Happy 35th Rusty!

We sure love this guy of ours!  We had a great morning celebrating. The kids prepared a delicious breakfast of waffles topped with almond butter and strawberries and Josh made some yummy bacon.  The kids worked hard on their cards and helped me pick out all his favorite treats and wrap them all up in a bag.  That afternoon we headed off to Mt. Rushmore.  We were on the road until midnight so no cake or candles this year.  Rust, we love you and are thankful every day that you are in our lives.  We love your optimistic attitude.  We love how much fun we have when you are home.  We love how hard you work for us.  We love how you always make time for us.  Happy Birthday!

  

BB10k 2015

The BolderBoulder was made all the better this year with the addition of Josh to the family run! He did so great.  His favorite part was the finish line and getting sprayed by hoses throughout the course.  Rusty and Josh ran together and Halle and I ran together.  Halle was doing amazing throughout the first half of the race, but in the second half her tummy was giving her some trouble.  We still finished strong, but the poor girl threw up later in the day.  I think she had some sort of stomach bug because she had been feeling icky on and off for days.  I think it’s pretty amazing that she chose to keep going and not quit.  I was so proud of both the kids!

Blake didn’t want to be left totally out of the fun, so he helped Rusty design his “Help Wanted” sign that he wears every year.

Blake’s 6th Birthday

Dear Blake,

This is the second birthday letter I am typing today because you deleted the first one while you were playing computer games :)

Happy 6th birthday to my fun, energetic, creative, imaginative boy.  I love you so very much.  You are the best snuggler, and if I am out for a run when you wake up in the morning you make sure that we have “make up snuggles” later in the day.  I love how you wrap your little arms around me and sink you head into my shoulder.  Lately you’ve been saying that you are scared at night, but secretly I think you just want to come snuggle in Mom and Dad’s bed.  You just finished an awesome year at kindergarten.  You had such a fun class and made great little friends.  Some of your best friends are Truman, Bennett, Walker, and Max.  This year Truman was like your brother.  You two spent so much time together and had so many adventures.  You are very sad to see him move to Portland this summer. 

Some of your favorite things to do are: play Animal Jam and Club Penguin on the computer, play Spot It (you say you are the pro at it), riding on your newly learned two wheeler, and swimming at the pool.  You are very proud that this year you can touch in the “deep end.”

You always fill our home with love and laughter.  You are constantly making up funny stories to tell us and you always do it with a twinkle in your eye.  It’s very had to motivate you to get your jobs done and this summer we are working a lot on getting things done, even when you’d rather be playing. 

For your birthday this year you finally got your coveted IPod.  Last year on your birthday you said, “Only one more year till I get my IPod!”  You had a rock climbing party with your friends at the community center and then we ate Ice Cream Cake at the park. 

Blake, you have so many gifts and talents.  I am so excited to see what big adventures life brings to you this year.  Keep smiling, keep dreaming—it will take you far. 

Love, Mom

End of School fun

It has been a cold, rainy month of May.  So, Blake’s end of year picnic included coats :)  We have just loved his Kindergarten year and all the friends he has made. 

Mrs. Brown has been the perfect 2nd grade teacher for Josh.  He has grown so much as a student.  She pushes them to do their best and is kind and sweet at the same time.  I had the opportunity to teach Junior Achievement in his class this year and loved getting to know all of his little classmates.  3rd grade here we come!

5th Grade Graduation

Little Miss Halle graduated from 5th grade!  What a surreal moment for her parents.  We are in awe of this kind, sweet, smart, vastly talented little lady.  It was such a fun day!  Black Rock has a tradition where K-4th grade line the halls of the school.  The 5th grade takes one final lap around the halls before heading into the auditorium for graduation.  All the kids clap and cheer and give high fives.  I was standing by Blake’s kindergarten class with tears in my eyes.  I remember so vividly the day Halle went to kindergarten, and now the 5th graders looked like giants in comparison.  This has been such a fun and special year for our family with all three kiddos at the same school.  I will miss seeing the three of them walk into the school together. 

Halle won many awards at the ceremony but I’m most proud of her Presidential Award for Academic Excellence.  She had to have a GPA of 90-100% and be nominated by her homeroom teacher as well as one other staff member for a character recommendation.  Only about 15 of 120 kids received this award.  Way to go Halle! 

This girl has been a busy little bee this year.  She sang in the choir. Ran in 100 mile club. She was an anchor on the morning announcements in Broadcast club.  She helped serve lunch in the cafeteria. She earned her Black Belt in music class for Recorder Karate. She was in MESA (Math Engineering and Science Achievement) where her all girl group won the bridge building contest using all their structural engineering skills :) Here are the remaining pieces after they tested it for how much weight it could hold:

5th grade also got to participate in Track and Field Day against other 5th grade schools in the area.  Then, they got to be in charge of Field Day for all the little ones at Black Rock.  They loved being in charge!

Here is Halle on her first day of Kindergarten and her last day of elementary school.  We are so excited to begin new adventures in Middle School!

Another year, another Balloon launch

It’s my favorite weekend in Erie!  We all got up early, and as part of out BB10k training, we ran up to the golf course to watch the balloons launch.  It was a little touch and go with the weather, but finally the balloons were up up and away!

In other news:

It’s been raining.  A lot.  But this rainbow was amazing.

Blake’s Kindergarten class hatched chicks.  They are the absolute stars of the classroom.  No one can leave them alone. :)

 

We had our last Chic fli a breakfast before Halle and Kaden go off to Middle School.  Cry!  We’ve done this a bunch of times over the years and we are sad to see the tradition end. 

 

I got to chaperone the 2nd grade field trip to the Wild Life Sanctuary.  We had a great time looking at the bears, tigers, lions, etc from the mile long catwalk. We especially loved reading about their rescues from abusive and/or illegal situations. 

Slave labor.

Josh opened a bank account with the money he earned from reaching his 100 mile goal.  He is so excited to write his first check :)

Mother’s Day 2015

As always, it was an excellent Mother’s Day!  And it snowed for the 2nd year in a row!  I love this day to reflect on my feelings about being a mother.  It certainly has its ups and downs, but I wouldn’t trade those tiny humans for anything in the world.  They are my joy and my life. 
   

I told Rusty that all I wanted for Mother’s Day was a clean car.  He was trying to coax Blake and Josh to help him and Josh said, “Ummm…I already made Mom a card, and I don’t really think she needs TWO things from me.” 

Those Mother’s Day cards are so sweet.  I always like to keep them around for a few months and whenever I am feeling low and I just have to read their sweet words and my spirits are lifted. 

Blake loves me because I buy him Kinetic Sand :)
 
 
My mom is a great cook.  My mom is a Boston runner.  My mom makes my bed.  My mom is Tara. My mom goes on runs. I love you mom. 

From Josh:

From Halle.  Tasks included Emptying the dishwasher and making me my favorite treat. :)

Rusty totally surprised me this year and invited my friends over for a BBQ.  I had absolutely no idea!  Josh let it slip just about an hour before the BBQ that there was going to be a special surprise for me, but no amount of coaxing could get it out of him.  Rusty knows how much I love to hang out with my friends, so that was the perfect gift for me!  I appreciated it so much.  Everyone brought yummy food and we spent a super fun evening together.  I am a lucky lady!!

Kindergarten Star

I had the fun opportunity to plan the decor and theme for Blake’s Kindergarten Celebration.  It was so much fun to do!  I just love Kindergarten.  The kids are so sweet and so excited about everything.  They performed some very awesome songs, watched a slideshow detailing all the fun they had this year and then came to eat cookies and popcorn. 
We picked the Theme “Kindergarten Stars” and set up a couple of photo booths where the kids could walk the red carpet and then have their picture taken.  I think the kids had a blast dressing up and rocking out for their pictures. 

But my favorite part were the posters that we did of the kids telling us what they wanted to be when they grow up.  They turned out so cute and the parents loved them! We did a separate poster for each of the 4 kinder classes.

It’s so hard to believe that my baby is graduating from Kindergarten.  I get misty eyed when I think of next year and how much I am going to miss my little buddy. 

100 Mile Club

I am so very proud of Halle, Josh and Blake for setting and achieving their 100 mile goal this year.  Black Rock got a grant to host 100 mile club every morning before school.  We chose to go 2 days/week.  We’d get up a little earlier than normal and be to school at 8am ready to run.  The kids would run laps and on Friday I would help stamp arms which is how mileage was calculated.  On bad weather days they’d walk the halls of the school.  But, if the weather was about 25 degrees they usually went outside.  I loved this because it was an opportunity for my kids to develop some grit and do hard things. 

Josh reached his 100 miles first and was so proud of himself.  Josh loves a challenge.  So some weeks I’d challenge him to run a certain number of laps without walking.  Other weeks I’d challenge him to beat his best overall distance.  And he always rose to the occasion.  His best running day was 18 laps, which is roughly 3.7 miles.  When the kids reach their 100 miles all their peers line up in a huge tunnel and chant, “Josh, Josh, Josh” as he comes running through.  Such a special moment. 

Blake’s goal was 50 miles.  And he made it!  He was probably the grumpiest runner in the club and some days it took everything I had just to coax him to run 2 or 3 laps.  But for a few months he had a 3rd grade buddy named Owen.  Owen would encourage Blake, run with him, and just make him feel special that a bigger kid was taking notice of him.  He ran so much better when Owen was with him.  He ended with a record of 11 laps or roughly 2.2 miles.  Not bad for a Kindergartener!

Halle reached her 100 mile goal while Grandma was visiting.  It was so much fun for her to have Grandma there to watch her and cheer for her.  This 100 miles did not come easy to her and I stand in awe of her good attitude and the way she continually tried to improve.  She ended with a personal best of 17 laps, or about 3.5 miles. 

We just had a school wide celebration were the students who reached 100 or more miles received a gold metal and everyone who participated in 100 mile club got to stand up and receive a certificate.  I am amazed at what these kids accomplished this year.  Kindergarten ran over 1000 miles.  Second grade ran 4329 miles, and 5th grade ran 3936 miles.  The school ran a grand total of 21,304 miles.  What a huge accomplishment!