Grandma Turns 98

This past weekend we loaded the family and headed to Eliasville TX to celebrate my grandmother's 98th birthday. This has always been a special person in my life. I am glad the kids have had a chance to know her. Happy Birthday Mamma!

~Scott

RACE DAY!

Being silly before leaving for the race. This is when they still had some feeling in their hands!

Wasting energy heading to the start area.

The start of the 6/7 year-old race. Check out #173!

The kid behind Cayden is the one that got the 2nd place trophy. It was a good lesson to learn at such a young age. (I think it bothers his mom more than it does him!)

"participation medal"

Go # 174!! That's my girl!

They called the kids names and they would go up and get their trophy in the pavilion. Most of the little kids were carried by their parents. When it got close to Cooper's name to be called I walked toward the sidewalk to put her closer so it wouldn't waste much time and before we could get there she was squirming saying, "put me down!" She wanted to go up all by herself. I love that about her!
Cooper's first trophy.

(We are very glad that Cayden got one also because she wouldn't have let him live it down if he didn't)

The Meyers minus one. Cutter was the smart one in the car keeping warm and eating every one's animal cookies.

So, I had a free Saturday without Cross Country and what did we do? I signed the kids up for a kids race! Actually it was the week of the state CC meet and I thought I would be gone but sadly enough this is the first year since I have been in Salado that we did not take a team to state. We did have 2 girls qualify as individuals. One of them was playing in the Regional Volleyball Tournament in San Antonio and they scheduled both events at the same time so only one girl was going to run today and I had to stay home with the kids because Scott had a funeral. (This girl, who is a GREAT Christian kid, woke up at 5:30 am since the beginning of August and then when she makes it to state has to give up her place because she physically can't be in two places at one time. Feel free to let UIL know how horrible that is because we are going to.)

The kids were really excited about the race. Last night Cooper asked me, "Mom, who is going to be our coach?" Then, when she was brushing her teeth I said, "Now, Cooper, if a kid is in front of you what do you do?" She quickly responded, "Beat 'em!" The answer I was looking for was more like, "run fast and pass them," but I'm ashamed to admit that, "beat 'em" will do for me!

Cutter was really pumped up about running- until race day. Last night I said I was afraid he would back out. He's that kid that doesn't walk- he runs everywhere. He could have easily won his division but he was freezing and tired and about 1/2 way through the other races he decided he didn't want to do it.

Yesterday was beautiful until early evening when the winds picked up. This morning it was cold and extremely windy. I felt like I was back in Abilene again. We got to the park about 20 minutes before race time and stood around and froze. Then, they didn't start the races until about 15 minutes late. They ran the biggest kids first and worked their way down to the little ones. Cayden ran with the 6 & 7 year-olds and did a great job. He started out too fast and got a little tired on last half but was able to finish second. (They had a chute that was about 5 feet wide and some kid finished after Cayden and ran past him in the chute. The untrained people in the chute took his tag first so they gave Cayden the 3rd place trophy. Scott saw this happen and we were able to warn him not to complain or argue and we were very proud of the way he graciously accepted his 3rd place trophy.)

By the 5 year-old race Cutter decided he was too cold and was not going to run. Cooper was fired up. When it was time for the twins to get on the starting line I was holding Cutter as he cried and Cooper was standing at my feet ready to go. As I was bribing Cutter with anything I could think of I heard a whistle and realized they started the race. I looked down to tell Cooper to go and she had already taken off!!! She was well out in front but I missed most of her race dealing with her brother. Scott caught up to her at about the 1/2 way mark and he said she just lost interest. (She's more of a sprinter!) She was able to finish and ended up 3rd. Only one boy beat her and it was right at the end. As I was telling Cooper great job and hugging on her Scott had Cutter finishing the race. Cooper, Cayden and I ran down the road to meet him and finish the race with him. He was crying the whole way. He finished the race holding our hands while everyone cheered for him. I looked at Scott and said, "Now I know what it's like to be the mom of that kid that everyone is cheering for just because they were able to finish the race!" Oh well, we know that Cutter could probably beat Cooper so that would have made him first or second place easy. There's always next year but the fact that his brother and sister both brought home a trophy really didn't phase him. He was quite content with his participation medal and free animal crackers!

Trick Or Treat '08

Halloween 2008 has come and gone. All those hours of diligently working to get three costumes ready seem almost like wasted time. But, that night when I was kissing them goodnight, Cayden said to me, "Mom, I think we had the three best costumes out of everybody." It was all worth it. For those of you that can't tell, Cayden made a pretty good Luke Skywalker with his long shaggy hair. As for the twins, they are characters from a PBS cartoon called Super Why. Cutter is the main character, Super Why, and Cooper is another character, Princess Presto. It is a really cute and educational show and seemed more fitted to their age than Darth Vader, like Cutter originally wanted!(The twins characters are the two on the far right in the picture below.)First of all we stopped by the Neighbor's house before dropping Cayden off at a birthday party. Isn't their house just beautiful??After we dropped off Cayden we went to the Venegoni's house and Scott got a tour and the kids got lots of candy. We were even able to score some sour Skittles that are pretty good.We made a quick detour by Bush's Chicken for some sweet tea and chicken for the kids and then we headed out to Troy. Our first stop in Troy was the Matthew's where the kids got their baskets just about full- with the help of the Penlands in Houston. Figure that one out??????

Our next Troy stop was by the Kelley's. Ms. Donna is the twins teacher and I think Cutter loves her more than me! I also think Cooper has a secret crush on David! Cayden was so upset about missing the two Troy stops he asked me to please take his basket to the front door and get him some candy also. I did not but EVERYBODY made sure that he had a goody bag ready to go when we arrived.
Later that evening we caught up with the birthday party gang and hit a few more houses around our neighborhood just to say we did. I think the old fashioned traditional way of trick-or-treating is practically a think of the past. We were very pleased with our way of loading up the Suburban and hitting a few houses of church folks. (Speaking of the Suburban, we filled it up for under $60 yesterday- and it was EMPTY!)
(This picture should be at the beginning because this is how we started our day but it just seems like a great picture to end a Halloween post.)

Cayden reminded me on Thursday night that we had not yet carved our pumpkin. I told him we would do it as soon as he got home from school. He drew the face on the pumpkin, I tried to cut my thumb off, and in the end we had a jack-o-lantern and roasted pumpkin seeds. Luckily our neighbor was here when I tried to amputate my thumb and she took over for a few minutes while I tried to stop the bleeding!