Fun weekend!

Here are some pics from my weekend.  Usually I have pictures of the kids but they didn't have a lot going on this weekend. Brock and Ava are starting their basketball seasons this week!  So I will have lots of pictures of them playing in the future :)

Last Friday I was asked to speak on an alumni panel Binghamton University where I went to grad school.  It was fun going back.  I was in a new program when I started (student affairs) so I was the oldest alumni on the panel :(   Jason, one of my former students attends grad school there so he was there!  Here we are with his friend Shannon after the panel.   I am SO proud of Jason he graduates in December and he has an on campus interview with Cornell University later this week. 

Saturday I went to an event called hops for hunger.  Basically we tasted all different kinds of home brewed beer and voted on our favorite.  I am not much of a beer drinker but it was fun to get together for an afternoon out with some friends. 

Sunday my friend Heidi and I drove to Albany for a 15k race. I have been sick for abut 2 weeks and because I was sick I missed our last training run last weekend.  So my goal for this race was to finish and not die on the course.

Here is a picture of our hot pink race shirts!  I love it!

I wrote the # of miles I have ran this year on my hand so I would  remember to trust my training and the preperation that I did for the race 

 and it helped me not to get nervous, scared or intimiated by faster runners. 

It was a chilly morning. I wore long pants and a jacket before the race. 

I finished in 1:47 which was 7 minutes faster than my other 15k this year! My friend Heidi finished 5 minutes ahead of me and her time was 7 minutes faster than her other 15k too!  Heidi took this picture of me right before I crossed the finish line. 

Happy Wednesday!

Ava on pointe!

Last week was watch week at Ava's ballet studio.  She is at the age where she HATES me to watch her dance.  She says it's embarrassing to have parents there and  that I make her nervous :(  I love watching her dance so I went anyway.  I had to go see her in pointe class.  Pointe is where you go up on your toes in ballet.  Her ballet teacher is very strict and she wants to make sure that the girls are ready and developed before they go on pointe because it could be bad for their little legs and feet if they aren't ready. I'm so thankful that she waits until they are ready to go on pointe. Ava is in the beginning pointe class this year and last week was the first time she went on pointe.  It was fun to get to see her in that class. 

Here is Ava going up for the first time :) 

Her teacher has them grip the bar until they are comfortable without it. 

Ava's teacher working with her feet. 

Ava's teacher is very strict and stern but she is a riot.  I am so glad that Ava finally "gets" her humor this year and isn't intimidated by her!  She told me that she loves her ballet teacher :)

In other big news Ava is starting to play basketball!  Graig is THRILLED!  He is going to be the coach of Ava's team and Ava's PaPa Larry is going to be the assistant coach.  Their basketball practices start next week :)  Happy weekend!

Election night party

One of my favorite bloggers Dixie Delights  posted some free printables for Election Night.  I thought they were adorable and planned a little family only party for our family of four.  I think it helped them get into the spirit of election night.  I took Ava with me to vote before school and I realized that Brock will be able to vote in the next election! 

I made this red, white and blue drink using a recipe from Dixie Delights.  I was able to snap one picture of it before B and A chugged it down.  They loved the combo of fruit punch, blue gatorade and sprite :)

I put our menu in a little frame.  I ordered pizza and made donkey tails and elephant ears from puff pastry.  They were really good they tasted  a little like funnel cakes from the fair. 

I printed out some info about each of the presidential candidates and we colored the maps red and blue when the results came back.  Since we live in NY the results came back pretty late we went to sleep at 10 so our maps didn't get filled in all the way. 

Brock let me take a picture of him with his map but he said Mom DO NOT tag me on facebook in the picture-ha ha!

More table decorations :)

Ava is learning states and capitals at school and she brought this map home from school so I added it to the table :)

Our little party was a fun way to celebrate election night.  Happy Thursday!

The Plague and Pinterest

I have been SO sick for about a week. I think it's just a bad cold but I have been feeling pretty terrible.   Sunday was the worst I lost my voice and I was coughing and sneezing all day and I felt awful.  I watched TV, took naps and spent a lot of time on Pinterest.  That website is my biggest obsession right now.   If I had the time I could spend hours on that site looking up all kinds of things.

This site is great for getting ideas for fun, inexpensive Christmas presents.  I have been working on these fun coasters for Christmas. Actually I started them a long time ago and I need to finish them :).  The detailed tutorial and beautiful picture are from this blog. 

I adore the eighteen25blog.  They have SO many creative projects.  I really like these gift card holders for teacher and hostess gifts for the holidays. 

Here is another Christmas gift I want to try. It's from this blog that I am going to start to follow.   I think this is so cute and useful!  I think the red is cute but I might leave mine white instead of coloring it red. 

I re-painted Brock's room a couple of months ago and I think putting his old shirts on canvases like this would be so great.  He has SO many old shirts from baseball and basketball.  Isn't this a great idea for a boys room?  They are old shirts wrapped around canvases. 

Pinterest is also full of fashion!  Sometimes (OK most of the time!) I feel like I am in a fashion rut.  I always wear dark jeans, a black shirt and flats.  I really like like this outfit.  I am going shopping this weekend and I can't wait!  I really need some new fall/winter clothes. 

Tonight we are going to watch the election results on TV.  I love watching the elections coverage on TV.  Happy election day! 

Hits and misses

I feel like we eat the same things all the time so I have been trying out some new recipes.  Some my family loves and I will be adding them to our meal rotation and some have not been so great.  Graig and Brock are SO picky about what they eat so when I look at new recipes I always look closely at the ingredients to see if it's a dish they will actually eat.

I made goulash a few weeks ago and it was a big hit!  I got the recipe from this blog and it's really easy to make.  It also freezes well so next time I make it I will make two batches and freeze on for later. 

Thank goodness Hurricane Sandy missed us last week.  We had all kinds of watches and warnings and the weather forecasters said that our area was going to get hit hard.  Thankfully we had no damage from the storm!  I am so grateful.

Wednesday night we celebrated Halloween by trick or treating.  Ava dressed up as a hot dog.  She was a hot dog last year also.  She loves that costume and thankfully it still fit her!  She also won second place in the costume contest at the boys and girls club so she was thrilled!

Here is Ava with her friend Nadia.  Ava is holding her winnings from the boys and girls club. 

 Last Sunday we went trick or treating at the mall with Sabrina and Eliza.  I love this picture of the two of them. 

Next week is a big week for both Brock and Ava.  Brock has basketball tryouts starting on Monday and Ava is going on pointe for ballet.  We went a few weeks ago to have her fitted for pointe shoes.

Ava is constantly putting on her new shoes and going up on pointe. 

I hope you have a good weekend!  We have a weekend without any plans-whooooo hoooooo!!!