Runners

All three of my kids had their first official cross country meets yesterday.  It was hot and sunny, and the course had some hills, but all three of them ran like champions!  We were shocked at how well they did, because there were so many kids running.  We thought they'd be more intimidated, but they did great.

Elijah ran in the open race, and he got a medal for 22nd place in that race.  I think he ran faster than he has been running, but I don't have the official time yet.  Malachi ran in the elementary limited race, and he had a good time.  Lydia ran in the elementary open race, and she blew her time away!  She ran about 2 minutes faster than her best time.

The open and limited thing works like this: The teams pick their fastest runners for the limited race.  In elementary, it is the 10 fastest boys in the boys' limited race.  For middle school, it is only 7.  Everyone who is not in the limited race runs in the open race.  There were hundreds of runners there!  It was amazing how many kids are at these things.  We were relieved that Lydia didn't get trampled.  She surprised us and loved the race.  

Things have been really a whirlwind around here lately.  We have exciting news: Our new child is a boy!!!  We can't say much else online, but Nathaniel and I get to go meet him soon.  We are so excited.  It will still be several months before we get to bring him home, but we are all so very happy.  

Road Trip

We got to travel to St. Louis for Labor Day weekend, to visit my sister-in-law.  We had a great time!  We visited Grant's Farm, where you can see the Budweiser Clydesdale horses, and many other animals, too.

Here Lydia stands in front of a baby Clydesdale horse that is less than a week old!

Malachi feeding the goats

We went to the City Museum the next day.  It is overwhelming!  There are so many places to climb and explore.  The kids had a blast, and so did I.

Of course these two had to have a picture in front of the big chicken!

There were mosaics throughout the museum, mostly on the floors.  I snapped a picture of this one on the way out.  It wasn't my favorite or anything; I just forgot to photgraph any others!  There was a really cool Medusa head on the floor at the entrance to the bathrooms, but instead of snakes for hair, she had fish.

These pictures really don't clearly display the craziness and unique aspect of the museum, so here's a couple of images I found online:

Yes, I climbed up into the airplane.  The building is a ten-story building, so you have some idea of scale.

Inside the caves area.  The kids liked crawling through the teeth.

The City Museum was great for older kids.  Even Elijah wasn't too cool to try it out, probably because teens and adults were as likely as the little kids to climb around anywhere they would fit.

Pepper Comparisons

Here are 3 peppers I grow, and an orange one we bought from June.  From the top, a sheepnose pimento, a garden sunshine bell, and a sweet chocolate.  The marker is there for scale, and because we always seem to have markers lying around.  The pimentos are fabulous for fresh eating.  I haven't actually tried the chocolate one yet.  The garden sunshines work well in salsa and fajitas.

Below are my Bulgarian peppers.  As you can see, they are starting to turn red!

I have 5 or 6 plants of these.  I can't wait to try these.  

Today, I'm canning salsa.  Although I'm getting enough tomatoes now from my garden to eat, I still don't have enough to can, so we bought canning tomatoes from June for $1 a pound.  A great deal for organic tomatoes!  I'm making the Ball Salsa today, since I have plenty of fresh peppers, and we bought onions at the farmer's market as well.  Yum!

All Dressed Up

A while back, I posted the picture of Lydia's dress for my brother's wedding.  Now I have the boys' outfits:

I think they look very handsome.  This was just a quick, make-sure-it-all-fits wearing, so I didn't adjust Elijah's suspenders, but I will make sure his pants are lower for the actual wedding.  They are pretty excited, especially since they will match their baby cousin at the wedding.  

Peppers

I'm glad I grew lots of peppers this year.  We are starting to get red ones now:

They are tasty and beautiful.  The Bulgarian peppers aren't red yet, but they are huge and healthy.  Tomatoes are stating to turn red, but not very many.  They are still waiting for the heat, and I think this week will make the tomatoes happy in that regard.  Maybe I'll get to can some salsa next weekend.  I did have enough tomatoes last week to make a small batch of fresh salsa, which I devoured.  I even had enough cilantro left for it, before it all bolted.

In adoption news, we got our homestudy update!  Now I send it off to USCIS to get our approval to adopt internationally extended for another year.  We are very happy and relieved to have those papers ready for filing so our paperwork remains up-to-date.

And I have to leave you with a cutie picture:

We had a busy but great weekend visiting family and a whirlwind of wedding shower and birthdays to celebrate.  This little man had an ear infection and a cold, but he really is a trouper and stayed happy for us to love on him. 

Elijah's First Race

Today, Elijah completed his first middle school cross country race.  It was a scrimmage for the 4 middle schools in the county.

He wanted me to write "Boy did he need a shower!" and it is true.  We had a nice downpour during the race that left everyone soaked and the runners muddy.  

And I forgot to post Malachi at his Raingutter Regatta:

And, of course, Lydia was shouting, "Take a picture of me!"

It ate the fourth cantaloupe.