Weekend Warriors

This was such a wonderful weekend, with perfect weather in the low to mid sixties, sunshine, and lots of family time.  Just what the doctor ordered!

{Oooh oooh oooh!  But first, I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to give some advice on my last post.  I am looking into everything you recommended..you guys are the best!}

On Saturday morning, I woke up feeling ready to get the chores done, so I left Phil and the boys snoozing and took my two early birds to the grocery store.  It doesn't open until 7, but that really means that you can't check out until 7.  You can do your shopping starting at 6:30 while they are stocking shelves, etc.  It was gloriously empty and by 7:15 we were headed home with a whole bunch of groceries.  

We unpacked the groceries and Phil and the boys woke up so we headed out  for a run.  Later that morning, the big boys served a funeral while I took the littles to the playground and Phil stayed home with a napping Brendan and mowed the yard.  Alexander practiced his pumping on the swing, and Declan went on the tire swing for the first time:

They're so fun to play with!  We went home for lunch and naps and then headed back out to a small festival.  There were animals, and canoe rides, and the Toe Jam Puppet Band was playing.  I love watching kids at concerts like this...some kids just go right up to the front and dance around and some kids (like mine) hold back for a long time until they finally feel comfortable enough participating.

We went home and grilled some chicken and steaks, and it was such a great day.  Look how many steps I got just by having fun:

On Sunday, we woke up and went to Mass, then picked up some fresh malasaddas on the way home.  Mmmmmmm.  When we came home, my parents arrived and we unloaded their cars (they are moving in soon!) and then took off for the zoo minus a sleeping Brendan (you snooze you lose) and JP, the babysitter of sleeping babies.  Declan get s sooooooo excited for every animal he sees, it's just darling.  The elephant was our favorite!   Sometimes it's nice to have a break between kids so you can see everything anew with childlike wonder.

We got home from the zoo, ate a quick lunch and headed out to the annual Catholic School track meet.  It's for kids in grades 3 through 8 (broken into two groups...3-5 and 6-8) and all of the kids on the track teams from the five local catholic schools all compete.  It's so much fun, there are tons of kids and parents and the weather was perfect.

Brendan was napping yet again...he had a great weekend too :)

I had four runners this year, which is the first and last time this will ever happen.  

Moms of lots of littles - listen up - I had these four bambinos within five years.  As in, when Maggie was born, Eamon was 1, Andrew was 3, and JP was 4.  And it was so.hard.most.every.day.  But look at them now!!!  It's so much easier once they are elementary school aged.  Sure they fight, sure they get on each other's nerves, but they are also the best of friends most days (well at least the boys are...poor Maggie needs a sister!)  They go through big life events together, as a team.  They are known around school, in sports leagues, at church, as a unit.   The Martin Kids.  I love that they have each other to go through life with.  I know it sounds weird to say, because there is only a 3.5 year gap between Maggie and Alexander, but it feels like these four were my first family, and the younger three are my second family.  But all brothers from the same mother and all sisters from the same mister.

The track meet lasted about 3.5 hours, Brendan woke up at some point and got passed around to all the teenage girls :)  I made a joke to JP that his little baby brother was helping him get popular with all the girls, and he said "Nah, they just think he's cute because he is."  

Another funny - Declan asked for some "Alligator juice" and it took us a while to figure out he meant Gatorade.  All in all, the results for the Martin Kids were as follows:

Maggie - ran the 200, 400, and 4 x 200 and didn't die and didn't come in last (her words!)

Eamon - 3rd place in the half mile (3:12) , 1st place in the 400, 1st place in the 4 x 200 relay.

Andrew - 2nd place in the mile (5:58 - he got his goal of under 6:00!), 2nd place in the 4 x 400.

JP - 3rd place in the 200, then he felt like he was going to puke (bad combo of sprinting followed by Gatorade) and just became a cheerleader for his teammates.

They all did so well, I'm always surprised at their speediness as they do not get it from Phil or I!  A side note - Andrew was in first place during the whole mile, looking great, and a kid beat him right at the last second by 0.3 seconds.  Turns out his name was also Andrew and his goal was to beat Andrew Martin in a race after losing to him twice last year.  Ha!  A nemesis is formed ;)  Love the dedication.

We walked home, grilled up some brats and chicken sausages, roasted some cauliflower, sauteed some onions and peppers and made rice.  It was especially delicious to all my hungry runners.  And just like that, the weekend came to a close!  I love weekends like these, and I hope we have many many more as a family of 9.  Never take those you love for granted :)