Turkey Trot 2014

Yesterday was the annual Turkey Trot, a school sponsored fun run and food drive. It wasn't the city leftover turkey trot that usually happens the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but a small feud between two elementary schools. Each year Cottonwood Elementary and Mrs. Braun the P.E teacher compete against Nob Hill Elementary and their P.E teacher Mr. Braun. So it's not just a competition between schools, but also between husband and wife. Last year Cottonwood won the trophy and this year Nob Hill was looking to get it back.

 

The race was 11:00 on Saturday and it was only around 40 degrees outside and brrrr, it was cold waiting for the race to start. We got Tyler a new set of athletic clothes for the occasion and I thought he looked great! That kid was meant to wear bright colors! They just suit his personality so much!

The race was staggered with different age groups starting at different times and the teachers and parents went last. If I'd known I'd have to wait so long to run I would have brought a thicker coat.

But the extra time allowed for more pictures. Cheese!

Once the race started for Tyler I was able to get a few pictures of him before I had to head to the starting line for my group.

In the end he placed 8th in his age group. No turkey for him, but a ribbon was pretty nice.

I'm proud he did such a good job, especially since he's in the midst of a cold and had a pocket full of tissues.

October Favorites

Some of my favorite Project Life pictures for October:

 

This was another Wednesday Mileage Club day at Tyler's school and after Kyle and I walked several laps together, he was able to go play on the playground with his brother. That day we also brought lunches so after recess we ate in the cafeteria with Tyler and the rest of his class.

Earlier this month it was McTeacher's Night at McDonalds where the teachers go and work for the night with a portion of the proceeds going to the school. Monopoly was going on at the time so we went and made a dinner out of the items that had games pieces on them: chicken nuggets, fries, a premium wrap and a soda. The school made $723 that night. Wowzers!

Goofing around at the park on our visit last weekend.

At the Halloween Carnival there was a table with 10 different containers filled with various Halloween candy and the object was to guess how much candy was in each container and the winner(s) would get to take home the candy the following week after the guesses were tallied. Turns out Tyler guessed the closest for the 2nd container, which was actually 2 small mason jars decorated like Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein and filled with green Mint M&M's. He's currently home for the week on suspension, so thankfully our neighbor (one of his classmates) brought home his winnings.

It was still nice and warm for the first few weeks of October, but a quick stop at Johnson Orchards make it seem like fall. Apples and pumpkins everywhere!

Sleeping on Daddy at Costco....

No pumpkin patch this year. We got our pumpkins from the grocery store.

While waiting in line after school to sign Tyler out, Kyle provided the entertainment with a rousing game of: Where's my hands? (as he pulls his hands back and hides them in his sleeve), Here's my hands! (and he pops them out to show me they were there the whole time). Again and again, in and out with his hands.

Our candy haul from the 2-day sale at Rosauers, which Kyle was particularly pleased about. Looks like a lot, but we need more than double that to have enough for all the trick-or-treaters that come to our house.

At the park the boys had to feed the ducks from the top of a picnic table in order to get out of the reach of the two geese who are aggressive bread thieves.

My entry for the 2nd King Arthur/Joy the Baker baking boot camp challenge. Apple Pie Biscuits. They came out much flatter than they should have and so I put them in a pretty apple dish to distract from their appearance.

Kyle was helping me model after I finished sewing the Luigi hat and wanted to see what it looked like next to his Mario hat.

We went to the park last weekend and took some group photos. My favorite shot is now up on the blog top and this one comes in a close 2nd.



I try to include some of my outfits into Project Life and these are some of my favorites from this month. Now that the temperature has dropped, I'll be adding a lot more cardigans, scarfs and boots into the mix.

Happy Halloween!

Today I put the last finishing touches on the house to get it ready for the trick-or-treaters. Tyler was home from school so he and Kyle were able to help me with the mummy door. We wrapped it with several rolls of white crepe paper, which thankfully looked good enough on its own since I didn't get around to adding any eyes. You can imagine how much cuter it would have looked with a face.

 

I had the boys put on their costumes before dinner so I'd be able to get pictures of them before it got too dark. And it made it easier to get out the door anyway. After dinner all they had to do was put on their hats and gloves and they were ready to go.

We had a nice variety of candy to give out this year: Skittles, Twix, Twizzlers, M&M's, Snickers, Baby Ruth...all the good stuff.

 

And here's our pumpkins for this year. I carved the one on the left, Tyler's is in the middle and Rick carved the one on the right.

Halloween Carnival

Last night I took the boys to the Halloween carnival at Tyler's school. When I first heard they were doing a carnival this year instead of Trunk or Treat, I was a little disappointed just because parties aren't really my thing and as a parent it's more fun to decorate a car and pass out candy rather than hang out in the school gym. The boys had a great time though, so that's the important thing.

 

They debuted their Mario and Luigi costumes, which were a hit. They got all kinds of compliments! I decided to skip the mustache part of the costume because with Tyler and his sensory issues, it was just asking for trouble. Otherwise I'm happy with how the costumes turned out. I found a pair of overalls for Tyler at the thrift store for $6, which were kind of big so I hemmed them up a bit. I found a plain green tee at Walmart for $5, white gloves for $1 and I spent $3 on some fleece for a hat. Not a bad costume for $15. For Kyle, we already had the overalls and Mario hat, so I just spent $4 on a plain red tee and $1 for a pair of white gloves.

We spent most of the night in the gym playing games and then went down the haunted hallway collecting candy before it was time to go home. The boys had so much fun last night that I'm rethinking my position on Halloween parties...they're not so bad after all.

September Favorites

Project Life pictures for September:

 

With Tyler gone at school for most of the day, it's hard to get pictures of him so I tend to end up with a bunch of car photos like this with him either doing a funny face or a handsome smile.

At the park.

This was picture day at school. I haven't seen how the pictures turned out, but I'm pretty sure I'll be quite pleased. I gave him 3 shirts to choose from that morning and he picked the orange one. My least favorite, until he put it on...he owns the color orange. So handsome!

Story time happens after bath and before bed. It's part of our night routine. The boys know this and Carmelita knows it too. She LOVES story time and was more than a little confused when the boys decided to play a game of Monopoly instead of read. Excuse me? It's story time!

 

Goofballs at the eye doctor's office.

Lots of smiles and giggles at the park.

Kyle was desperately trying to get Max to play Chutes and Ladders with him. He explained to me that since Max didn't have any hands, he would do the spinner for him and move his man. Poor Max didn't want to play. He kept hopping away to the couch and up to the window.

I put this in my Project Life, which I made to remind myself how hard I've worked to get where I am in my fitness journey. It's so easy to start comparing myself to others on Instagram and suddenly feel inadequate, but it's all a dumb mind game. I know I work hard.

This is the autism awareness necklace I got this month, which I now wear nearly every single day. The symbol for autism awareness is the ribbon with brightly colored puzzle pieces, or sometimes a heart with puzzle pieces. What you can't see is that the back is engraved with Tyler's name. ♥

Coco Bear plopped down right at my feet and started begging for pets the moment I stepped off the treadmill. She's scared of the treadmill in motion so she just waits outside the door until I'm done running.

A black and white filter every now and then isn't so bad. And it's a good thing selfies are a thing otherwise I'd probably have close to zero pictures of myself in Project Life.

Baking with Blueberries

The problem with picking over 8 lbs. of blueberries is figuring out what to do with them once I get them home. I prefer them fresh over frozen so I try to use them as quickly as possible and since nobody in the house cares to eat them out of hand, I tend to use them strictly for baking. Besides adding them to pancakes or banana bread, this is what I've done with them so far:

 

I made peach blueberry cobbler from the Smitten Kitchen blog, but it only used 2 cups of berries...hardly a dent at all. So then I made the blueberry oatmeal crisp from the September issue of The Food Network Magazine, which took 6 cups of berries. That's more like it.

Next I made blueberry crumb cake, again from the Smitten Kitchen blog. Actually I made two of these, one for Rick to take to work and the other to stay home. So that was another 4 cups of berries used.

I made a small batch of blueberry crumb bars.

And lastly I made King Arthur's blue ribbon blueberry pie. Well I used their recipe for the filling anyway and then used a different recipe for the crust. That used 8 cups or 2 lbs. of berries and yet I still have some leftover in the fridge. Ugh! I need to learn how to make jam.

Good thing I have such a good helper in the kitchen.

We worked together to make that blueberry pie the other day.

And then he could hardly wait for it to cool once it came out of the oven.