Quick PSA

Just a quick Public Service Announcement...

It really is important to wear your bike helmets! Please do. :) Here's Asher's after he smacked it against the street just outside our house earlier today:

It doesn't look horrible but actually is dented up pretty good, and it cracked all the way through. Asher's fine, thank goodness...just scraped up a bit, mostly on his shoulder. I shudder to think, though, how badly he'd have been hurt if he hadn't been wearing his helmet. This is a fairly new helmet (like less than a year old and it's not one of those cheap ones...this one's from a local bike shop) and he was just riding with Noah out front and took a curb wrong. Oy.

So. Please have your kids wear their helmets and set a good example by doing so, yourself, too. Thanks. :)

Ten on Tuesday

1. Yesterday, was the one year anniversary of the first time I'd run for fitness since my sophomore year of undergrad. Yup, more than 15 years had gone by, I didn't even own running shoes and running for three minutes at a time was an accomplishment. In the past year, since that first time back to running, I've completed the Couch to 5K program, run two 5K races, run a 10K race, and am on my second pair of running shoes. Last Saturday, I ran more than 10 miles in my training for that half marathon I'm signed up for in May. Craziness. ;) 

2. Last Thursday, Noah had another swim meet and set new personal best times in each of the three events he swam in. I tried to take pictures with my iPhone but it's an indoor pool and that didn't work so well. Plus, I don't take my "real" camera there because seating is such that, well, we get wet. :)

3. On Saturday, Micah decided he was finally ready to let Nathan help him try to ride a bike without training wheels:

He didn't make significant progress...but he started, and that's something. :) He figures he's still plenty ahead of his brothers...who didn't start riding without training wheels until they were nine.

4. Recently, we updated our Keen collection. ;) Micah inherited an old pair of Asher's, Asher scored a new pair (Noah's old pair having a broken strap and because I felt guilty since Asher often ends up with the most hand-me-downs, lol), Noah's miraculously still fit for the time being (because I made him get them too big last time, lol), and Nathan and I decided that we were finally due a new pair since ours were years old (compared to the boys, who get new pairs every year-ish):

Love our Keens! :)

5. Also on Saturday, the boys spontaneously decided that it was time to break out the water fight gear:

Though we've not even turned the outside water back on and it's technically still March, they managed to fill a stock pot full of water (numerous times), blast Asher (at his request, fortunately) and proceed to "wash" Nathan's car. By the end, I found Asher and Micah in the backyard taking turns sitting in the stock pot to see how long each could last in the freezing water. Yes, really. 

6. Yup, they were happy, happy boys:

7. Sunday, the boys had their third JOAD tournament and did fabulously. Noah and Asher both set new personal high records. Micah's already set his bar pretty high but wasn't far off his previous scores. He didn't seem to mind, as he and the other Yeomen (under 9 year olds) were more interested in the iPad game one of the kids had during their break between rounds:

Nothing like an iPad game to bring strangers together, lol.

8. Besides, Micah still managed to snag bronze:

(Yes, there are still only three boys in his division, lol.)

9. Right now I'm reading in three directions. I'm reading No Eye Can See for my own recreation...it's the second book in a trilogy about some amazing women and life on the Oregon Trail and makes me so very thankful to be living in this day and age. ;) I'm reading the Percy Jackson books with the boys, along with this, this and this for background. (Since the boys refused to let me read the Chronicles of Narnia or the Harry Potter series to them, I'm pretty stoked that they're stoked.) And, I'm reading Train Like a Mother in my on-going and occasional reading of inspirational running material. 

10. This morning, at the end of my "easy" run (according to my training plan, lol), I came across this sidewalk philosophy:

In case you need help seeing that, it says "I dream of a world where chickens can cross roads without having their motives questioned." There were actually a slew of these all down a stretch of sidewalk. They made me smile and made those five miles totally worth it. I may have to go back to read the rest... ;)

Hope your Tuesday is off to as nice a start...

Not to be outdone...

Micah would like me to inform you that he got a bullseye on Friday:

I'm not positive, to be honest, whether this was his first or not. But it was the first one he made me come take a picture of. ;) Now he's matched Asher and Noah. He feels better. ;)

Sunrise.

How I started my run this morning...

Beautiful, right? :) I'm still debating whether the sight of this made the 9.7 mile run worth it, though...lol.

Free-for-all Friday.

Randomness.

- Sometimes, while the boys are at Options, Nathan and I go out to breakfast. ;) Recently, we tried out a new place (Doug's Day Diner over by Council Tree Library for you local folks) and they had HUGE breakfast burritos...like as big as Nathan's head. That one burrito fed Nathan for three meals, lol. That big mug on the left? Coffee. Yup, two thumbs up.

- Love that my niece seriously loves the boys. She hugs Noah every time she sees him. ;) 

- How does Micah get the ice cream all over his face still? The answer...he eats from the opposite side of the cone. I don't know why.

- Wednesday, while Noah was at his third Ameritowne day, I got to enjoy some time to myself and the glorious Colorado sunshine. It rocked. I leisurely wandered IKEA and then REI and got a drink there and sat outside by the river. Bliss.

- Wednesday night, during our dinner out to celebrate 20 years of knowing each other, I finally had a chance to wear my fun black patent leather heels that I picked up on sale for like $3 at the end of the summer. :)

- And, since it was Pi Day, we had apple pie. Because you should. :)