Half Marathon and Connor's Birthday

Connor turned 3 in October! The day before his birthday, we took him out to lunch while Dallin was at school.

I think Connor felt pretty special having time just for him with mom and dad.

On Connor's birthday, we all woke up early to take Mckay to run the Purdue Boilermaker Half Marathon!

This was Mckay's first half marathon.

It was a cold, drizzly morning.

The boys seemed rather annoyed that we pulled them out of their warm beds.

The runners were off!

If you look closely, you can see Mckay in this picture, just about to run under the archway.

Since we were close to home, we went back to eat breakfast, get dressed and make a sign for Mckay. Then we returned to campus to greet Mckay at the finish line. 

I knew what time Mckay expected to be done, and planned to be waiting for him well before that time. Being hugely pregnant, it took longer than I expected to push a double stroller with two kids in it up the hill from the parking lot to the finish line. I still figured we were ok on time and we watched and waited for Mckay to cross the finish line.

After about 20 minutes at the finish line, Mckay called my phone. He had finished running about 20 minutes before (we must have just barely missed him!) and was now freezing and waiting for us to bring his jacket.

He finished in 2 hours and 2 minutes! We were all so proud of him. He has plans to run a marathon someday, maybe this year. I think that next time we'll make a better plan for meeting up with him afterward.

After we all took a long nap, we celebrated Connor's birthday.

He got lots of good things (books, trains, cars, clothes, treats). One of his favorite presents was his very own baby.

Connor is definitely a rough play, loud, energetic kind of kid, but when he plays with his baby, he gets very quiet and gentle. It's sweet. I made some felt diapers and a simple blanket for Connor to use with his baby. After Connor unwrapped "Charlie," he changed him and dressed him in pajamas.

Then Connor said that baby needed to sleep and ran to our real crib. I thought he would just drop him into the crib.

Connor climbed in...

...and very gently laid the baby down for a nap.

It's really fun watching Connor grow up into a sweet, smart, fun boy.

Ice Skating

We went ice skating in February at a nearby outdoor rink. The ChemE grad student organization reserved the whole rink for the grad students that night, which made it a lot less crowed than last year.

It was also not a well attended activity because it was about 13 degrees that night. We wore lots of layers and took plenty of indoor breaks.

Dallin really enjoyed it. He skated on his own, albeit very very slowly. He fell down several times, but he did most of the falling on purpose. I guess slipping on your butt is more fun when you have lots of padding.

 Connor took one step on the ice and started to freak out because it was "too slippery!" He screamed until we removed him from the ice. Even skating while holding onto someone was too terrifying for him. He didn't seem to remember that he enjoyed skating a year ago when he was only 1 and less coordinated than now. So Connor stood right outside the rink and watched us skate the whole time.

Notice the cool two-blade kid skates strapped onto his tennis shoes? Even with the support of an extra blade, he did not like the ice.

 Connor had more fun hanging out inside and taking pictures of people.

He really likes taking pictures with our digital camera (what little kid doesn't?) and his pictures are actually semi-decent with a flash.

He took a few pictures of other friends at the rink:

And Dallin took this one, so the photographers could be in a picture too.

We had fun, despite the cold and Connor's ice aversion. Maybe he'll like it again next year.

January

January 2014 in Indiana broke all kinds of records for cold negative temperatures and snowfall. School was cancelled several days. Even Purdue cancelled for 3 days. Universities RARELY cancel class so this was a big deal. Our January was spent like this:

We shoveled a lot of snow.

We got about this much snow every week, and it never melted in between so it's really piling up on our grass.

Dallin and Connor love playing in the snow and we've found that sand toys (shovels, pails, etc) also make great snow toys.

And then sometimes I just give them a spoon and cup from the kitchen. Equally as fun.

 One time after shoveling, Mckay used the snow to cover our big green electric box and cable box in the front yard, and he made a cool sculpture out of it.

Connor was amazed.

It was a snow train!

Mckay wins best Dad of the year award.

We've spent a lot of time indoors and I'm running out of fun activities for the kids. We've done Play-doh a lot. 

I'm not good at selfies so I had Connor take a picture of me and Dallin.

We're working on his photography skills.

 Dallin's picture-taking was a little better.

We've also done a lot of art projects. Sometime they are as structured as using glitter glue and making cards for people. And then sometimes I just let the kids cut up junk mail with "fancy" scrapbook scissors.

Dallin and Connor still manage to get a little exercise while being trapped indoors.

Connor is saying "Come on Tookie." I don't know how he came up with it or why he's calling Dallin "Tookie." Connor is entering a fun stage where he makes up words. We never experienced that with Dallin.

You might also be wondering what Dallin and Connor were carrying in that video. That would be foam insulation tubes for water pipes (which they played with like pool noodles or light sabers). These frigid temperatures (-13 degress F was the coldest in January) are causing our water pipes to freeze. Luckily, the pipes are plastic so they don"t burst, they expand with the ice. But having no hot water (or any water at all) in the winter really stinks. We've been spending a lot of time here in the garage:

Running a space heater on the pipes for a while usually does the trick. And hopefully the foam insulation will help, because waking up to take a shower or make breakfast only to find no water comes out is not fun. It's happened about 10 times now. I'm SO ready for spring.

Other fun thing we've been up to:

 The Denver Broncos made it to the Super Bowl. (Yes, I know this was actually in February.) We don't really watch football, but we're fans of all things from Denver, so we had to show our support.

Conveniently, orange and blue happen to be the only nail polish colors I own...

Connor really didn't want to wear this adult size orange shirt. We made him keep it on for a picture, but it was ripped off seconds later.

Too bad the Broncos didn't win the Super Bowl. There's always next year!

We're hoping February is a warmer month. Even just above freezing would be welcome. I'm working on some Valentine's decorations to brighten things up. I'll let you see them all when I'm done.

Any guesses as to what I'm making?

Pumpkins and Piano Recital

Purdue has some research farms in the area. (Horticulture is a big deal around here.) The research focuses on things like weed management, soil fertility, insect management, fruit and vegetable production, etc.  At the end of the growing season, they have plenty of extra produce. They let groups (like a few local mothers and their toddler children) come and pick pumpkins and apples for free. 

They took us around the farm on a tractor wagon. 

It was a rainy day, and the first really cold day of the season, so I was very unprepared for the weather. We were all wet and freezing by the end. The boys each chose one pumpkin and promptly hopped back on the wagon before they got too soaked. I stayed out a little longer and grabbed several more cool looking pumpkins, seen in the bottom right below.

Between everyone in the group, we had a pretty good haul, despite the cold rain.

I put all my pumpkins to good use for my student piano recital the next day.

This was my second recital and this year we did a bit of a Halloween theme. I found several "scary" sounding classical music pieces for the kids to learn. 

Some of the pieces include: Toccata in D Minor by Bach (this is the one I played), Beethoven's 5th Symphony, Hungarian Dance by Brahms, Funeral March by Chopin, and In the Hall of the Mountain King by Grieg. Since I have mostly younger students, the selections were simplified, but still sounded really cool.

Not only did they get to learn about some really well known pieces and composers, but it was a nice little introduction for many of them about major and minor keys, and how emotion and mood can be expressed through music.

All six of my students did a great job. I feel so proud watching all of them perform, knowing how hard they have worked.

There were refreshments after the recital. I used our recently picked apples to make a dessert. I've already done plenty with apples this year, so I had to try a new apple dessert.

Mini apple pies!

I used the same crust dough and mini muffin pan that I use to make the mini Pecan Tarts, and filled them with small diced apple pie filling instead. I used my regular old apple pie recipe and it tasted great. All the great taste of an apple pie in one little bite.

Outings in May

We've been busy this month doing all kinds of fun things.

 

At the beginning of May, my mom and brother came to visit us. We took them to the zoo and went on a train ride.

Dallin and Connor had a blast.

Dallin keeps asking when Grandma is coming back.

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This one actually happened in April, but we went to Purdue Spring Fest. It's a big outdoor fair and all the colleges set up tents and displays.

The best part was the insect petting zoo. Dallin got to hold a tarantula.

It didn't last long but I'm proud of him for trying.

 

Connor fearlessly went right for a hissing cockroach but freaked out a little when he discovered it could crawl up his arm.

 

 We stopped at Taco Bell after Spring Fest for some lunch. We had to really convince Dallin to try a bite of cinnamon twist.

But after the first bite, we couldn't get him to stop eating them. 

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We went camping with some friends. While the adults set up the tents, all the kids climbed into the car.

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 Dallin's friend had a "Halloween" birthday party. In May.

The boys had a lot of fun. Everyone dressed up in costumes. The 4 closest neighbors knew about the party and let the kids come trick-or-treating.

 

 And then everyone had cupcakes and played under blankets.

 Oh the simple joys of being a little kid!