Mama Plays Kinect!

We finished off our busy Easter Sunday by having Mama and Papa over for some Bella Milano takeout. It was nice just to relax at home. After stuffing ourselves with pasta and cheesecake, we went downstairs to work it off playing Kinect. It was Mama's first time and she did great!

Mama taking a turn at bowling

Harper's turn

I got some really good action shots of Mama, but this is my favorite. She and Delaney were running hurdles :)

Nighttime Visitors

Nighttime visitors to your bed can be a pain, but they can also be so sweet. With all the storms we've had over the past week, the girls have been in our bed way more than usual. Harper started out in our bed last night and Delaney joined her at about 1 am. We have a king-size bed, but both girls insist on snuggling up so close to us that there is literally a 3 foot gap between them while Allan and I are both holding on for dear life to keep from falling off the bed! How does that happen?! You can see that Delaney is resting her arm on the back of Allan's head and he said that she had her head on his belly for part of the night. As for me, just use your imagination and insert me in that tiny 6 inch space to Harper's left. The worst part is that she usually hates to be under the covers, so I have to scoot myself down a couple of feet so that I can have the blanket pulled up to my shoulders but it doesn't cover her too much! The snuggles make it all worth it, though...

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter! We had a busy day today! It started early with the girls waking up and doing Easter baskets before we headed to the 9:00 service at church. After churh, we went to my Uncle Dan and Aunt Colleen's house for an Easter brunch with my Mom's side of the family. The Duke's are faithful readers of my blog so a big shout out to them :)

My Aunt Colleen is a wonderful cook and we are always in for a treat when she has a party. The brunch did not disappoint! There was so much food - omelets, French toast, biscuits and gravy, fruit, shrimp, ham, asparagus, salad, and way more. I honestly think she should have charged us all!

As we were finishing up our meal, there was a knock on the door. Guess who - the Easter Bunny! Aunt Colleen must have some good connections because I clearly remember Santa visiting her house when I was a little girl. The little kids weren't too sure what to think about the bunny, but they were willing to spend a couple of seconds on his lap to get the fantastic presents that he brought. (Seriously, Aunt Colleen - too much!)

We all changed our clothes and ventured outside for another soppy egg hunt. The kids didn't mind at all! It was really nice to spend some time with that part of the family. We don't see each other nearly enough.

Aunt Colleen in the pink and her sister Bridget

Harper and her second cousin Jack really hit it off! They are just a couple of months apart.

The only family pic we got all day.

Harper and Jack finding eggs

Delaney and Harper

The oldest cousin, Hanna, braves the rain for some loot.

My cousin Molly and her husband Jon. They are Jack's parents. Molly is due anyday now with a baby girl, Lilly. I'm not sure how they are planning to spell it.

Harper shows off a Starburst that she found.

Real men carry ruffly umbrellas.

Fishing with Boo

We went to my brother's camper today to celebrate Easter with my Dad and Ken's family. The weather was yucky, but we still had a great time! We just took jackets and rain boots and played in the rain! It was the first time my Dad had been out to the camper. Kathy grilled kebobs, the guys and Delaney fished, and the kids had an egg hunt. The only bad part was that Allan had to work and Barb had the flu. :(

Delaney and Jon

Boo

Ken, Delaney, and Kathy on their way to the front pond.

Ann helping Harper find some eggs.

Boo helping Delaney cast her rod.

This was Delaney's first time fishing with Boo and she was the only one who caught a fish today!

Coloring Eggs

The girls and I celebrated my first day of Spring break by coloring Easter eggs. We only did 9 of them because otherwise they just go to waste.

Waiting to begin

The first batch is in.

Harper tries to pose like big sis.

I'm proud to say that no white shirts were ruined in the dying of the eggs :)

The finished product

11.25

So I finally got out of my anti-running funk today and ran 11.25 miles! Apparently, I am a fair-weather runner (as opposed to a real runner). I couldn't have asked for a better day to run. It was about 55 degrees, sunny, just a slight breeze to keep me cool and not a hill in sight! The best part was that Allan was my sherpa and rode his bike around delivering water and cheering me on! For the past couple of weeks I've been negative about running (because it's gotten hard!) and I am so ready for this 1/2 marathon training to be over. I don't want to stop running I just want to stop training. I feel like it's taken over my life and it's all I think about. I don't want to run because I have to I want to run because I want to! Two more weeks 'til race day!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Delaney has started reading Harper her bedtime stories. We have 3 regular books, so we all have them memorized. Brown Bear, Brown Bear is one of them. I love how Delaney holds the book backwards as a teacher would do. When I tape the girls, I have to turn the display screen towards them so they can see themselves. That is why both of them keep looking off to the left.

Harper also takes her turn at reading the book. She really can do the whole thing, but she kept getting distracted by Delaney and getting confused because she, too, was trying to hold the book backwards. I love how she mimics Delaney by saying, "that's not the color a horse would be!"

Carefree

After a particularly stressful couple of days at school, it was so nice to be able to sit out side and watch the girls play. Oh, to be young and carefree again!

Go! St. Louis Marathon Relay

Today I competed in my first marathon relay. The Girls of 94 (Angela, Debbie, Shelley, and me) decided back in January that we would team up to compete in the Go! St. Louis Marathon Relay. We all had to run between 6 and 7.5 miles through St. Louis. The day was unseasonably warm for April (85 degrees!) and the course was hilly. Who knew downtown St. Louis had so many ups and downs? It was an absolutely gorgeous day and we all had so much fun riding the Metro from relay station to relay station and cheering each other on. Dut to the heat, the marathon officials ended up closing the 1/2 marathon course and re-routing some of the relayers. We waited and waited for Debbie to finish leg 2 and were beginning to get concerned when some of the volunteers told us what had happened. She was one of the ones who was re-routed and finished with the 13.1-milers downtown, while I was waiting for her to meet me in Forest Park so I could take off! The volunteers told me to go ahead and start running even though we didn't exchange the belt with our timing chip. (It wasn't like we were in the running for 1st place anyway!) So I went ahead and ran/walked miles 13 - 20 and met the girls at the Delmar Loop. Angela had started the final leg without me in order to try to make up for some of the time we lost while waiting earlier. I did my 7 miles in 1:17:15 which equals out to about 11 minute miles. I wanted to do more like 10:15-minute miles, but the hills got me! The best part was that they have all the relay participants meet up and run the last few blocks of the race together - fun! I would definitely do it again!

The Girls of 94 pre-race

Me about 50 yds from my finish. Why do I look knock-kneed and can somebody please get me a spray tan?

Deb took this of us while we were all running the last few blocks.

Done!

Family Game Night

At 6:50 pm, right as we were getting ready to walk out the door for small group, Meltdown City happened at the Cochran house. We decided to just stay home and spend some quality family time. After a couple rounds of Guess Who and Candyland all was well again.

1st Soccer Game!

Delaney's first soccer game was today! Unfortunately, Allan had to work, so I took lots of pictures. I felt like I was auditioning for a spot on the Sports Illustrated team! The game was lots of fun to watch, we had beautiful sunshine and Delaney smiled the whole time! A quick picture before we headed out the door. While I was getting her dressed I giggled because her uniform is way too big on her (her shorts were rolled twice at the top). She asked if I was laughing at her and I said, "No, I'm laughing at your uniform." and she said, "but, Mom, I'm in my uniform." Oops! Sorry, baby, I wasn't trying to hurt your feelings!

Both teams take time for a pre-game prayer.

I think Delaney had the biggest cheering section there! Mama, Papa, Honey, Grandpa Ed, Mommy and Harper were all there to see her debut.

Delaney loved running up and down the field and "chasing" the ball as her coach instructed them to do. She is definitely not aggressive, though, and preferred to stay more in the background and let her teammates do all the hard work. I think she gets that from me!

Harper was not happy about the sun being in her eyes. It was a 1:00 game and she was getting sleepy.

As we all know, 4-year-old soccer games are all about big clusters of kids running after the ball. No one has a position or even know what the words "offense" and "defense" mean!

Harper quickly fell asleep in Mama's arms, which meant I could concentrate on the game. However, I didn't concentrate enough to keep track of the score.

Every 5 minutes or so the kids would rotate in. I think Delaney enjoyed hanging out on the sideline just as much as she did playing!

Delaney is number 6.

Always at the back of the pack :)

Tyler and Koen were playing against Peyton on the field right next to ours so I was able to sneak a few shots of them as well. Here, Tyler just got finished doing a corner kick.

Peyton also got to throw the ball in.

I think Delaney actually touched the ball a total of three times. I'm so glad I was able to capture one of them!

My Mom and I couldn't help laughing at Delaney's prance. She would run so hard down the field, but as she got close to the action, she would do a funny little jump. I think she was just so excited she couldn't help but dance around.

Koen takes a break.

At the end of the game the kids all lined up for high fives.