Quadrathlon

Josh turned 8 today, reaching a major milestone in that he no longer has to use a carseat in North Carolina. With our small cars, that is a big deal!

We held his birthday party, which felt like the fourth event in the triathlon I ran yesterday morning, last night at the local laser tag establishment. The great thing about this party was that the staff oversaw the laser tag and the food while the parents stood around and talked. Of course this kind of service isn't free, but it was worth every penny!

After last year's bowling alley chaos, we downsized this year to only boys. We quickly learned that 10 second-grade boys are about as manageable as 17 first-grade boys and girls! It was fun to get together Josh's friends from kindergarten, first and second grade, and judging by the noise level, I think they all had a great time. Thankfully, we learned another lesson from last year and served dessert before the kids began chanting, "We want cake."

And even better, because Chris complained to the manager about the snack bar being closed early, each kid received one hour free in the arcade. I told the parents that my gift to them was a very tired kid to take home!

Our day yesterday began at 5:30 a.m., the wake-up call for us all to make it to the site of my triathlon yesterday. My love-hate relationship with my bike continued, as it had a flat tire when we unloaded it at 6:15 a.m. (many thanks to the bike crew at the race who fixed it) and then my chain fell off during the bike ride. Thankfully, I had watched a bike maintenance video playing on a loop at a bike shop last summer while waiting for my bike to be repaired, and I knew exactly what to do!

I have no idea what Molly is doing in this photo! Either way, I was very thankful for my little cheering section.

This triathlon had 1,650 competitors, according to the race organizers, which meant the last swimmers got in the pool two hours after the race began. Thankfully I got in the pool early, because when we left the race some women were just finishing up their swim. I finished in 251st place, which I was very happy about.

We all collapsed for a few hours when we got home, then headed out for the birthday party. I was glad to see the day end!

Preschool, finally

Molly began preschool today, which was a great relief to us all after a very long summer. She's going to a new preschool this year, and she announced that it was "fun" when I picked her up today, so hopefully that's a good sign. It's hard to believe she'll be in kindergarten this time next year.

Here's Molly hanging out on an old chair during the Great Labor Day Garage Cleanout of 2011, which was the start, we hope, of soon actually getting a car in our garage! We're happily selling and giving away the last of our baby gear, including our stroller collection, that has contributed to the garage problem.

We had to pull all of our bikes out of the garage to clean, and it was funny to watch Josh try all of the different sizes, including his first bike. He's graduated to a 20-inch bike with gears (the white one in the picture), which he loves. This bike is much faster than his last bike, so we keep him away from parked cars and mailboxes.