Done And Done

HOORAY THE HALF MARATHON IS OVER!!!!  We did it!!

Yikes, I know.   But I wanted to have something to document the event and sadly, this was the best picture we got.  Race results are here…there were 28 racers, and Matt finished in 3rd!  He ran it in 1:58:58.  I finished 8th and ran it in 2:09:16.   While I am so so happy that we did it, I’m mostly glad it’s over!  We are going to take some time off before we do another one for sure.  I am so very sore this morning (Matt said his legs were hurting just a little bit-*jerk*; meanwhile it is agony for me to walk down the stairs)  The course was four loops and an out and back (the sign in the picture was the turnaround right before the end) and pretty hilly on the back end of each loop.  However it was around a pretty lake and through a really nice park so that was nice. 

Anyway, I am sure everyone is sick to death of hearing about this race (I certainly am) but it was nice to have all the support-don’t know if I could have done the race without it!

Even Though We Can No Longer Afford to Send the Kids to College…

…it was worth every penny-

*This family bonding moment brought to you by the letter I(pad).*

Happy Easter!

We had the most wonderful Easter weekend!  The weather was perfect-breezy, sunny and around 75 degrees-and we tried to stay outside and enjoy it as much as possible.

First thing Saturday morning we took the kids to the local furniture warehouse where they had an Easter egg hunt.  The kids didn’t have too much luck, but they did see most of their friends there (there were so many people!) so that was fun. 

Matthew & Caitlin waiting in line.  Matthew was a little embarrassed that his sister was hugging him.  Caitlin was enjoying his embarrassment. 

Pea, hunting for eggs among the couches

After that, Matt threw a Boston butt on the smoker and decided to wash the cars.  The kids and I decided to make some fruit punch and watch daddy work:

Ben at least offered daddy some of his punch.

The punch idea was Caitlin’s so we found an easy recipe online (three ingredients) and mixed it up.  It was a huge hit:

In ten years he’ll be spiking it…

Later we decided it was time to dye Easter eggs:

and blow bubbles:

and help (I use the term loosely) daddy wash the cars:

We even brought one of the hamsters out to enjoy the weather:

Sunday morning we went to church and then came home for family pictures:

 

We couldn’t find anyone to take a picture of all of us so we did it in shifts:

Then it was time to hunt for Easter eggs:

The rest of the day was spent watching TV (Caitlin) eating bubble gum (Matthew) and being lazy.  Nana and Dee brought Easter “Happys” for everyone and later we helped our friends clean out some leftovers they had . 

All in all it was a magnificent Easter!!  And while I try not to brag too much about my kids , I do have to mention how proud I am of Caitlin and Matthew.  They both picked really difficult things to give up for lent…Caitlin television and Matthew bubble gum-and they really stuck to it.  It is really hard at that age to give up things that you love for that length of time but they did a great, great job.  I’m one proud mama!

My Birthday, Sports, & Spring Break

So, this is going to be a big post!  And no, not ONLY because it has my birthday in it (I love my birthday. Of course it was going to be first on the list), but because Spring is here and we have been getting into all sorts of fun!
So.  My birthday was great!  I’m 31!  We had lots of celebrating, shopping, new cups (thanks Gin!) and cake eating (ooo!  And I also got serenaded at the busstop.  That was awesome…especially when they got the the “happy birthday dear…Ms.MaryLauren/Ms.Schroeder/Mommy/MaryLauren”  My name has never been good in that song)  All in all it was great.  I just hate that I have to wait a whole year to do it all over again. 
Sports are back in full swing…I’m helping coach Caitlin’s team again (essentially the glorified ball fetcher.  I’m quite good.)  Caitlin is on the Celtics and is so so so happy because the uniforms are green, which is her favorite color.  I don’t have any pictures of her yet, but I’ll post some soon.  I do have to report that at the last game, ( I had to solo coach yikes) we only had six players there for the game which meant zero substitutions.  However they still managed to win 4-0 and Caitlin scored a goal!  I was so very happy!! 
Matthew is on the Tigers this year and is having an awesome season.  He has hit home runs in both of the games he has played.  His fielding is coming along well and we just love the team he is on this year. 


This week is Spring Break for the kids and we have already had a lot of fun!  We went to Grandmother and Grandpa’s house on Monday and Tuesday.  We packed up the apple trees that we grew from seeds because after 3 years in a pot, they need to be planted in the ground.  We just don’t have a good place for them here.  Grandpa found a nice sunny spot on their hill and gave the kids a lesson in digging in Georgia red clay:
They started out by watching Grandpa.  Looks easy enough!

Then it was their turn:


Uh, is this deep enough?

Even Ben got to help. 
Meanwhile Mom and I planted the the okra, pumpkins, cucumbers, lima beans and Cosmos that we started from seed (and once again did not have a place for.  I need to plan better!)  They are going to keep an eye on our plants for us. 
After all that digging it was time to play!  Grandpa pulled out the hose (which thankfully runs off of a well) and let the kids have at it:

Well water is COOOOLLLLDD!!!

And because there is no such thing as too much water, the kids jumped right into a warm bath afterward. 

A wonderful time was had by all. 
Then, through Mom’s library, we were able to get enough free zoo tickets to cover almost our whole family, so Wednesday we met daddy at ZooAtlanta.  It was my first trip there and it was great! We saw zebras, giraffes, monkeys, snakes…and lots more.



Around lunchtime it started to get very crowded so we headed home. 
Then, this morning, after much begging and pleading, Matt decided to take the bigkids fishing!  I don’t know which of the three was more excited.  (Pea was going to go also, but Matt was a bit hesitant about taking her.  Instead I offered her a prize at Target and she quickly forgot all about fishing.  Dedicated fisherwoman that one.) 
The fishing trip was wildly successful!  We had stopped on our way to the lake and bought some crickets.  Evidently this was exactly what the fish wanted for lunch.  Everyone caught something-Matt caught a carp:

Caitlin caught as SunFish:

And Matthew caught a Bass:

Mommy and Ben and Hannah showed up at the end of the trip to see how the fishing was going and even got a chance to try: 

Ben was originally in this picture and was very interested in the fish until it jumped out of Matts hand and slapped him in the forehead!  Ben was absolutely terrified and is convinced that the fish bit him.  (he did end up with two little spine pricks on his head poor baby!)  I worry that he is going to grow up afraid of lil’ fish lol!
Matt was kind enough to bait my hook four times (I’m a little rusty) so that I could catch a fish…and then assured me that size didn’t actually matter haha.

We have had such a good spring break so far!