E the Athlete

Today was a big day for E. First we all got up early, bundled up, and headed out into the cold (it was in the 30's!) for the Five Points of Life Kid's Marathon. Kids were required to have walked or run at least 25 miles prior to today's race. At Littlewood's Morning Mile E has already racked up 75+ miles!! So he was good to go, but sadly little bro had to watch from the sidelines. Today's run was 1.2 miles, which he half ran, half walked in about 18 minutes. It was great fun for all, and my shins seemed to have handled this run well.

While waiting M got to play with this random dog (I have no clue who he is supposed to be).

After the run E and M got to hang with UF's Albert and Alberta.

Later today E had his karate belt test. This time it was for his purple belt. His kata was Heian Nidan (Peaceful Mind #2). He did an excellent job on his kata. It was hard to see his sparring match, but I did get some footage of him practicing with his little friend. Enjoy :-)

Kung Fu Birthday

Today we had Elijah's birthday party. Despite the sad for forecast, it didn't actually rain and the kids were able to play outside. Many friends came to celebrate and we got to meet some of the new kids :-) All had a blast and we actually have cake left over to keep the celebration going for a few more days.

Winter Happenings

We've had a busy time since the holidays! Merete's English is improving daily and he's telling stories and telling on his brother :-) Elijah is taking his role as big brother very seriously and has gotten over much of his shyness in the process. Merete loves going to school and playing with friends.

Elijah went to UF with me one day and pretended to be a student. He especially enjoyed the dinning hall (I'm sure the "all you can eat" concept will continue to be his favorite part of college when he's grown up too).

The boys went to a friend's birthday party at O2B, which is always big toy fun!

I spent some time crocheting scarves and little monsters.

Merete went to his first medieval fair, where he and Elijah were knighted and enjoyed the 'ol time carnival games. The jousting was very cool too!

We celebrated Obama's inauguration by staying home with sick kids, watching TV, and drawing pictures :-)


Elijah, the girls, and I went to the UF Gymnastics meet, "Link to Pink". The Gators did well, winning the meet and we got to see a perfect 10!

And Han took the boys to a softball game, where the Gators soundly beat (I have no idea who it was, but they boys were excited about it).

The rest of February will also be busy...I've got a trip to Wilmington, followed by E's birthday party, a kids' marathon, belt test, and it looks like at least another birthday party :-)