Its All About the Food

Ever feel like your life revolves around the food?

This week seems like it has been a bit of a foodie week in our house. 

Jack requested a special cake for his birthday last week.  He is a big Scooby Doo fan and wanted the Mystery Machine, so Ciara and Max set out to make it themselves. Very admirable considering my suggestion was to just get one from the Fred Meyer bakery.  (What a lazy Mum I am).





 So Ciara baked all the cakes, piled them up, found a recipe for fondant and then she and Max went about making and coloring all the fondant. The only help we gave was placing the blue fondant on the cake as it was really large and heavy.  They did an awesome job and Jack was thrilled....and the cake tasted pretty good too!  Look out Duff and Ace of Cakes!



This week we also took a field trip to a local restuarant for a tour of the kitchens and a behind the scenes look at how a restaurant operates.  Tomato St on Division has been there for 16 years and has recently been refurbished.  The food is fantastic...( we were allowed to sample)...and it really is a very kid friendly place...kids are given colored pizza dough and raw pasta necklaces to play with and they can draw on the tablecloths while they wait for their meal.  Parent heaven!

So after an overindulgent week of eating, do I feel any guilt.  Um, no...zero. that's the upside of all this swim, bike, run training. 

Last Soccer Game

So I hurried off after the half marathon to get to Jack's last soccer game for the season.

I arrived just as the game started...couldn't have timed it better.

The boys all had a great last game.  They won 8-1, Jack scored 2 goals AND snagged a trophy from the coach.  It was a fun season...Jack had a blast but it will be nice to have some free Saturdays for a change.

Windermere Half Marathon

I survived my first half marathon...and dare I even say it....it was fun. Maybe not the last mile or 2 but in general it was something I would definitely be up for again.

13.1 miles (about 21km) and I did NOT have to be scraped up off the ground after I crossed the finish line.  That was a win in itself.

Matt snapped some pics as I finished. I'll have to remember to look up and smile next time.




So the race started at 7:00am at Mirabeau Park.  The weather was just beautiful and so I decided to chance it and run in short sleeves and a running skirt.  It turned out to be a good decision as it warmed up to about 70' by the end of the race.
There was lots of friendly chatter along the way as I bumped into people I knew. And the course was just beautiful.  Most of the way we were running along the Centennial trail right next to the Spokane River.  It was just breathtaking watching the scenery go by. At about mile 8 there was a long uphill but nothing monstrous.  It was a little undulating but generally pretty flat.  A nice course to run...I would definitely recommend it.



  Total race time was 2:10:43.  I didn't have any real expectations about my time so I was happy with that.  My goal is to eventually run a half under 2 hours.  So at least I have something to work on for next time.



As far as organization goes this race was great. Plenty of water and aid stations ..I think there was one every 2 miles or so.  They offered water, Heed, gummy bears and Hammer Gels which was nice.  And as always the volunteers were awesome and there were plenty of them pointing everyone in the right direction.  Good job guys.



Finally I made it to Riverfront Park and I could smell that finish line. The last 3 miles were a little tough but I made it. I got my pretty little medal and a nice long sleeved shirt. Good swag :-)

The organizers had a great little festival set up for all the finishers. Food, drinks, icecream and some bands playing. If I didn't have to take off to get to Jack's last soccer game I would have definitely hung out there for a while.

I am already planning to add this race to my calendar next year...highly recommended.

Vacation portraits

OK, so I know you are OVER my vacation spiel.

But this is a bit of a tradition

Since I started dabbling in photography my nephews and neices kindly offer themselves up every vacation for the Aunty Donna portrait session. It started last time we all took a holiday together and the kids loved it plus I got some really wonderful pictures of them all together. Real keepers.

So I thought I'd share a couple of the portraits I took of the kids this time around.



The Girls



The Boys being restrained



The Extended Family