it has been a long time...

I feel bad for not writing about my kids for so long and I have no excuse. I am going to try and do better because after reading our blog from Japan I feel that I captured our life so well. Just because we live in middle America doesn't mean our life is not as exciting.
Life is good!
Harry bought grandpa's dental practice last year for ruffly (4xx,xxx) and though there are struggles with owning your own practice and working with family he is doing well. Sydney completed 1st grade and really enjoyed it. Her teacher was Mrs. Schlicksup and one of her best friends was Isabella hernandez. Sydney really doesn't have just one person she hangs out with at school all the time, she kind of seems to float around with different people on the playground. Julia is just Julia, she pushes the envelope most of the time and tries to get her sister upset the rest of the time. She enjoyed last school year doing Mother's day out at first Federated Church once a week and is going to start afternoon preschool this fall at Northminster Church. I have been doing what mom's do, dishes, trying to get better at cleaning the house, entertaining the girls and breaking up arguments. This past March we started building steam with the Lynch's and Ruskusky's and really got ready for the Steamboat race. None of us ran the race for one reason or another but we had fun preparing and it was a good excuse to get a sitter every Wednesday night, go run and then have a good meal with friends. I have continued on with the running and run with Pete Lynch and Jeff Ruskusky 4 mornings a week and even convinced Pete to train for a half marathon with me. I am enjoying the training though I think Pete may back out so I have to dig deep to keep going. I am supposed to run 8 miles this saturday so I keep saying "I think I can".
This summer has been busy with swimming, tennis, swim team, gymnastics for Julia, reading going to Wisconsin with the Notter's and Connolly's, grilling out and just enjoying ourselves. We had a great 4th of July party with the Woolsey's, Lynch's(Pete), Lynch's (Jim), Chengs and the neighborhood bike parade. The kids had a blast decorating there bikes and riding them around the block. the fireworks that evening put on by Bob Masek were great and lasted for over 45 minutes. It was great to not have to go anywhere and just watch them from the front driveway. On the following morning I ran a 5k race Firecracker 5000 with Pete, Karyn Short and a bunch of other people.
July 2nd the Leidel family came down to our house for the day. We enjoyed lunch from the grill played inside because it was too hot and then headed to the pool. We had a great day together and really need to see them more often. the kids all had a blast.
For Sydney's birthday this year we kept it more low key and didn't have a big party but still did enough to celebrate her turning 7. The Saturday evening we had a BBQ party with family and close friends. Grandpa, Margie, Aunt Terri, the Lynch family and the Cheng's came over and it was a nice time. On her actual birthday we went to swim team and the whole team sang to Sydney while she swam a length of the pool. We then went and picked up Anna Crissmore to take her to the farm. We had a picnic lunch of Mcdonalds, rode and drove the golf cart, fed the donkey's, climbed fences, checked on the smoldering hay* and had a good time. The following weekend Daddy and Sydney took off for St. Louis. They stayed at Dr. Bishop's and got to ride around in her convertible. Harry taught sydney how to pick out BMW's from the symbol and grill on the front. They went to the zoo between raindrops and the city museum. I think it was a great 7th birthday.
The hay at the farm was smoldering because the week before it spontaeously ignited. I guess it was quite a scene to see all the area firefighters bringing in water tanks to put out the fire. It burned a hole in the roof of the shed and they got all the hay moved out to the fields to save the rest of the shed.