A 5k, A trip to the Pet Store and A lollipop.

On Saturday, Joel ran a 5K. We woke up to snow. It didn't look good for the little ones with colds. Joel was thinking that he would just drive down by himself, run it and come home. Well, the kids absolutely wanted to be there to cheer for him. So, we loaded into the car, and off we went, praying on our way down that it would stop snowing. The snow turned to rain, which wasn't looking great either. When the race was about to begin, God opened up the sky for just enough sunlight to shine down. We were so thankful.



Daddy's fans: "Please, kids! Calm down! You guys are just plain ole embarrassing yourselves with all the noise you're making!"


Joel finished in 24min. 50 sec.


After the race, we stayed behind for all the fun. They had face painting and make your own sundaes for the kids. None of our gang wanted their face painted until Joel did it. He got a soccer ball. (which looked more like a freaky growth on his face.) Once Emma went, we couldn't keep the girl away! She loved the butterfly on her face and was asking me every two seconds to take her to the bathroom so she could look at it. Every time I turned around, Emma was running back to the face painting table for more sparkles on her cheek, another flower, and then more sparkles on the flower.- Remind me to never let this kid near a tatoo parlor!

Hey and guess what, Joel won a random drawing. He got a $20 gift certificate for the running store.


Annie was proud of her Daddy and didn't leave his side when he crossed the finish line.

After the race, we stopped at Michael's for the kid's craft day....

The girls made wands and Mikey made....what else...a sword.

Our next stop was the pet store. We enjoyed looking at the fish.

Mary and I thought this fish looked very similiar to Annie for some reason.

We fell in love with this bird. As he was eating, he would stop and look up at us. Then we would walk over, and stick his beak in between the cage and give you some type of "treat" from his bowl. Here, he is giving Emma a peanut, for which she will be eternally grateful. She was in love! When it came time to leave, she was blowing him kisses at the door. Let me guess, he's going to be added to her "best friend lists."


The day ended with lollipops on the way home.


And apparently for one of us, it had been a while since we had a lollipop...



And man! were we enjoying EVERY LAST LICK!




Ahhhhhhh, complete bliss.