A Run and a Roadtrip

This week, we've mostly just played around doing what we do. We've wrapped up soccer, started basketball (Marina), continued to swim twice a week (Maddie) and just acted really darn cute (Jessa).

Here are some pictures from Marina's end of the year soccer party.  She got a trophy!  Soccer was great, and the girls on Marina's team all played really well together, so Marina wants to come back in the spring, after basketball season.   

 
Marina is also starting to explore running around with Mom! Here is Marina before her Kids' Fun Run at the Hoover Run for Hope. Mom asked me, and I told her one mile runs just aren't my thing. Even though I decided not to run, I am proud of Marina for making her (very hilly) mile in 13 minutes! Marina and Mom decided to run the race after Mom realized that this event is held in memory of Marina's Religious Education teacher's son Liam Hoover, who lost a battle with cancer six years ago.  Marina learned about Liam from her teacher last Sunday, when her class took a tour of the church grounds and came across Liam's memorial bench.   Marina asked Mrs. Hoover about a million questions about cancer and tumors, and Mrs. Hoover answered every one as well as she could.  We saw the poster for the 5k and Fun Run later the same day, and Mom and Marina signed up. All the money raised from the run goes to St. Jude's Children's Hospital.
Also, Mom was very surprised to place third in her age group.  She doesn't run hills much faster than Marina, but she said the other old ladies must not either! We all tried on our new medal. 




On Saturday, Mom and I took a trip down to Altanta for a quick visit with Mom's friend Kim.  Marina had her first basketball practice and her last soccer game, so she stayed home with Dad and Jess.  Mrs. Kim has two big cats.  This one is Harvey!

 On Sunday, we did a little Ikea shopping.  Or maybe a lot.  We needed rugs, and Ikea has the ones Mom needed, so we got 'em! This trip was fairly monumental for Mrs. Kim's little baby Isabel, who not only made her first Ikea trip but also had her first up front shopping cart experience.  Sweet baby Isabel!





Happy Halloween

This week has been about two things: Halloween and whipping this house into shape!

Here's part of Mom and Dad's room, which is the new office.  That's our Marina doing a little Starfall reading time. 

This is Mom's next project! It's what we call the "big one", but will also be the best one- because it's our playroom. 

 It's nice to see our house coming together! You know what else is nice?  Candy, that's what!
We had Halloween parties galore this week.  Here's some party pictures from first grade, which mom visited this week with the sisters:

 

And here's a picture from the Preschool Halloween parade (only the big preschoolers got to parade, unfortunately. So no Jess):

And then before we knew it, it was Halloween! Yay for candy!

 We went with several neighborhood kids, so we had a blast.  A little more work than I remember from Raleigh, on account of the big yards everyone has here-- but still great, big, trick or treating fun!

Birthday Party!

Marina really, really wanted a birthday party this year, and she's doing so well in preschool and also in soccer AND  basketball, that Mom just couldn't say no. But before we partied, we had to attend our basketball assessment day. Marina did great in the 5 and 6 division! She is one of only three girls in the 5-6 age group, but happily, she has two friends on the team.  One little girl is on Marina's soccer team, and one little boy is a good friend and neighbor.  And his dad coaches, so we're hoping he picks our girl up!

So the little boy who is our friend and neighbor?  He has a little sister who is two and is in Jessa's two day class at preschool. Jess and Laura have been inseparable since September on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and then Mom and Laura's mom realized we were neighbors at neighborhood grown- up Bunco, and now our girls get to see each other on off hours too.  They are both sweet and happy and also pretty tall.  Jess has been a little bit off the charts her whole life-- but our little Laura looks like she doesn't even believe in the growth chart. 

And so we've had a busy week, just like always! But we rested up just in time to have lots of energy for

Marina's party on Sunday afternoon! For the occasion, Mom got The Purple Bus to come to the River Park.  We had a blast!

After the bus, we played at the park.  We made treat bags and hit the pinata in our great Marina birthday party tradition.

And then we ate up the cupcakes of course! Welcome to 5 sweet girl!



Marina Turns 5!

Marina is FIVE! This is the good news.  You might be wondering why it took us so long to get this information out.  Well, I'll tell you, but that's the bad news: Jessa jumped on Mom's laptop and broke it.  Broke it good, too.  Luckily, we still have Grandma Q's old netbook, so we can still get you the news.  It just takes a little longer!

So! Back to some happy news!

Little Marina has gone from our sweet little baby:

To our big 5 year old girl! We celebrated with some cake and presents and a visit from Aunt Kim and Uncle Donald.

Here are some of Marina's cool birthday gifts!

Thank you to all my wonderful Grandmas and my Pop Pop and my aunts and uncles! We love this stuff! And the fun isn't over: Marina's party is on Sunday!

On the weekend, we took Uncle Donald and Aunt Kim to downtown Nashville, which is very fun.  We love the Pedestrian Bridge! We also checked out the shops.

Jessa had some interesting developments this week too that she really wants you to know about.  Our girl is potty trained!  She doing really well staying silly and dry!

This week started with a two day fall break.  Since we didn't have any school, we hit the road in search of adventure.  We made it as far as the zoo!

On Tuesday, we had fun at a Halloween party with our playgroup.

Mom and the sisters go on  lots of playdates with this group of Moms (when I'm in big girl school) and they always have fun.  Here's a picture from a playdate last week.

Catch Up!

 We're playing catch up this week, after taking last week off.  Mom was in Illinois, which is a place I've never been, for most of last week getting training for a new job.  We had a sitter here to help us, and Dad managed great, but there wasn't a lot of time to make a blog! Mom is temporarily helping  evaluate The New Teacher Project for the American Institutes of Research, which is evaluating The New Teacher Project's i3 grant from the Feds. All that training for a job that will be over by Christmas! Luckily, the evaluation kicks in again in the spring and next year too.   Before Mom left on Monday, we had lots of sports to play.  That means swimming for me (which has become my cross to bear), and soccer for Marina.  Marina likes soccer, but I don't think that's for me either. I told mom that after fall swim, I want to dance!

 

 

We've also been going to church a lot, on account of my preparation for First Communion.  Church is FUN in Tennessee!  First of all, my Religious Ed, or RE classes, are led by three very fun teenagers.  And there's only 5 of us kids!  We have a blast!  Second, at the Mass itself, I go to Children's Liturgy of the Word, which makes the time fly.  What's really different here though is that Marina goes to her own Pre-K Church class, instead of the Mass- and she's gone the whole time!  She loves it!

Our new church is very big.  And they have very big events.  These are pictures of the Fall Picnic.  Mom also thought is was very funny that on top of all this kids' fun, the church also had an open bar. Dad had a beer, which looked pretty gross, but made Mom laugh. Highly unusual!

 

waiting in line for the jumper.



Jumper!

Bounce House

 Mom also made sure to get Marina's room finished before she left Monday night.  This is the finished product.  Turned out very well, thanks to some good advice from some old neighbors!