a little racing

Some friends of ours invited us to go to a race last night :) The mothers ~ my friend and I ~ did a six mile relay together. It was really fun -- but rather hard :) It was hilly and bumpy ... and on grass. There were six one-mile legs of the relay ... so each runner does three miles. I'll probably be sore tomorrow ...
There were quarter-mile and half-mile races for those fourteen and under ...
Foofie did her quarter-mile in 2:06 ... wow! I was surprised :)
Her competitive little self said to me afterwards, "I need to practice on my speed."
I didn't catch his time ... but he wowed me too :)
And this gal got third in the half-mile ... 3:40! More wow! I had no idea she could be so fast :) Our friends' son came in second!
Smiles and ribbons all around :)
And Little Spectator with some watermelon blush :) "I have a hoo-mongous one!" he said excitedly.

a little firepit

Are you a Black Friday shopper??? Well ... this here firepit is my first ever Black Friday deal -- and we used it for the first time last week :)
I don't know if we've ever bought hot dogs before! Possibly when we were going camping once ... but that would be it ... so the kids thought this was pretty special :)
All were in good spirits ...
I had these colored flower-shaped marshmallows on hand ... so we did a little marshmallow roasting too ...
Halo said I should be on the blog more ... so she snapped a photo of me and Little Dude :)

a little fiftieth

We recently went to a fiftieth anniversary party for an aunt and uncle of mine. Here's my middle two with Great-Grandma. She is largely Swedish and this is her "big smile" :)
Here she is visiting with her son-in-law {who was having the anniversary} ... and daintily nibbling a cracker. So poised! She is quite forgetful these days ... and sometimes thinks I'm an old classmate or co-worker. It's interesting that she doesn't seem to gather that she is six decades older than me. She was impressed with the food and said, "A party like this??? And all of these kinds of food??? Is this some new thing or is this the usual???"
My Mom and some of her homemade raspberry tarts ... delicious!
Halo is almost as big as me now! She surpassed me in her shoe size this spring ... her hands are a bit larger than mine now too! Crazy! It doesn't seem so long ago that she was 8.75 pounds ...
My husband monitoring Little Blondie ... and asking Great-Grandma what it feels like to have a child who has been married for fifty years ... "Oh, I don't know," she answered with a little laugh.

a little firecracker

Hello. It's me. I haven't given up blogging ... although I seem to have missed July altogether. Here's a few pictures from our July though ... from Foof's Third of July Birthday Party at the cabin.
Fun with flags ...
Fun on the boat ...
Fun headbands ...
Fun with corn ...
Fun sleeping ... our newest nephew :)
Fun on the Gladiator ...
P.S. Little Guy ... clasping his hands while sleeping during the car ride ... it makes me smile :)