Can we? Pleeeease Can we? Huh, Mum, Can we go?"
It's not unlike the Chinese water torture...slowly, bit by bit, wearing me down.
So off we go to the gym.



I was fully expecting the kids to last all of about 5 minutes before they lost interest.
I was waiting for Jack to give me THAT look. You know the "look"...like...
"Is this it?". "Is this ALL you do? Just peddle and peddle and don't go anywhere???" BORING!
But I was pleasantly surprised.
They really stuck at it! I think it had a lot to do with the fact that our friends came with their kids too AND there was a big mirror so they could check themselves out as they cycled.



I'm really proud of all of them. They stuck at it for 30 minutes straight...and it was a pretty tough class. With 15 minutes left, they decided they would take a dip in the pool to cool off, except for Ciara who was determined to hang on till the end.
The outcome...we all had a great time AND we we can enjoy our turkey today totally guilt free!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Random Shots

Just a few random shots from a trip downtown today.

Lucky

Lucky

Really...crazy lucky.

For so many, many reasons.

Here are just a few that I have been reminded of this week....

1 - That I have a great family....One that will travel the long distances between Australia and the United States to visit us.



2 - That I have children who "GET" how lucky they are and who want to make a difference in the lives of other children who are less fortunate than themselves. (More on this one later)

3 - That despite the fact I am a summer girl I never tire of seeing the constantly changing seasons and enjoying all the fun that goes with them.



4 - That my 40 year old body can still hang together after a bit of exercise....and ...

5 - That I have a nice neighbor who took me for my first ride on my road bike and didn't mind that I slowed him down like a rock.



6 - That there are so many exciting things on the horizon for my family and for me. Even though we are headed toward the end of 2009...( I know...where did it go?)...2010 is going to be GREAT! :-)

Fall is in the air

September spoiled me a little.
Lovely Fall weather in the mid 70's was just too good to last.
And sure enough the last week has seen temps starting to dip down to freezing.
Usually I spend all of October in denial about summer being over.
I've decided that I like my weather in the extremes.
I love summer and I love lots of snow in winter....but I'm not a real fan of anything in between.
I have to say though one of the greatest things about this time of year is all the fruit and pumpkin picking that we can do here.



Today I took the kids on a CVA planned field trip to Walter's Fruit Ranch at Green Bluff. They got to ride the "Fruit Loop Express"...(which I think was more in reference to the guy driving us around on the tractor trailer than the fruit itself....he was a little out there!)



They got to pick apples and a pumpkin, saw apple cider being made and tasted it. Delish...( but a little gross to look at)
...and they tasted apple butter which was a lot like apple sauce with cinnamon in it.



Next week my brother Pete will be in town and we have lots of fun things lined up for him.
A wander through the corn maze, pumpkin carving, a trip to the IMax.
We are going to send him home exhausted :-)

My Poor Blog

Neglected....

That's what it is.

My poor blog!

Well, it has been neglected for good reason. Living life is getting in the way of my writing about it :-)
We have been getting through plenty of schoolwork. And I'm not going to bore you with details about math or spelling but I wanted to share some of the fun stuff we have been doing this month.
We have just finished an in depth study of the Vikings. To compliment all we have been reading about them we also...



Made viking bread.
Tasted great straight out of the oven and then quickly turned to concrete!
Those Viking were hardy folk!



We made viking weapons to add to the boys collection of medieval weaponry.



For art Ciara and Max had to design and build a viking longboat out of vegetables....and it had to float.
After a few design modifications both made something pretty cool that worked.



Jack made a viking person that he quickly decided was actually more like Matt than a Viking so it became a portrait of Dad.
Obviously Matt has some kind of vision issue that we need to check up on!



More on the creative front...



we did some painting
and...



We made cookie dough and then everyone got to add their own secret ingredients to see who could make the tastiest cookie.
Jack's had sour patch candy, sprinkles and Hershey's kisses that definitely had an...um...unusual taste to them.
Ciara went for the more conventional choc chip variety and Max created a banana cookie that was surprisingly popular.



We also joined some friends for a field trip to a hands-on kids science exhibition called " Mobius Labs".



So much fun....
and what a great way to see science in action



So I think I have a pretty good excuse as to why I haven't been blogging.
Throw on top of that working, remodelling and exercise and you'll understand why my house looks like a tornado hit it.
Hmmmm...house cleaning. That might have to be this weekends project!

County Fair

Friday we took a field trip to the County Fair with our homeschool group. Lots to see and do.
First off a visit to see the animals. The kids were nervous about turning their backs on these huge bulls. This was as close as I could get them to stand to the bulls and then they gave me a 2 second window to snap this picture before they took off.



The boys were a lot braver around the mechanical bull



Looking like true cowboys...



The sheep were a little less intimidating...



As were the horses...



Of course there is the obligatory silly picture...(really Mum... do we have to???...this is SO embarrassing)



A few rides....



And a fake tattoo rounded out the day beautifully.



What a fun way to spend a Friday!

Triathlon Weekend - Part 2

In the spirit of the triathloning frenzy a group of kids in our neighborhood entered the Coeur d'Alene Youth Triathlon that was held on Sunday.
It was broken up into age categories with varying distances depending on the age of the child. But I have to tell you...I think I would have struggled even in the 5 to 6 year old category. These kids REALLY have stamina.


SWIM









TRANSITION







BIKE







RUN







They all did a great job, had lots of fun and made it across the finish line.

Looks like they'll all be signing up for the triathlon again next year.

Sheesh...I really will have to get serious about this training thing!

Triathlon Weekend - Part 1

Let me say at the outset...I did not even break a sweat this weekend. But everyone else around me seemed to.

This weekend was the Coeur d'Alene Triathlon on Saturday and on Sunday was the Youth Triathlon. So much triathloning going on I will have to blog about it in a 2 part series {sigh}


Congratulations firstly go to our neighbor and friend Ken who competed in his first Olympic length triathlon. He was one of 1,500 competitors and we decided to go and cheer him on. So glad we did...it was such a great atmosphere. And he made it to the finish line in one piece. I won't repeat his first words after crossing the finish line. My husband Matt thinks he may have been delirious :-) But suffice it to say Ken has inspired our neighborhood to dust off our running shoes and get out and train for next years triathlon. Well Done Ken! I'm sure Ken's wife Michelle will be blogging some more about the race so head on over to her blog to get the full race rundown.



Part 2 tomorrow - Kids Triathlon

Just Another Sunday Afternoon at our House

Vandals?



Who...Us?



Never!



We're just helping out with the renovations!