Sidewalk Paint

 I'm a little bit of a Pinterest addict, I can't help it.  So many great ideas in one little place, it is just the perfect site for a girl like me.  Earlier this week I saw a pin with instructions on making sidewalk paint.  This week my girls are sick (we've got hand foot and mouth disease in our home) so we are stuck at home with no friends.  I'm trying to keep them entertained and so yesterday I tested out the sidewalk paint idea, my goodness it was a HIT!

 It goes on watery, but dries really quickly and becomes much brighter.  Lily just loved moving her brush along the ground and mixing colors.

Charlotte mostly splattered paint everywhere with the wrong end of the paint brush.

 For the most part the girls played well together and they shared the paint and brushes between them.

Of course eventually they figured out that it was more fun to paint themselves, but it was fine, it came off easily enough, though we had a very colorful bath tub that evening.

 Today we tried it again, with some new brushes and food coloring and it went much better.  The paints were brighter and the new brushes were much easier for the girls to use.  The larger the brush the better.

 I poured out the leftover paint during clean up, aren't these colors great?  1 c. cornstarch, 1 c. water, and food coloring; couldn't be easier or cheaper and the girls love it.  We'll be doing this again and again.

Fit for Life Half Marathon

So, last Saturday I ran this half marathon.  It was...well...grueling!

I knew going into it that I wasn't as prepared as I should be.  Sure, I had completed a handful of long runs and survived, but my normal runs are still usually just 4-5 miles so 13.1 makes for a big difference.  I really wasn't prepared for just how mentally challenging the race would be.  I'm not an early morning runner, and I was so excited/apprehensive about the race that I slept very little the night before.  I was tired after 3 miles and I felt exhausted by the 7 miles mark,  but I was still over 6 miles away from my car so I had to keep going.  Every time I wanted to stop I had to tell myself that if I kept going it would be over sooner.  I finished it though, in 2 hours, 17 minutes, and 41 seconds, which puts my pace at just about 10'31", much slower than my 10k pace, but about what I expected.

I'm glad that I did it.  It was something that a year ago I would not have thought that I could have ever done, and now I have.  What's even crazier is that now that I know what to expect I want to do it again...in September.  I think that I can do better, mentally more than physically, and I want to prove it.

 I was disappointed by the ugly and huge shirts (I ordered a small and gave it to Tyson, it fits him perfectly, and he is no small guy), but I love my medal.  I wanted to wear it all day, but that might have been a little silly.  I settled for the drive home.

An Evening at the Lake

It can be a little crazy around here sometimes.  With the heat we can end up cramped in the house a bit, but about once a week I take the girls to Lake Lowell, just to let them play and get a break.  It makes for a pretty easy evening for mommy and the girls have fun.

On this particular day Charlotte had fought her nap and after over 2 hours of playing in her crib she never fell asleep, so of course on the way to the lake she crashed.  Go figure.

  Building sand castles is very soothing...

4th of July

I'm a little late posting about the 4th of July, I'm usually so on top of this, but well, I've been lazy.  With our computer down it takes a lot more effort to upload photos and post updates because this old update is a little on the slow side.

For the 4th of July we went to a party at the home of some friends where the girls swam in the pool and we enjoyed good company and a really yummy potluck.  This is how the girls helped me get ready for the potluck.

In the evening I took the girls over to my parents' home for their neighborhood fireworks show.  Charlotte was fascinated!

 Lily liked them too, but only at a distance.

 Except for sparklers, the girl LOVES her sparklers!

 It was a great fireworks show, the girls loved it!  We all lined up along the path and we ended up moving our chairs back a bit as the fireworks got bigger.  Lily liked to be behind us so whenever we moved our chairs back, Lily moved hers back farther.  I gave up and let her sit where she wanted to, and she was happy.