Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see..

Oops - this is what happens when you start writing a blog post but then have to step away and you don't come back for a few days or weeks. Here's an explanation of her outfit, birthday theme, and how we came to have a bounce house. :-)

I see a 2 year old looking at me. Thanks to Etsy I was able to find some cute party supplies and clothes for Cora in honor of her 2nd birthday theme. She loves the Eric Carle books so much. And she could read them to you. Our neighbors have two little boys and had a birthday the weekend before with a bounce house. We were lucky enough to be able to borrow it for Cora's party. She loved it! Even though she likes to stay right along the side - she didn't stop talking about it for weeks. In fact every now and then you may catch her still talking about it.

Newport

Ethan and I had a rare opportunity to go to Newport the night before a 10 mile race. Some new and very nice friends agreed to take all three girls overnight so we could enjoy some time together alone. Beyond grateful for these 36 hours as Ethan has been working extremely long days and weeks.

Newport is very pretty. We took a walk on part of the Cliff Walk which is 3 1/2 total miles with views of the ocean and many mansions. We walked just a half mile of it called 40 steps. It was breathtaking and the mansions were surreal, really.

These four are taken the following day enjoying the water and all the boats.  

Mystic Seaport

In the middle of May my Aunt Linda came to visit us as she was near by in Rhode Island for a few days. We decided to check out the Mystic Seaport with her. It was a fun afternoon which ended with ice cream in Mystic. All good days end with ice cream.

Emma was part of a "man overboard" reenactment and volunteered to throw the life ring. 

Aunt Linda and Ethan were in on the volunteer action as well. They had to push this wheel around  while singing with the help of others to help raise the rescue boat after the man was saved. 

Katherine and Emma both made their own boat. 

Ice cream in downtown Mystic. 

Snippets of May and parts of June

Different pictures that tell a little of what went on for some of May and June.

Cora and her new baby from Nana and Papa

Mother's Day 2015

Aunt Linda came to visit in May. We try to take everyone to Flanders Fish Market - fresh lobsters. 

Someone is becoming a big girl. We turned her car seat around on June 1. 

You can't see me! 

Katherine had Special Person Day and invited me. She read and showed me a couple different projects. We went to gym and music class as well as sharing a snack. It was a great hour with my Monkey. 

Emma had Author's Tea - they sang a few songs and then were given a book of all their written pieces from 4th grade. 

Providence Half Marathon

The morning after Cora's birthday party I drove myself to Providence, RI, for the first half of the spring season. I was feeling a bit emotional and flustered. So my plan for the race was to just enjoy the couple hours of time to myself doing what I love. No expectations or race time goals. I guess I should run more races that way or go into more races feeling flustered and emotional. I was flustered because I was running late that morning and had an hour to drive plus figuring out where to park, pick up bib, etc. I was feeling emotional from the let down of Cora's party and realizing how we didn't have any family with us. I had a great surprise at mile 10 - Ethan and the girls. They almost missed me. I almost missed seeing them. It was a great lift. I felt good, enjoyed the scenery and people around me. I finished with a 6 minute PR! 6 minutes. I worked so hard while training for my marathon last year to PR in the half and I only did by a couple minutes. On this day with no intentions of a PR I ran 6 minutes faster than I ever have. I was ecstatic. Even Ethan was surprised.
I wore a turquoise flower for this race which means Believe. The entire race I kept telling myself " I am going to succeed because I am brave enough to know I can." Which is the meaning behind the flower. The flower is part of a company called Fellow Flowers - out of Madison, WI. Read more about their philosophy here. http://fellowflowers.com/about-fellow-flowers/our-philosophy/