Our little athletes

"Life is short. Play hard!"

This was a popular quote written on t-shirts while I was in high school. A far cry from the high school days, however, I feel that is the quote that pretty well sums up my life these days. I couldn't be more thankful!

I have become that mini-van driving, soccer mom! I am fully embracing it and loving it. Ella and Carter are busily involved in a couple classes these days. On Tuesday's Ella has swimming and Thursday afternoon's are joyfully spent watching Carter during his "sports sampler" class. And of course Saturday mornings are spent on the soccer field.

I am a bit behind in my blogging since life has been....well......our CRAZY life! This was the day Ella had school, swimming lessons, and the Johnson Park family jog. Whew! She was exhausted. She is taking a swimming class by herself so it ends up being private swimming lessons for 45 minutes. She can swim the full length of the pool by herself, treads water in the deep, has learned the backstroke, sidestroke, and just this week she learned to dive in head first! I am more than impressed by her determination, courage and athletic abilities! What a kid!

I am busy wrangling the boys during the lessons, trying diligently to keep them out of the pool! What a job that is! Here is Carter showing off his big muscles. This week, he spent the majority of the time lining up all 30 some cars on the bleacher getting them ready for the "parade".

After swimming lessons we came home, changed clothes and headed back to Grandville for the Johnson Park Jog. This was to be a family event. However, Scott called me sometime during this whirlwind day and dropped the bomb that he wasn't going to be able to come since he had some pretty important meetings that needed to be attended. So I managed all 3 kiddos for the race. Carter was determined to run it. I figured I would have Elle's fatigue on my side, but the energizer bunny in her kicked in and she was determined to run the mile in record time. Mind you that we had Seattle-like weather the four days leading up to this event and the course was more mud filled than anything. Elle pictured with her P.E. teacher who she adores. Mrs. Brummel-Fee teaches her yoga, and all sorts of other fit activities. She is a superstar teacher for sure! Tammi is a good friend of mine and re-assured me that I was a CRAZY person if I thought I'd be able to take the stroller on the course since it was so muddy! I was a bit nervous at this point, trying to consider how I was going to manage this event. Luckily, we had another friend there who offered to keep Christian at the finish line for us. WHEW!

Ella, Carter, Anna (from Preschool) and her family...note the dad in the picture!

Ella and Carter insisted on being in the front of the race. Here they are surveying the course and listening to the instructions before they blew the start horn.

When the horn rang, we were all together.....for a minute. Elle was off like a shot, running with the big kids. Carter had fun and was caught up in the excitement until he fell in the mud TWICE! After about a 1/4 mile in he wanted me to CARRY him?!??! Ella was way ahead of us. So I scooped up the dude on my back and ran as best I could to catch Elle....no luck. Well to make a long story short. It was the longest, hottest, heaviest mile I've ever run. It was memorable, none the less. Ella finished and so did we. Christian was thrilled to see all of us.

Carter in the background checking out how muddy he got!

Elle with her official number

Us at the finish line! YEAH we did it!

Ella & Laura from her class.

Thursday we were off to Carter's class. He is over the moon about having a class to attend and taking it all so VERY seriously! What a little, aggressive, determined man we have. Christian couldn't help but get in on the action.

Carter was very focused and listened intently to Miss Carly. I had to snap a picture of this. Each time Carter scored, Elle ran out and gave him a congratulatory hug! Precious. I know it won't last forever, but I had to enjoy it for now.