Chances Are...

What are the chances that Andrew would throw a wrapper on the ground in his dad's car when he was done eating something?--very high chances

What are the chances that that something in the wrapper was peanut butter crackers from soccer--the common allergy of his 3 sisters?--not very high chances at all

What are the chances that a few days later his sister, Mary, would be in that car, find that wrapper and not only pick it up but scrape out some of the leftover peanut butter and eat it?--I would have thought those chances were slim to none.

I was wrong.

Imagine my surprise when I was driving Mary home from soccer practice in the dark and suddenly she says, "Can you open my window, I need to spit." After spitting (and missing of course) several times, she then said, "I feel like I ate peanut butter or something." At this point I am unaware there is any food anywhere in that back seat.

"Did you eat something, Mary?" I ask. It was then I learned of the wrapper on the ground and of her thought that the stuff against the edge of the wrapper was FROSTING. Geez. Out comes the Benedryl and the paranoia watching to see how allergy girl will react. Fortunately, her throat just felt yucky and she kept spitting--that was it.

Then came the conversations:

"Andrew, we don't throw wrappers on the ground."

"Mary, we don't pick up trash off the floor and sample it, even if we think it is frosting."

Maybe we'll be on top of this kind of stuff before the kids are all grown. At this point, that seems unlikely.

5 Little Pumpkins (and a few 1000 more)

Rita and Clem were in town the first part of October. We were in search of a Saturday New England experience that both they and we had not had yet. Then we discovered the Keene, NH Pumpkin Festival so we decided that was it.

The 2 hour drive was GORGEOUS--leaf peepers r us!

We got to Keene and couldn't figure out where we were supposed to go, mainly where we were supposed to park. We finally found a shuttle lot and took a school bus to the festival. The kids were excited just by riding the bus.

Here's what we found when we arrived:

pumpkins,

more pumpkins,

and MORE PUMPKINS!!!!!!
I wish we could have seen this pumpkin tower when it was dark. It was really cool.

Here are a few that we brought with us (yeah right!)

These were a hit with our family, as were about 100 others.

Singers in front of the pumpkin tower. There were over 23,000 pumpkins at the festival. We saw a lot of people bringing in pumpkins while we were there and checking them in.

The kids were also excited to go in a bounce house and to get their faces painted.

Andrew was sickly looking and coughing his brains out by the time we left, so we didn't make it til dark. Fortunately, carved pumpkins are still cool in the daytime.By the time we rode the bus back, the line at the shuttle stop waiting for the bus was crazy long. It was probably better we left when we did anyway.

We had a great visit with Rita and Clem. Between their trip and my mom and Kellie's trip, I have been a horrible picture taker however. I did manage a few though:

Grandpa and Andrew showing off the bird feeder they made. The squirrels have found it and are in heaven. :)

Kiddos with Grandma and Grandpa. We are so glad they came!!!

Ready to Run

13. 1 miles--Hartford ING Half-Marathon.
I did it!!!

I will probably be ramblesome in my details since this race was a large part of my past 6 months, so feel free to just look at pictures if you like.

So, my sister Megan ran the half marathon last fall and I went to cheer her on. The day was amazing and decided then that I would run the race this year. I'm so glad I committed myself to doing it. It has been a fun, hard, crazy, never ending, but amazing experience.

RACE DAY!

A FAMILY AFFAIR! Mom and Kellie flew out to visit and do the 5K (I think the race was just a good excuse to come visit). Mom has already walked 2 half marathons this year and she and Kellie have already done a previous 5K this summer. Megan came in from NYC with 3 friends to run the race as well. This was Megan's 4th half marathon for 2010. Needless to say, I was definitely the inexperienced racer of the group. It was so fun with all of them around; I'm glad we did it together.

MY BUDDIES! 3 of my good buds trained with me and kept me pumped these last few months/weeks. Bonnie has been on board with me since last fall when I decided to do it. Terri moved in not too long ago and joined in training immediately and Tanjua got on board with us this summer and has been a powerhouse. I have loved having friends to do this with--it's made the training more fun. Plus, they all ran SO WELL in the race and it was fun getting to be excited for them!!

I drove to the race with mom, Megan and Kellie and then couldn't find these guys anywhere. Even calling each other, there were just so many people. I finally just acknowledged that I wouldn't be able to see them and was so bummed. Megan, her friend Cassie, and I slipped into the mass of people at the starting line (or starting herd I should say since we are talking thousands!). I looked straight down the row from us and saw Bonnie and Tanjua about 10 people from me!!!! I couldn't believe it! It was a true blessing to get to see them and be excited with them before things began.

THE RACE BEGAN! Matt scored big points for being the highlight of my race day. He came with the kids and I was expecting to see them at the finish line. He surprised me though and just past mile 3, I see Matt and the kids all cheering me on. Holy cow, I was so excited!!! He caught me in this picture waving my arms to the kids and being so excited. He then drove the kids around and they were cheering for me around mile 5 and somewhere between mile 7 and 8, not to mention the finish line. I loved it!!!!

I split from Megan at mile 3 when her knee was acting up (as it has been for a few weeks) and went solo. Around the time of my arm waving picture, I started feeling like I was going to throw up; pretty much, the entire race went downhill from here.

This shot was around mile 5. I told Matt at this point that I felt like I would throw up. It all began about a mile later. The rest of the race was a mixture of feeling sick, having serious lower back pain, and major side cramps. Joy of joys. It was definitely my worst running day in all of my 6 months of training. I couldn't get out of the mental funk I was in of wanting to quit and of being so mad as I was going slower and slower.

All done!!! Ta-da!!!

But...I kept going. I finished. I did it in 2 hours and 29ish minutes. It was 15 minutes slower than I had hoped and expected and I was upset the entire day--it didn't help that I was exhausted, sick and in pain. But then on Sunday I finally got my needed nap and went to bed early as well. Now that I'm not tired, I am proud that I did it and feel amazed that I did as well as I did considering how horrible it was.

So that's it. Will I do it again? You bet. Matt has committed to running it with me next year. And next year's goal won't be a specific time or specific pace, it will be "Have fun."

I can't wait.

Annie

Happy 2nd Birthday to our Annie girl! How have you gotten so big? We are so glad you are part of our family and have had a fun time celebrating with you.

We went with the "Old MacDonald" cake theme since this little lady is a lover of the song.

She loved her cake, which made me happy. After her nap, Annie spent probably an hour standing on a chair and looking at her cake and pointing to all the animals and saying their sounds.

Thank you "Little People" for substituting as cake decorations. Pay special note to the fact that the cake looks good. By the last picture when it's actually 'cake time' things had started falling apart. I have yet to perfect making allergy friendly (no egg) cakes in a way that they aren't so moist they fall apart. It gets tricky when it comes to these specialty cakes. Any suggestions besides freezing them or adding flour to the recipe (been there done that) would be appreciated.

PRESENT TIME!!!! Notice Annie getting in serious mode.

It's funny that in a house with tons of baby dolls a few new ones could even be exciting. However, we have been in baby doll crazy mode since the new birthday arrivals have become part of the family.

Oh so happy! (notice the gross-looking cake? HELP!!!)

Happy Birthday girl. Love you!

Back To School

School started for us in normal Singer-style...life had to be crazy and someone had to be sick. This time the winner was Mary.

Andrew had his FIRST first day of school. Our excited kindergartener!

1st shirt of the school year--why his RED StarWars shirt, of course. (that Star Wars may have a short lived life in our home is a true prayer in my heart)

A happier than it looks bunch for the first day of school.

Andrew and Andrew, neighbors and bus buddies!
Mary had a fever for 2 1/2 days at the start of the week. It broke late the day before school started, so she had to miss both "meet your teacher" day and the first day of school.

Mary posing for the 2nd day of school (her first)

The bus stop gang!

After coming home from day 2 of school having eaten no lunch and still looking exhausted and complaining of her mouth hurting, Mary stayed home the 3rd day as well. Then she actually attended for a full week but got sent home with a fever last week. We are off to a GREAT start. Hopefully we're getting all the insanity over with early.

It's Always Fun for Everyone When Grandma Comes!

I'm a bit behind posting on life. Let's flashback to August...

Rita, aka Grandma, came out to visit for a week in mid-August. She told us several months ago that she would come out and stay with the kids for a few days so Matt and I could have a mini-getaway to celebrate our 10th anniverary. I had a few days with Rita before we left; we didn't do any major adventures but took her to a few places she hadn't been yet.

Grandma, Mary and Andrew posing at Jonathan's Dream playground in West Hartford. It's a playground for all types of kids, including those with disabilities, so it had a different design and feel. The kids loved it!

We took a mini day trip up to S. Deerfield, MA and went to Yankee Candle. The kids have so much fun, they hardly realize they are at a candle store.

I guess it's hard to think 'candle' when you can dress up and play on a pirate ship.

...or when you can sit on a throne and feel all royal.

Phil and Jen came to visit for the day on Saturday, and then Monday Matt and I headed to Newport, RI for 3 days. The kids and Grandma had a successful few days (I think she might even be willing to do it again one day!). Matt and I did too. Here's a few shots of fun in Newport:

Matt and I in the backyard of Rosecliff, one of the mansions we toured in Newport.

A heel-click at the Breakers (another mansion)...well, because I could. It's amazing what you can do without a stroller or a bag of diapers and snacks for kids.

The weather stunk most of the time, but we didn't let wind or rain stop us from doing the Cliff Walk. Matt almost blew away...almost.

Yes, we ate PEANUTS. While we were ate it, we ate some SOY and EGGS too. We ordered and ate anything we wanted, with no thought of allergies...it felt nice.

It was a great, relaxing 3 days. We did miss the kiddos though and were happy to come home as happy, refreshed parents. Thanks Rita!!!!

You say "Tomato", I say "Tomahto"

It's been a good garden this summer. The cucumbers have been a great success and would be an even greater success if I could stand eating them. Fortunately, Matt and Annie (and our neighbors) like them. It's been so fun having fresh tomatoes in meals and our green beans have been never ending. That has been fun. We had some awesome brocolli, lots of peas, not so awesome bell pepper plants, and are waiting to be surprised by our potatoes and the few canteloupe that are finally growing. I'm excited to get in another round of lettuce and spinich as the summer starts to wind down.

Overall, more successful than last year and I'm excited to build another box or two for next year.