Tiny Tiger strikes again!

Miles passed his second level Tae Kwan Do test last night! He earned a new orange belt (belt stays the same color I guess) and an orange head band with a tiger on it, along with a tiger patch. Last night was his last class of his second time taking the Tiny Tigers class with Lakes Martial Arts.

My Little Picassos

The kids really enjoy making art lately. Especially Miles. He has really turned into quite the little painter. He paints every week at preschool and all last year the paintings were pretty much the same. A few lines of different colors painted here and there. Well this year he's really stepped it up a notch in the old painting department. He still paints every week but they are actually real pictures of things! I love seeing what he creates and the pile of 'art to keep' is getting a little large. In fact, I really need to start photographing some of these pieces and saving them because I want to remember them forever!! They are adorable. Last week he brought home this little number. The teachers posted this picture on Facebook of him painting a Valentine picture of his dad. For his dad and of his dad. Love it!

Miles painting his "Dad" for Valentine's Day at school. It is a Valentine that "looks like Daddy."

I also started buying canvases on sale at Michaels along with some not washable paint. Yes, I now realize this was a bad bad decision as Evie loves to get paint on everything, and who buys paint that is not washable for a 2 and 4 year old. Seriously. Anyway, we pull off the table cloth, put on some music, old rag shirts and smocks and create art. The kids really get into it. It keeps them occupied for at least 10 minutes, and we have some fun wall art to hang up.

Evie making her abstract piece.

Miles painting "The Backyard".

8 Miles

Alright, so I know I have some catch up posts to do and I will maybe get to some of those at some point this week (why is it so hard to sit down and download pictures and update this blog!?!?) but most importantly right now I need to document something that happened today. Something that has never happened in my life, and I am so happy and proud of myself.  I ran 8 miles today!!! 8 whole long glorious miles. The farthest I have ever run ever, and on a treadmill (I hate the treadmill).  I have been really trying hard to get back into running and have been committing to running 3 times a week and doing at least one longer run on the weekends. I started running for the first time in my life after Evie was born. I decided that it was time to find a workout that I could do anywhere, anytime and preferably with her. We have awesome running strollers and she never liked the childcare at the gym, so the winter of 2011/12 I downloaded a couch to 5k training program and religiously followed it. I spent many evenings at the gym on the treadmill after the kids had gone to bed. It was hard, and I wanted to quit several times as I usually do with most things but I stuck it out and was able to run an entire 5k by spring. After that I was addicted. I started running outside pushing the kids around in our double Bob while we lived in the rental house over the summer of 2012. I'd run the paths along the creek and got up to running about 3-4 miles a day with that thing. Then we moved into our new house and chaos took over. House projects ruled and my running went by the sidelines. The thing with running for me is that I have to stick with it or I lose it quickly. It is so damn HARD! Then I threw my back out lifting weights in May and was totally unable to run or do much for the entire summer. It was depressing.  We live blocks from our favorite lake that has a great 3 mile trail around it, and I had all these dreams of running the lake all summer long and getting more races under my belt. These things never happened and then winter hit again. Evie started loving the gym's daycare and I decided a couple of months ago that it was time to start running again and once again I got on the treadmill and it was a slow slow process. But a month of running has really paid off because TODAY I RAN 8 MILES!! No walking, all running. And it was awesome. I felt fantastic afterwards (usually I get horrible stomach cramps after a longer run).

The only bad thing about running is afterwards you decide it is totally fine to eat a huge helping of spaghetti for dinner, a glass of wine, a bunch of thin mint girl scout cookies and ice cream with chocolate syrup. But hey, I ran 8 miles today!

Our 'hood

I'm kind of obsessed with our neighborhood. I never dreamed I'd have so many great neighbor friends. Especially after living in our old house for 4 years without ever knowing anyone besides the guy who lived right behind us. This time in our new house it is so different. We've been here for about a year and a half and I feel like we've hit the neighbor jackpot. So many young families in the same stage of life as us and such nice people. The women usually try to get together monthly, for a night of wine and catching up, but we also try to include the families as everyone has young children. On Saturday one of our neighbors hosted a little cookie decorating party and had all of us over for cookies and lunch. Evie was sick so her and Tim stayed behind to work on a new house project Tim decided to start over the weekend (fixing all our trim) but Miles and I went to visit and eat cookies. It was really fun and I loved seeing all the little kids get together. Looking forward to the warmer months when everyone is outside and we don't all have to be cooped up in the house.

February cookie party at Angie and Seth's.

Little Friends

These two have been playing an awful lot together and getting along!! Evie even played her first game of Candyland and Spiderman Match game without destroying the game and without Miles freaking out. It is nice. They play a lot of little pretend games together too, usually on the weekend mornings when the pace of life at our house slows way down. Some of their new favorite games are pretending it's Christmas Eve and Santa is coming - they drag their blankets and pillows out into the living room and make a bed on the floor and read books and hang out together. Another is playing school and Miles is the teacher of course. I love it when they play these little games together without noticing that I am listening and watching. Evie just has stars in her eyes for her big bro. And he is pretty good at protecting his little sister too.

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