Here we go again!

 
On Tuesday Daryl started Pre School! As you can tell from the picture he is thrilled. Actually, he is not upset about starting school, after a vacation filled with mom taking pictures of him he is just sick of the camera. This will also be seen in our family pictures that we took last week. Alex did a lot better at smiling than Daryl. I guess that is just how it is when you are five year old boy!

I restarted the sweater vest for Daryl and he was very upset that the first one didn't fit. This, in a weird way, makes me happy because he still wants the things I knit for him. (Unlike Kelly who doesn't like hand knit things...) This was a conversation Daryl and I had this weekend.







Daryl: "Mom I want you to throw away all your yarn and needles and play with me."
Me: "Daryl that hurts my feelings, what if I said throw away all your toys so you will play with me?"
Daryl: "I don't want you to throw away all your yarn, just the yarn you don't use for me!"
Me: "So you like your sweaters I make for you?"
Daryl: "Yes! Just knit for me!"

Taking a Week Off

The Manor has been on vacation! Our first one as a family of four and it was a fun and refreshing time. We are really lucky that we are able to take a whole week off and do fun things as a family.


We went to Branson, Mo for our time away. I have never been to Branson and it was a great time. Daryl loved Silver Dollar City, Kelly liked the frog rides, I liked the cave tour and Alex liked everything but the afternoon on the lake.
I think it was the life jacket but when he wasn't sleeping on the boat he was crying.

My first thought was this was a bad idea. Then we took Daryl on a tube ride and it changed my mind. He loved it! He said he had never had so much fun in his life.

So Alex just had to deal for a few hours while the rest of us had a blast!

While we were gone Daryl had his "real" 5th birthday. We got him an ice cream and Alex was pretty upset about it until Daryl shared with him. In the condo right after I sang Happy Birthday to Daryl (about 7:30am), he looked me in the eyes and said, "Mom I'm never going to be four again!" He was so excited and I was trying not to cry. He is growing up too fast!

We had family pictures on Friday of this week. The boys also took there one and five year pictures. The good news is I got Daryl's vest done! The bad news, it was too small. The pattern was pretty simple, except I didn't understand the pocket instructions at all, so I will make it again larger. New goal, have the boys sweater done by Christmas for Christmas card picture. Goal number two make Kelly wear his handmade sweater for same picture.

 

Both my Korf family and Ramirez family had a rough week with the loss of a loved one and the anniversary of such a loss. Hugs to all of them.

I know my dad watches over my little family every day. I hope we are giving him lots of reasons to smile and laugh! I think we would be pretty entertaining. ;-)

Multitasking Weekend

We had a great weekend with a birthday party for both boys, a horse show, one sweater finished and one sweater started! About the only thing I didn't accomplish this weekend was get the blog updated. Oh well, I guess you can't have it all.
Kept Alex up late tonight so he could model  his sweater. I needed to sew on all the buttons. He was such a good sport for his photo shoot.

Daryl has had so much fun playing with all the toys he got at his birthday party. Tonight we put together his scooter for him.

He is wearing his Royals jersey and Jordan shorts he also got on Saturday. He got home from his party and changed into this new favorite outfit. Since he only wore it a half a day I let him wear it again on Sunday. He then begged me to wash them on Monday and it was the only thing he would put on today! This could get interesting!!

A Little Picasso

 
The project for the month of July was to paint the living room, dinning room and hallway. We got the paint in July but that was about it!

Kelly took some time off of work and got the whole project done in two days. He had a little help. :-)

I was very proud of Kelly for letting Daryl paint one of the walls on the first coat. Kelly can be a little type A when it comes to home improvement projects. He likes everything done a particular way and he usually doesn't trust anyone but himself. When Daryl saw the paint and paint brushes come out he begged and begged to get to paint.

Kelly finally caved in and Daryl was so happy he glowed for the entire day! He told anyone who would listen that he painted with Dad and he was wearing his painting clothes. He knows that dad has painting clothes and now he does too.
It took a little longer to do the first coat but the memory that Kelly created for Daryl was priceless. Way to go Dad!

PS-All that said I still don't approve of when Kelly lets Daryl use the drill.
 PPS-He has actually lets him use it!

Finished product!

Whale Watching

 Tada! Here is the almost done first year sweater. I still have to *gasp* cut it! This sweater will be a cardigan after I cut it up the front, knit button bands and add buttons.
It is the happiest I've ever been with stranded color work. This particular pattern is well written and I'm confident will be my first successful steek! pattern: http://exercisebeforeknitting.com/pod-of-cetaceans-cardigan/


Last week we had a work pool party at Ms. Pam's to celebrate Chelsey's last day in our office. She was our amazing summer intern and we will miss her dearly. Ms. Pam is the hostess with the mostess and everyone had a blast.
Both my boys think they are fishes and have loved swimming this summer!

Yesterday, I ran my second ever 10K race. It was the same race I ran my first 10K two years ago, the Manhattan Running Company "Brew to Shoe". I wasn't sure how it was going to go because I didn't get to run much the week of the race.

Turns out I was ready as I beat my previous time by three minutes! I had two goals. Number 1 don't walk, number 2 finish under an hour. I achieved both with a time of 58:11.

I finally feel like I am back where I left off when I was pregnant with Alex. Now I just have to decide if 10K is my distance or do I try and go half marathon? There is a big difference between 6.2 miles and 13.1! I'm going to try and up my mileage for a few weeks before I decide!

Big shout out to my official cheering section Sherol!! A friend gets up early to cart you from the finish line to your car. A Best friend does the same thing, brings you cold water and takes you to the YARN STORE!!!