All About Jesse

Happy Birthday to Jesse!! Despite his fears of being forgotten, Jesse had a wonderful birthday. His actual birthday on Monday included his choice for breakfast, his favorite dinner (cheeseburgers and watermelon), Zinga for dessert and family presents. BUT THEN it was also his year for a "real" party so he counted down all week to his laser tag birthday party on Friday night. It was special to meet all his friends from school and see them interact. It sure was a rowdy group of boys but laser tag is the perfect place to let them lose.

 Chocolate cupcakes along with a chorus of "happy birthday"...the boys barely paused to scarf them down. They had way more important things to do!

 Some of that importance included arcade games.

 Looks like a nice group of kids right...

The niceness disappears! They were on a team against another birthday party and are proud to say they emerged as the winners!

Jesse is still our "stealth" child, independent and disappears causing our heart rates to rise as we search for him...always finding him calmly sitting somewhere doing his own thing. He has done amazing in kindergarten conquering reading (his favorite books are Splat the Cat and the Elephant and Piggy series by Mo Williams) and even single digit math. However he drags his backpack along the sidewalk as he heads to the bus stop because "school is just work work work...soooo boring". He is all guns, and sports, and at the moment lost in his halo men surrounding himself in a battle as he sits on the back porch. The boys dimples make our hearts melt. Yet he just said to me the day after his birthday "Mommy, please don't call me Jesse Bear anymore"....GASP! Can we just freeze time? He has to stay my Jesse Bear!

Before I talk about Jesse...

What a crazy weekend we have had! Yes, today is Jesse's birthday and he is being spoiled rotten today. But I need to spend today's post catching you up on the weekend activities and my next post will be Jesse focused!

On Saturday, Asher was baptized by our Pastor at Broadlands Community Church. Even though he accepted Jesus into his heart a few years ago (as well as Anna and Jesse), we didn't want to push them to be baptized until they understood the decision and what it meant with their walk with the Lord. We were thrilled that Asher believed it was his time and we knew through many discussions that this was a step he understood and truly wanted to make. What a blessing to witness the pure joy on his face! His testimony was that he wanted to be baptized so that he could be closer to God and he wants to obey God. Then he ran to the baptismal! Afterwards we enjoyed Carrot Cake at home (Asher's favorite) and Jesse was very worried about why I was making a cake for Asher and not him...

Way to go Asher! We are so proud of you!

Then on Sunday, I ran the Nike Women's Half Marathon. Yes, I have already run a lot of races this season but this was the one all the others were working up towards. I have been dreaming about this race for a year and had time goals in mind! It was an amazing event. Joel even took a day off and spent the day in Georgetown with me enjoying all the expo festivities.

Yes, that is my name on the wall!

We had an amazing date day including eating at our favorite restaurant "Farmer's, Fisher's, and Baker's" and cupcakes at "Georgetown Cupcakes".

My name even lit up on the wall when I walked into the expo!

Race Day! 15,000 women (and a few men). 

The route was amazing...around the capitol, all along the DC monuments, over the Arlington bridge, and through a tunnel twice with drums going to motivate you. The race was so well organized with lots of entertainment. I LOVED it!

 And waiting at the finish line were these men with my finisher's medal...a Tiffany necklace engraved with the Nike swoosh, and the race name and date!

Also waiting for me at the finish line were my amazing family! My husband who never misses a chance to support my passion. I met my race goal with a time of a Personal Record of 1:45.02. I couldn't be more pleased! It hurt, it was hard, but I still love the sport all the same and will do another :).

As soon as I crossed the finish line, I see Joel smiling from ear to ear, my kids cheering, and Jesse screams "Mommy we need to go buy my birthday presents!". I think Jesse was very concerned that we had forgotten him in all this activity of Asher and Me...but he is not forgotten. He woke this morning to balloons and streamers, Cookie Crisp for breakfast, dinner planned for him, and yes presents wrapped on the counter. My next blog will feature him and his party planned for later this week. 

HAPPY EASTER!

As you can see from my last post, we spent the week leading up to Easter with our good friends The Libby's. That means they got dragged into all our pre-Easter traditions dying eggs and making peep dioramas.

Dying Eggs

Explaining the peep dioramas takes lot of pictures so please stay with me! A shout out to Grandma Leslie Thorson who started this tradition for us 4 years ago! Since we had 8 children, we divided them into teams so we wouldn't be eating cake for the rest of the month. Each set of 2 got their own cake to decorate with a scene of the Easter story of their choosing. It was great fun watching the creativity and trying to figure out what each one was planning. As the older 2 boys started attaching Oreos to pretzels and marshmallows we were all a bit confused but then we were blown away with their presentation.

 Asher and Caleb's cake: Palm Sunday - Jesus riding the donkey over the palm branches (the fruit roll up and jelly beans) with all the people shouting praises. 

 Jesse and Josiah did Jesus dying on the cross, complete with the thief's crosses on either side, a crown of thorns on His head, and soldiers with spears. (Oh and I can not forget the torches...jelly beans on top of pretzels)

Hannah and Anna did Jesus rising out of the tomb (made of a circle of Oreos). The green jellybeans on top of pretzels are trees! HHmmm, I think Hannah has some candy in those cheeks of hers!

And I can not leave out Josie who got to do here own cake (since her and Jonas were not always friends). Not sure what her story was but she did keep saying "Jesus"!

 Easter morning our church had an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Do you see all those eggs?! All our kids buckets were overflowing!

 At one point Josie said "I don't want anymore eggs!"

 The egg hunt at Aunt Priscilla and Uncle Pat's house was a bit more challenging.

The Easter bunny is quite sneaky there!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter celebrating that Jesus is alive! What an amazing sacrifice for each one of us and because He lives, we can live this life filled with peace, hope, and joy. We pray our kids get that understanding with each passing day and in despite of some of our sillier traditions. As we were heading to church Easter morning, Anna said "Now what holiday is it that we plant magic jelly beans?" WHOOPS! Oh well, Jesus still LIVES!

Cherry Blossoms Time!

Our favorite time in DC is cherry blossom time! Of course it is everyone else's favorite time to visit too so enjoying DC at this time often involves lots of crowds. But as long as you accept this fact and face it, it is well worth the trip! However, I thought maybe I could avoid some crowds by signing up for the Cherry Blossom 10 mile run which has a route designed for the runner to enjoy such an amazing site.

However do our amazingly long and cold winter, the cherry blossoms were late blooming so this was the only tree I saw with blooms during the 1:20.51 minute run (Yes another PR for me!!). This tree was at the finish line. So still a great run, but disappointing. However just 6 days later...this is what they looked like...

A site that NEVER gets old!

We were super blessed this spring time because we got to enjoy with our friends, the Libby family from the Boston area. They are lifelong friends who are staying with us for a week. It has been fun being tourists with them (and we aren't done yet!).

 We became friends with the Libby's during our pre-kid stage. Now we have 8 kids between the 2 families! Made for quite an adventure in a crowded city-lots of stroller bumping, dirty looks from other tourists, potty detours (including port a potties with no toilet paper and one in the corner of a parking garage!), and counting off kids. Needless to say we all crashed at home and ordered pizza once we got there. The kids were such troopers and have paired off into amazing friends. Well, Josie and Jonas (the 2 youngest) do NOT get along. Josie keeps calling him "that baby" and they fight like an old married couple!

 After 2 years living near DC, this is the first time the reflecting pool has been open! It was awesome.

 The boys.

 The girls. 

Hannah Libby keeps having trouble remembering Anna's time. LOL.

Besties.

 The trip allowed for our kids first metro ride...they were beyond ecstatic. Us parents maybe not quite so much. We were squished like sardines and Asher's hands were literally black after he was done touching EVERYTHING. 

And I just have to leave you with this...taming the Thorson's is never easy but it sure is fun and makes for quite and adventure!

Rock n Roll DC

This past weekend, I (Mary) ran the Rock N Roll half marathon in DC. It has been a journey with a story if you will bare with me. Those who know me know that I live for running. Last year a silly fall left me with a severely sprained ankle with bruised bones that put me out for an entire race season (with dreams of a half marathon PR up in smoke). I have been anxious to get back in the saddle this spring and summer and signed up for 3 races right off the bat this spring. I even joined a training group that has brought me some new running partners and loads of encouragement. A month before the first race planned, I started having severe quad pain that would sometimes leave me unable to move. I started panicking...please Lord don't let me miss another race season! I saw the doctor who diagnosed me with knee bursitis, an inflammation in the knee that causes strain on the quad muscles...the cure: rest, ice, massage. I did lots of that and also received a cortisone shot to help with the pain and inflammation. I didn't run for a week. So here I was 2 weeks out from the Rock n Roll half, nursing this pain, and seeing my PR dreams disappearing again as the 3 races come up. I don't race for fun...I race to beat my times! I was mentally struggling. The last 2 weeks I had to cut out training runs, decrease my speed, and spent every mile focusing on how to run for fun. That sounds silly, I know, but it is a true retraining of the mind for me. But I got there! I was committed to going into this race for the love of running. I wasn't going to watch my GPS watch, I was going to watch the scenery and take in the atmosphere and just get another race under my belt. So Saturday morning arrives!

My ride was picking me up at 5:15am, I wake up at 5:20 am (NO JOKE). Good thing I am OCD about preparing the night before as I threw on my set out outfit, grabbed my already packed bag, and kissed my wonderful husband who jumped out of bed to make me breakfast while I flew around the house and made it out the door in 5 minutes (good thing my ride was 5 minutes late!). So I was already frazzled. We had just enough time to drive into DC, take the metro, use the porta-a-potties and WHAT, is that the National Anthem I hear!? There was no time to stretch, no jumping around waiting in the cold, I couldn't even get to my assigned coral! I jumped in and was off. No time to stress either. There were 25,000 runners. It was packed. The temperature was perfect at sunny 45 degrees. Bands were playing at every mile (my favorite being a 25 member military university drum corps that you could see and hear for about half a mile). We ran over the Arlington Bridge twice and the route was unbelievably breath taking through parks, neighborhoods with a ton of crowd support, by a few monuments, and finished with the capitol in site. It was miles pounding the stress of life into the pavement, minutes in awe of the beauty of God's creation and all the good things He has given me, seconds of being rejuvenated for the sport of running and before I knew it I was 6 miles in running up the dreaded Carter Hill which was lined with people out cheering.  It was the first time I looked at my watch and was right on target with my dream pace! I was feeling great. I thought, I can do this?! Mile 10-11 was tough as I thought "Why do I do this stuff?!", but then I reached my runner's high when again I looked at my watch and knew I was going to reach a personal record (PR). I smiled the whole last 2 miles coming in with a PR of 1:47.05 (under my 1:50 goal and 2 minutes shy of my secret 1:45 goal). And then there was my wonderful husband and cheering kids at the finish line. I always tell him he doesn't have to come (the early wake ups and hours of corralling kids just to watch me finish) but he has never missed one of my races. I am truly thankful and had the best race of my life (mentally and physically). My leg and knee are feeling great and I am looking forward to ENJOYING my next 2 races.

 My fellow race buddies Kristin and Sara (my 5:15 am ride).

The kids enjoyed an awesome race expo with me.  They had a blast playing all the games and earning free prizes. Josie loved the "lizard" and won me a a free massage after the race! The expo and race were Brooks sponsored -my favorite running gear! I was in heaven. It was a good thing the family was with me or I would have spent a lot more money than I did).

Hawaii in DC

Our assignment in DC has been a blessing in so many ways. One unexpected blessing has been the way dear Hawaii friends seem to keep moving into our area resulting in a number of reunions. Our time in Hawaii was special in a way that can't be put into the right words even though I am going to attempt it...it was long afternoons in the backyard and hoards of children playing throughout the neighborhood, coffee and encouragement on the lanai with the neighborhood gals, random children coming in and out of your house at all hours, a leisurely way of life that one doesn't seem to find anywhere else. This past weekend we had an extremely special reunion as our small DC/Hawaii gang welcomed the Boutz family into the area! Now this reunion was extra special because 2 of the children in his family were Asher and Anna's best friends during out time in Hawaii. Since we have left Hawaii (now 3 years ago!), seriously not a day goes by that Asher and Anna do not mention Garrett and Gracie, still their best friends and can't wait to see them again. If only you could have heard Asher's screams in the car the day that Garrett called to tell him about their move to DC! So here we are headed to a "Welcome to DC Boutz family" party and we hadn't told our kids who they would be seeing! We couldn't wait to see the expression on their faces! It was an afternoon of such true joy. If I just closed my eyes I could almost smell the ocean and feel the palm trees swaying!

 Asher and Garrett reunite! They ended up on the ground wrestling and never stopped smiling.

 Girl power! Anna with dear friends Gracie and Emily.

 Mary with her dear friends DiAnne and Tracey! I may have been squealing the car as well the day the Boutz family called us to inform us of their move.

 Joel sporting his Matsumoto T-shirt with Jeff and Graham.

All the ladies. 

Jenn Foxworth was such a gracious host putting this shindig together and opening up her home. Connie Oh made the most amazing malasadas! The rest of us soaked in the fellowship and can't wait for more Hawaii Ohana to join us!

A Mermaid Birthday

Josie turned 3!!! The girl has had her birthday date memorized for months and would quote it to anyone who would listen, and then would say "January is happy to see me". We found it quite endearing. She is princess and mermaid obsessed so we went for the mermaid theme this year. She had 3 little friends over to eat cake, play games, and do a craft (which bombed miserably!). So really the craft was a mason jar that you decorate with stickers, fill with glitter, water, and vegetable oil and viola! an ocean snow globe. No, it turned into a lava lamp. Pinterest said it was so easy!!! One of the little girls said "It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!". Thank goodness for how those darlings see the world. Enough about my craft, I know you are really waiting for pictures.

 Even though we did a number of games, the hit of the party was popping the "bubbles" with little surprises inside the balloons. The laughter was infectious!

 I made the girls mermaid tails to wear. Don't give me too much credit-it didn't require a sewing machine! Just lots of fabric glue.

 Josie with her besties Peyton, Evie, and Ashton

 Mermaid cake!

 Her favorite gift was the big stuffed unicorn her siblings picked out for her.

 The day of her actual birthday it snowed buckets! Even Joel had the day off from work. It was very special for her to have everyone home on her birthday.  Here she is sledding with our neighbor Heather. Actually the kids ending up being home all week-yikes! They haven't been to a full week of school since early December. The kids now expect a snow day every week.

 Her favorite thing to do in the snow-eat it!

Happy Birthday my little mermaid!!