Running and Running and Running

Anwyn came home from school a few weeks ago with a paw charm to add to her chain necklace. When the children do morning mile before school they earn feet and shoes and eventually paws to represent the number of miles they have run. A paw equals 100 miles, so that is a big accomplishment for Anwyn!

Lily has been working hard also and is adding up her miles pretty steadily. Even Zach likes to run (on the mornings that he wakes up in time, which isn't very often).

Saturday, February 14th, Lily and Anwyn both participated in the 5 Points of Life Kids Marathon. To participate they have to previously run 25 miles (over any number of days), and then the race on Saturday is 1.2 miles to complete a marathon. The girls both did a good job running it and had fun participating.

Lily and her best friend Keira.

The school with the most participants there wins a cash prize, and they were happy to help their school come out in the lead once again. Way to go Talbot Tigers!

Celebrating Anwyn--the double digit birthday!

 This beautiful girl is ten years old! Wow--she is in the double-digits now!

We celebrated Anwyn's tenth birthday at the end of January. I saw an idea on Pinterest and decided to start a few new birthday traditions. We made a poster to hang on her door, listing "10 things we love about Anwyn" (each family member contributed ideas). Jared and I also inflated 10 balloons, with $1 bill in each. So she had a fun surprise when she opened the door this morning.

10 Things We Love About Anwyn

1) She gives me piggyback rides (from Z and L)

2) She likes to read a lot of books (D)

3) She never says unkind things and she tries to CTR (M)

4) She gives me warm hugs and nice kisses (Z)

5) She knows how to work hard and solve problems (D)

6) She is developing her talents with daily piano practice and running the Morning Mile (M)

7) She snuggles in bed with me and reads me books (L)

8) She helps me build my Lego sets (Z)

9) She is super helpful at home and a good example to her brother and sister (M)

10) She always has a large smile for her mom and dad (D)

Her birthday fell on a Sunday, so we ate breakfast, and since we have afternoon church she got to open her presents right after. The biggest hit was the Snap Circuits, Jr. set. The children spent all morning connecting electric circuits and turning on lights, playing music, and spinning a fan. After church they explored the Spirograph, a creative art toy that I used when I was a young girl.

Dinner was our new grape-jelly meatball recipe, with rice and mixed veggies. To conclude the celebrations for the day we lit the candles, sang Happy Birthday, and enjoyed a pan of brownies.

Anwyn's birthday party came the Saturday after. She invited her 6 closest friends. We decided to go with a Decathlon theme for the 10 year old, planning 10 minute-to-win-it type games. Some of the games were how many pennies can you stack in a tower in 1 minute, cup pyramid stacking, transferring M&Ms by sucking them up with a straw, you get the idea. It worked pretty well and the girls had fun. We had crackers and a cheeseball for a snack, and root beer floats for a treat.