8 months old

Wish I could slow down time.  This year is going by way too fast!  Cassidy is already 8 months old.  As you can see in the pictures below she is now trying to pull up on everything!  She loves to stand up and hold onto furniture.  She gets so excited and so proud of herself that it is impossible not to smile.  She loves school and she has a BFF whose name is Ellie Kate.  The first time her teachers told me that I smiled and thought to myself O.K.  However, Matt was out of town recently and s I had to drop Ella Catherine off at school which meant I was later dropping Carter and Cassidy off at school.  Sure enough, when I brought her to her room she squealed when saw Ellie Kate.  Makes it so much easier to leave her everyday at school knowing that she is so happy.

Look whose crawling

Cassidy is so happy to be more mobile.  She is still army crawling instead of getting up on her knees but she is getting faster and faster at the army crawling.  You can barely see it in the right corner behind her on the floor, but that is her floor blanket.  Guess I don't need that anymore.  No way she is going to stay on that and play. :)

Firecracker 5k

Matt and I signed up to run the YMCA annual firecracker 5k.  They also have a kids 1K fun run that we signed Ella Catherine and Carter up to run.  The website said the kids got a fun little finishers medal and so we thought the kids would get a huge kick out of getting a medal.  Plus it was an opportunity to get in some family time and exercise too.  The great thing about this event is that they offered childcare.  So, the kids could play in the childcare facility during our run and then we could go grab them for the fun run.  Originally we planned to bring the jogging stroller and push Cassidy with us.  Well, the weather didn't quite cooperate.  It was pouring rain when we woke up.  Matt and I made the decision to go ahead and go.  Hoping it would stop before the race.  No such luck.  We put all three kids in the childcare and pushed through 3.1 miles in the pouring rain.  At the end of our run, the rain began to slow down a little but it didn't stop.  I went and asked Ella Catherine and Carter if they still wanted to run in the kids run.  Ella Catherine was all about it.  Carter not so much.  He was having fun playing inside and did not want to run in the rain.  So, we left him inside and Ella Catherine and I went to line up for the fun run.  She did amazing and had so much fun!  After the race she said she wanted to run more races.  Hmmm we might just have a budding runner on our hands.  So proud of us for finishing what we set out to accomplish even though the conditions were less than ideal.  Great memory.

A little tired and a lot wet, but we got it done and had fun doing it.  Lynch running team

 

Ella Catherine with her medal

Ready for the 4th

The kids were all dressed in their red white and blue for school today in celebration of the 4th of July.  Couldn't miss out on the cute photo opportunity.  However, getting all 3 to cooperate is always easier said than done.  Regardless, I think they all looked super cute sporting their patriotic colors.

Harvest time at our Home Garden

We decided to try our hand at gardening this year, and by we I mean Matt and the kids.  My mother has a green thumb but mine is brown.  Luckily, Matt's is very green.  My contribution was taking the children to pick out and buy the seeds, not touching anything once it was planted and cooking what the garden produced. We have a lot of deer and rabbits in our neighborhood so Matt built Ella Catherine and Carter a raised garden. They each were able to pick out the vegetables they wanted to plant and then help Matt plant them.  In addition to their gardens, Matt planted carrots and tomatoes in our bed by the side of our house.  Ella Catherine picked tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, corn and cantaloupe.  Carter picked tomatoes, cucumbers, corn and green beans  We harvested a small about of lettuce and corn.  A pretty good amount of cucumbers and carrots, and a fabulous amount of tomatoes.  Unfortunately, the cantaloupe and green beans were a bust.  I think the kids really enjoyed checking the progress of their gardens everyday and I know they loved being able to pick their crops.  Matt says he learned a lot this first year and he and the kids will try again in 2014. 

Ella Catherine showing off her cucumber

Matt's tomato plant is taking off.  First tomato of the year. Cannot wait to taste it.

Showing Carter how to support the tomato plant so the shoots don't break

Picking the first tomato

Carter showing Matt is Cucumber

Picking his cucumber

Showing us his "huge" cucumber

Picking another one

Super excited

The first Harvest, 3 cucumbers and a tomato.  Looks like cucumber salad to me!