Lightening Strikes Twice!

In case you haven't been within a 10 mile radius of Cale in the last week (or proud parents. or proud grandparents.)...
Brynn and Cale competed in their first triathlon!!

LIGHTENING STRIKES TWICE

They had been training for weeks leading up to it. And even though they both ooze athleticism, there was no way we could really prepare them for race day. It's hard to describe an environment of 800 kids and cheering, screaming fans galore when they have nothing to compare it to.

Plus, getting up at 4:30am, eating breakfast on the go, and nervous energy doesn't usually set these two up for a great day. Fingers crossed.

 

Once we got their gear set in transition, we went over to the sunrise service. Then- time to line up!
I'm seriously getting nervous again just thinking about it. They were soooo cute lining up with their age group, but I'm not sure any of us exhaled after this point for quite some time!

 

 

^ First time I teared up.

 

 



^ Second time.

 

 Here they go!!

Man...

It was so exciting.

 

I was so worried Cale was going to panic in the pool. And he did.

He is a strong swimmer, but we had not practiced in an Olympic-sized pool, nor was he prepared for 2-3 people to be swimming/splashing alongside of him. BUT he did not quit the race! Which I am super proud of.

 

 



 

Side-by-side for just a second!

(Brynn in orange goggles, Cale in blue.)

 

Little Brynnie just kept swimming! I had told her to stop at the walls to catch her breath, but she just kept kicking along like 100 yards was nothing. So proud!

 

Next up: BIKES!

Cale's favorite part. Once he got on that bike, my little fella took off. He conquered those three miles in no time :)

 



Since Brynn had gotten on right behind him, we expected her to come back right behind him...
She didn't. So we waited. And waited.
Turns out she had fallen taking a curb. And she pulled over because she thought she had a flat. And then her chain came off.

But again, she didn't quit! Daddy walked down the course spotted her and got her chain back on and she kept on a'peddlin!

 

Ready to run!

 

While Brynn finished up on bike, Cale was sprinting thru the 1/2 mile run!

(Y'all should have seen their entire fan club running back and forth like crazy people.)

 

 

 

He finished strong and got the medal and the instant high that comes with it!

 

 

Then moved to the fence to cheer on sister!

 

 

You could tell she was a little frazzled by the bike incident(s), but once she hit that pavement on foot, the child was flying.

 

 

Just a few minutes later, she rounded the corner to the finish line... drink in hand. ha!

You should see how fast she can run without spilling ;)
(Walking is a whole different story....)

 

WHAT.A.RUSH.
So stinking proud of these two!!!

We all were :)

 

 

 

Like, really really proud. They did it!!

 

Nathan had to go home to sleep, but I decided to let them stay and enjoy the bouncy house, dancing, and massive amounts of fruit and bagels.

 

We sort of accidentally stayed long enough to hear the results.

 

Holy smokes.

 

Brynn placed 2nd in her division!!!


Oh yeah, aaaannndd

So did Cale!
(3rd place did not stay for fruit and bagels.)

Whaaaat. Crazy.

Have I mentioned how proud we are?! Look at those happy faces.

Trophies (and hats, which they were just as excited about) were just icing on the cake.

Brynn and Cale, you are awesome little people. You didn't give up and tried your best! We are so, so proud of you. Love you lots and lots. Lightening Strikes Twice, baby!

Future triathlons are still TBD ;)

 

I get to be their Mom.

Mother's Day is hard in our house for so many reasons.
And good in our house for SO.MANY.REASONS.

My favorite tidbits from this year:

According to Layla, my favorite place to shop is The Childrens Place and I am as smart as "ten thousand students graduating from college!" My favorite things to do are dance and dance with her. I like to make brownies, but eat salads. {TRUTH}{And also... eat brownies}.

Brynn's sweet hands: one for me and one for her mom, R.

The picture she drew on my card- R, me, and Brynn <3 p="">

Per Cale:
I am good at singing, I make good cupcakes, and while he's at school, I "do a lot of work" ... That one's kind of a big deal given some of our conversations lately (regarding why HE has to do MY job i.e. put away his clean clothes, etc. Mhmm.)

And from my sweet husband at midnight (he was at work):

SWOON.
Me = lucky lucky gal.


Anna Gray contributed by ordering up some one-on-one time in her room from 3:00am-7:00am, sitting upright in the cold air so she could breathe (croup- AGAIN). Poor baby.

So I only slept two hours (and again the next night), my tailbone hurt like the dickens in that glider for four hours, and I was freezing in front of that humidifier... but man alive was I grateful to be snuggling that little lady bug while watching the sunrise.


I love them.


Aaaand I have to share this....
I peeked around the corner to see if the twins were working together to clean the storm door, as they were supposed to be. This is what I found:
(Ignore Brynn's only-half-complete-Saturday-morning hair. And it's super shaky because it's hard to hold a baby, a phone/camera, and NOT pee in your pants all at the same time.)

BEFORE AND AFTER: the girls' room

It's been a while since I posted a B/A! I still have several to post, and we are still workin' workin' workin' on the house whenever we can- it's just slow moving in this crazy beautiful life. No hurry, we plan on being here a long time.

BEFORE:

 

I only have one 'before' photo of their room. I took more of the other walls (which obviously all the look the same, but to show placement of windows/doors/etc). SO. Nathan had a laptop which I commandeered, naturally. A few months ago, I got desperate to watch the season finale of Downton Abbey (I'm late to the DA party.) But if you watch, you can imagine... desperate. I may have tried one too many ways to watch it online for free and I may have infected that laptop with just a few viruses. Oops.

We had to strip the whole thing clean and although Nathan tried to save all my pics first... some did not survive.

Not the end of the world, but ya know.

AFTER:

I do love my girls' room. There's nothing incredible about it- it just feels so them.

The cherry blossom tree is a decal that the girls picked out in 2009-  we put our house on the market not long after (the first time) and decided to save it. It's finally in use! They love it and I love that it looks like paint, but we can just peel it off when they are ready for a change.

Layla's side: 

She chose her bedding from the PB clearance section and she scored that memory board at Goodwill one day. She chose some sweet pics of her siblings and friends and just recently added the doll that she sewed by hand.

I could be wrong, but I bet not a lot of 9-year-old little girls have a rattlesnake and two dinosaurs on their bed.

She's a cool kid.


The dresser belonged to Nathan's great aunt.

The opposite side is Layla's reading corner.

She's thrilled to have a quiet, comfortable place to sit and read all.day.long.

Brynn's side:

 

Brynn chose her polka dots at Walmart, also several years ago and saved. I gave her the option to pick something else but she wanted to stick with it! Fine by me.

The wall art I picked up at a consignment sale 50% off. They are hand-made and hand-painted and not exactly made strait. Not a huge deal since my little wiggle worm is constantly flinging her legs all over the wall anyway.

I bought Brynn's dresser SUPER cheap from someone local.



I got what I paid for.
It was cream with light pink flowers. I painted it dark brown and changed the hardware- but because of the quality of the dresser, it didn't paint very well. You may have noticed that she does everything quickly and rather intentionally (wink wink), so I  just assume she wear this one out and we'll get a better one later.



A giant B covered in gold glitter? All Brynn. And she just loves that photo of Cale pushing her on a swing just after they turned three (ditto)!

I also painted their closet door...

It's fun and girly and I hope the words stick with them:

Defy Gravity.
Be you, bravely.
Just pray.
Choose joy.
Believe in miracles.
Don't be like the rest of them, Darling.
You matter.
Love fearlessly.
Give God glory.
Speak the truth.
Be still.
Let it be.
Stay classy.
Think happy thoughts.
Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air.
Be in love with your life- every minute of it.
Bloom where you are planted.

And if the music is right...DANCE

Be in love with your life. Every minute of it.

 

 

 

HERE'S MY WISDOM:

 

 

 

1a: Cupcakes turn my kids into crazy people.

 

 

 

1b. Cupcake effects are contagious, even if you weren't the one who ate the cupcake.

 

2a.It's rather important that you don't forget to add the water to the macaroni.

 

 

 

2b. The smell of a small kitchen fire is really hard to get out of your house.

 

3a. Don't take this child to Kroger with you on Senior Day, you will be trapped.

 

3b. Don't try to sit like this in a grocery cart. Also a trap.

 

 

4. DO make this kale pear bleu cheese salad:

 

 

 

And this mexican shrimp salad:

 

 

 

and eat them every single day like me. SO SO good.

 

 

5. DO marry a man that makes s'mores brownies from scratch.

 

YOU'RE WELCOME.