Big Girl Violet & Great Job Daddy!

This weekend there were two big events for our family! Thursday was Violet's birthday... here she is talking to one of her many friends and family that called to wish her a happy birthday! Between the calls and the cards she felt very special that day! She spent the morning playing with friends (at Mom's group), ate lunch with her friends Charlotte and Grace at her favorite restaurant, Ginza (us mommies tagged along too), and ended the evening with Spaghetti-O's and grapes (per her request). Saturday was her birthday party. Violet wanted a "Ladybug Picnic". So we had a picnic in the front yard with all of Violet's favorites, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, cheese sticks (the orange ones), stick pretzels, apples, and juice boxes. We also had a bounce house (from Grandma Arlene, a carry-over present from last year that had to be postponed because of Violet's broken thumb last year), craft odds-and-ends at a table to let the kids build-a-bug, a ladybug cake and cupcakes, and then a big surprise! Randy and I had purchased 3000 live ladybugs (online @ Gardening Zone) to release in our backyard for the kids to catch. We also bought some Little Bug Lockets for the kids to keep their bugs in for the ride home. They had so much fun! And we adults had a great time watching them! 3000 ladybugs is a lot! Our yard probably still has almost 500 left! Our neighborhood gardens should be a lot better off because of Violet's party! Take a look at all the fun pictures from the day (and the videos of the kids trying to catch some bugs)!

The other big event of the weekend was Randy completing his 2nd half marathon! We went out to dinner on Saturday night with 8 other friends that were running the next morning and had a great time celebrating all their hard work (along with eating a few carbs and calming their nervousness)! Randy ran his fastest time ever on Sunday morning, coming in just under 1 hour and 40 minutes (a ten minute improvement from last year's time)! The kids and I headed out to Woodward Park in the morning (where the race finished) but just missed seeing him finish by 8 minutes...bummer! He just ran too stinkin' fast! We stuck around in the park to cheer on lots of other friends as they came across the finish line! Uncle Aaron, Isaac, and Randy waiting for Auntie Christa to cross (she walked the 1/2). Luke, Randy, Christa, and Aaron in the finisher's sweatshirts at dinner Sunday night! Great job everyone! We are so proud of you!