swimming, jumping, and celebrating

I'm tearing myself away from Breaking Dawn right now to write a quick post. We had a super busy weekend. Eli's birthday on Saturday began with going to his last swim meet of the season. It was the city-wide championship and Eli's first time to compete in the 7-8 age-group. He did great. He even got to participate in a 9-10 year old relay and swam a 50m lap with amazing consistency and skill! His team won the meet. Here is a pic of the Birmingham City Champions.

While I was at the swim meet with Eli, Eric went home (he saw one race), and worked with my family, a neighbor and a friend on clearing the tree from the backyard. We SO appreciated all the help! The job isn't completely done, but it is much further along. Most of the branches are now up at the road to be picked up by the city. It was hot, dirty, hard work. I think Eric got a touch of heat-exhaustion. He was sick for a while afterward.

We also finished putting together the trampoline for the boys on Saturday after I returned from the swim meet. It is huge!! I didn't realize what a difference there is between a 13' and a 15' mat. We have all been enjoying it!Because the boys got such a big gift, we just had family parties for them. It was a nice change from the usual stress of a friend party. All I had to do was make their chosen cakes. Eli had a Pokemon cake (lemon pound cake, no icing) and Brandt had a Kung Fu Panda cake (white cake mix with the rainbow speckles throughout, white icing with sprinkles). I decorated them with little toy figurines, which were the only "toys" they received from us.

They both had their "meet the teacher" time at school yesterday. I am very pleased with both of their teachers at first meeting. Both seemed organized, confident, and very competent. Both boys seemed immediately comfortable with their teachers. School starts a week from Thursday.

I skipped working out on Saturday, since I knew I'd be tired from the book release party. Thursday I did weights and biked 50 minutes downstairs. Friday I ran 1 hour 13 minutes and ran 8.46 miles. I started slow, picked it up in the middle, and ended a bit slower. It was SUPER hot and muggy. I actually weighed my clothes when I got back. They weighed 4 lbs.
This morning I biked (while reading Breaking Dawn) for 1 hour 4 minutes. I went about 20 miles.