Another catch up

Well... here I am again. Back to another 4 month catch up post since I have neglected the blog. Again. I can't say that I haven't blogged because we are boring and there isn't anything to write about. No, it is just because there HAS been plenty of stuff going on and I just haven't made time for it. Excuses behind us, and here we go.....

February:
OK, February really was boring and there was nothing to blog about. Let's move on.

March:
Spring soccer is back in full swing. Claire is now a seasoned veteran of the Under 6 league, but we still chase that elusive goal. This season got away from us without a score - unless you count the one where everyone kind of paused to let her have her shot at the end of the last game of the season. Oh, and that was in a game that Claire's team was winning about 15-0 and the coaches started "helping" the losing team by selectively diverting balls. That was all in good sportsmanship until the losing team coach took the ball away from Claire when she had an open goal in front of her during a breakaway. Here was the chance to break the whole season's scoring drought and the other coach strips the ball from her. I. Went. Nuts. Sorry to be the psycho parent, but that was just wrong. So, another chance came and she *kinda* managed to kick the ball in the goal, with help from a team mate after Claire stood there, open goal and all, frozen in place. Here's to next season!

April:
Finally! Winter was behind us and I was ready to plant my beloved new garden. The Clemson agricultural expert website recommended planting summer vegetables in this region during the month of April or early May. So on April 2nd, I was on my knees digging and planting and created the most perfect little garden: strawberries, 2 varieties of tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, cantaloupe, squash, green pepper, jalapeno pepper and cucumber. I proudly snapped pictures and texted them to my mom.

48 hours later, a freak April frost strikes and slaughters my cucumber sprouts and stuns my squash and cantaloupe. In world record time, I managed to fail at my gardening attempt. I ended up having to replace the cucumber and my cantaloupe still today remains stunned. Everything else made a full recovery. I am almost ashamed to admit that the first thing I do each evening is run outside and say high to my crops. We've had several strawberry harvest and one large broccoli event. Everything else is really coming along.. except for the stunned cantaloupe and the cauliflower that never yielded anything but huge leaves. We are having so, so, so much fun with the garden!

Chloe turned 3 in the middle of April and had a ball at her gymnastics themed birthday party. As of her birthday, she is 36" tall and 30.1 lbs. She speaks very well, sleeps great, eats everything in sight and only is slightly getting into that "must exert my independence" stage. She is such a sweetie!

Another April event that I wish I had better results to share was on my half marathon that I trained and trained and trained for. Everything went perfect, except for race day itself. For whatever reason, probably the higher temps than I was used to training in, I ended up throwing up halfway through the race after taking one of those sugar/caffeine energy gels. Needless to say, the 2nd half of the race was slower than I would have liked. I did end up finishing (I had my doubts that I would make it after that!) and am proud that I did, but couldn't shake the disappointment. To ease my mind, I ended up doing a repeat of the 13.1 miles the following Sunday exactly as I wanted to during my race. Race number or not, the race was won. :)

Easter 2011

May:
We haven't been up to much in May so far, mostly because Jason has been out of town a lot and I have a significant work event going on. But we were able to spend the weekend down at the lake with my parents and soak up a little sun. We blew up Chloe's birthday present yesterday: one of those giant, inflatable water trampolines. The girls love it, and I love laying on it to get some sun. I can see that they will enjoy this for years to come!

This past week, Claire came home from school and decided she wanted to learn how to ride her bike with no training wheels. Jason popped them off, and in no time she was whizzing around on her bike with no assistance! She is really excited and loves how fast she can now go. How fast they grow up!