A Princess and a Shamrock

Most of you know by now that Miss Siena loves her princesses and that she has quite a personality of her own. In case there was any doubt, we found her sound asleep the other night in her Ariel wig. That's my princess!

It was yet another busy weekend. We had Siena's dance class first thing Saturday morning, straight to Fred Meyers to buy birthday gifts for the party the kids were going to later, and then home for lunch. Luis was kind enough to take the kids to the party so I could have a couple rare hours of "me" time. I spent it watching the Sex and the City movie.

Saturday night my parents, Mary Lou, Heidi, and Ellia came over so we could plan our summer trip. Siena took the opportunity to don her Ariel dress. Ellia joined in the fun too. Course, Siena also posed with a car.

Here's the 1973 atlas Papa Ron brought for our route planning. Was the interstate highway system even completed in 1973? Can't wait to see where we end up following the lines, er roads, in this thing...

Whew, at least there is some computer usage in this planning process. Don't they look intent on the task at hand. There's even a pen and paper nearby. And a toy car, of course.

After Mary Lou and Heidi left, the party degenerated into a pillow fight between the kids and Papa Ron. The jury is still out on who won.

This morning was not only Daylight savings time (don't get me started on how I feel about this whole losing an hour thing) but it was also the Shamrock Run in downtown Portland. I was up at 7 am, bright and early, which to my body thanks to daylight savings was 6 am.

Here's the scene at the race. There were 21,000 racers running 3 distances, 5k, 8k, and 15k. I did the 8k.
I knew a lot of people at this run but with 21,000 people, I just saw a few in passing here and there. Here's me with a group of Mentorites. Angie, in the middle, is the fitness director at Mentor and teaches all of the tough classes I take. Of course she ran the 15k.

It was a great run. The rain stayed away, though it was cold, and I felt like I did pretty good. My time was 47:22 which placed me 228th amongst 638 in my age group. Luis and the kids were at the finish to cheer me on which was awesome.

You'd think I'd take the rest of the day off after this early morning sprint but that's not an option with an overactive family. I had to fold the weeks laundry, take the kids grocery shopping (Luis was at the RV show with his parents, a story for another time and place), and then make snickerdoodle cookies with the kids.

Somehow one night last week the topic of cookies came up and Mason asked if we could bake cookies. I said, sure, one of these days. He said "how about today". I replied "its too late tonight but maybe this weekend". That maybe turned into "Mama said we were making cookies on Sunday!" No going back on that one so make cookies we did. Using Papa Ron's recipe, they came out pretty good. The kids approved - they each ate 3 of them today.

In case that wasn't enough activity for one day or weekend, we capped it off with dinner at Famous Dave's for Luis' brother Joel's birthday. He couldn't have chosen a better place. I LOVE Famous Dave's! Ribs! Brisket! Cinnamon Apples! Oh my!

Now its time to sit and digest.