Oh by the way....

The picture of Anna sporting her new haircut below is actually a picture of SUPER ANNA! Ever since Mitchell spent so much time flexing at Halloween, Anna now puts her hands on her hips and yells, "SUPER ANNA!"

BOB

Most babies have their big day well before their second birthday but not mine! Anna has never wanted her hair cut and I've never had a desire to cut it until tonight. All the stars were in alignment and we took the plunge. After cutting Mitchell's hair, I offered Anna a trim and she sat relatively still while I trimmed her hair so that it is a shoulder-length bob...so cute! (I love the little flip in the end!) Lexi--who cried elephant tears and begged me to let her hair grow long when I took the kids for back-to-school trims--decided she didn't want to be left out of the action so she got the last trim of the night. Mom by day... hair stylist by night? I think not.

WOW! 26.2!

26.2 miles is a long way to run! On October 28th, I completed the Marine Corp Marathon in Washington, DC.






My time was just over 5 hours and with the support of so many friends and family, I raised over $2500 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Beth, Tyler and Maggie cheered me on at several locations along the course and then took me to their house for a while before I returned to the Team in Training Victory Party with my teammates: Greg, Sue and Marie.

Happy Halloween

Not much to say but lots of pictures to see... the kids all had a fun Halloween even though (much to Mitchell's dismay) they had school all day on Halloween. Anna insisted on being Tigger which is a costume that I made for Kassie years ago. Lexi opted to wear a favorite princess costume. Mitchell planned to wear his Superman pajamas but when a friend offered this fancy version of Superman including a muscle shirt, the pajamas were toast and he spent the holiday flexing! Kassie decided to spend Halloween as a hippy and thanks to Michelle and Sam she had some really styling pants to match!


Pumpkin carving was a hoot! As usual, Mitchell and Lexi protested about gutting the pumpkins by themselves but Anna dove right in!

Therapy

Although I know that it may sound slightly silly to some, I find the autumn foliage incredible therapeutic so I packed up the kids and headed north to spend the weekend in western PA a few weeks ago. It was getting close to dusk by the time we made it to Bear Town Rocks but the sight of bright reds, oranges, and yellows for as far as your eye can see is incredibly relaxing.

Unfortunately, the enormous rocks that the kids loved climbing made Beth, Kari and I all nervous after the view!

And so it began...

The first day of school came and went on August 27th. Quick admission of guilt? In all the chaos of getting everyone out the door I forgot to take pictures so these are actually the second day of school photos. Middle school bus comes at 7:05am and the elementary bus comes at 8:55am...my morning just keeps going and going!