5K! We did it!

Last night was our much anticipated Clifton Caboose 5K! Madeline and I have spent the last couple of months running after school with the running club and through our neighborhood on the weekends.  We've enjoyed this special time together! Above, we are ready to head to the race, and below we are at the starting line.

Madeline ran into in her very best friend. Since he is not in the after school club, this was a total surprise!

Here we are at the finish! Madeline finished a couple minutes ahead of me. The coarse was very hilly, and I was surprised to see so many Clifton residents lounging in lawn chairs and sipping wine at the ends of their driveways as the runners ran by. Are all races like this or just ones in Clifton?

We headed over to Peterson's (maybe my favorite place) for cool drinks and ice cream.We had a great day! I am thinking this running thing will be a great activity for Madeline and I to pursue together. We'll see . . .

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was beautiful. It was a super sunny day with a nice breeze, and we wanted to spend it outdoors.  As it turned out, the rest of the DC area had the same idea. There was lots of traffic and lots of crowds. I hate crowds, so we changed our Great Falls plans to a picnic lunch at a small park in Mclean followed by late afternoon drinks and ice cream at a small Mexican restaurant with outdoor dining. Perfect.

Mother's Day 2013 marks the seven year birthday of my blog!

Our Garden!

I always planned to have a garden once we got settled into a new home. However, Kent doubted my growing ability (I do have a brown thumb) and would only commit to a container garden. He didn't want to tear up part of our grassy yard for a garden that likely wouldn't produce anything. Well, after a nice warm weekend, he spent six hours mowing the lawn and decided tearing up part of our grassy yard might not be a bad idea after all.

It was a nice family project. Kent and Maddie dug up an area by our woodpile. We bought some compost and soil, borrowed Ralph's tiller, and made the garden.

Here is the first plant we planted, a tomato! Madeline was a huge help having just finished a unit on plants at school and helping to create a garden at school, as well.

We also planted basil, oregano, cilantro, peppers, cucumber, lettuce, squash, and strawberries. We've had the garden for over a week, and everything is still green.  So far, so good. :)

Kent built this small fence to keep the deer, foxes, and rabbits out.

Voila! We have a garden. Hopefully, we'll have some produce this summer, too.