Glover Day and Aimee's Baby Shower

Glover Day photos! In order of finishers...

First, here's Jacob, finishing strong in the first annual 5K race: Matt, #2 male finihser in the traditional Run Chamberlain Run 5.5 mile race: Rachel, #2 female: Peter Lauren. Duked it out with Ed there for a while, but eventually youthfulness prevailed.Rallying from a summer of back and hamstring pain, I present The Most Handsome man on the course, in his snazzy new sneakers. Bread and Puppet was there in full glory. Including this pink elephant and 2 men who looked better in a dress than I ever have. Lizzie Okay, seriously. Who Looks This Good when finishing a race? Only Kate, who should be on the cover of Runners' World magazine..."How to make the sport look fun!" Martha. She LOOKS like she's smiling, but it's actually a competitive sneer as she outpaces another woman in the final stretch. It was actually quite fun to hang at the finish line and cheer people on. Much more fun than running, regardless of how gleeful Kate looks in her photo above.

A quick trade-off of parenting responsibility, and I headed north to Tyler and Aimee's house to help set up for the shower.

Martha's adorable cake: The "Aunt Hazel" collection

Lauren, Lizzie, Aimee and Linnzi (one of Aimee's friends from work)Lauren and KatieAre you surprised that there was more than a hint of intensity during the trivia games!?

Laura and JulieThe "Young Crew"Mary Bibb and ZildaDonna Petit and Leanne HandleyAimee begins opening gifts, under the watchful eye of Estelle Estelle moves in a little closerFinally, she is PART of the gift-unwrapping. And Heather can't resist joining her :-)The Happy Family

French Visit

On Wednesday, two adorable little French girls and their chic Mom came to visit for the day! Elijah really enjoyed this visit with his cousins, who he only sees twice a year.

On Thursday, Elijah, Zoe and I spent the morning at Mills Riverside park, playing in the river, enjoying a picnic, and just generally killing time until our 12:30 playdate.

All the while we were playing at the park, we were unaware of the plight of Baby A, who seems to think she's ready to make her grand appearance at only 29 weeks! Sending warm wishes to Aimee, Tyler and Baby A...and hoping beyond hope that Aimee gets the opportunity to incubate this little munchkin for just a few more weeks...

Poker Hill School

Elijah begins preschool next year. He has been on the "waiting list" at Poker Hill School in Underhill since before his 1st birthday. When we received notification that he did get a spot, I signed him right up for the 1-week summer camp that begins on July 18. Elijah's a bit of a creature of habit, and is somewhat anxious about attending Poker Hill School. He's asked several times if I will be staying there with him. I thought it would be a good idea to swing by the school a couple times before summer camp week, since the building and grounds are always open. This will hopefully help Elijah feel a little more comfortable and confident as that week approaches.. I mean, seriously- look at this place. What kid wouldn't want to go here? I want to go here.

The rabbit pen and the sheep pasture:
Chicken coop and horse paddock:
"Sally" the sheep:

Bikes, trikes, trucks and balls:Checking out the playground:

It was a huge success. We got to visit with one of the directors, David, and really give the place a good old-fashioned shakedown. Elijah even said to me, "Mama, I LOVE it here."

Summer 2011: Recovered! and 4th of July

So, last post I mentioned that Elijah had a fever. It persisted, and he complained of a sore throat so by Thursday, we took him to the pediatrician. He was diagnosed with a viral infection called "enterovirus," which causes similar symptoms as strep throat but is untreatable, since it's a virus. The doc warned us these infections can take quite a few days to work themselves through. He wasn't kidding. Day after day of temperature-taking, ibuprofen-forcing and plan-cancelling really took its toll on us. Elijah was worse every day, running a fever as high as 104.5 sometimes. He had such a sore throat that I had to beg him to drink, and he hardly ate a thing. He slept long stretches of the day and was quite restless at night. It was terrible.

Finally, 6 days later, Elijah was still running a fever but seemed to be feeling a bit better. He was pretty active during the day and wasn't even interested in a nap. He didn't really want to play outside, though, so our challenge was keeping him occupied. We painted.
And worked some play-dough.

An finally, after dinner, he really did seem more like himself. So we headed out for a creemee. It was SO GREAT to get out of the house. On our drive home, we saw that someone was giving away this "Cozy Coupe" car for free, so we snagged it. Doesn't Elijah look like a younger Wayne in this picture? And, happiest of all, we were able to keep our Independence Day plans! This morning, we headed to see the Richmond parade.

Afterwards, Chris and Martha were kind enough to host a barbecue. We got to spend some great time with them, as well as Alexandra, Peter, Christa, Asa, Hazel, Mary and Jacob!

A Meeting of the Minds: talking about their experiences in small claims court. Alex can't believe how long this conversation is dragging on. She looks like she'd rather be just about anywhere else...Beautiful Hazel!

The weather, company and Elijah's health made this the most fabulous July 4th ever!!!