Happy 9th birthday Anna!!

Today is Anna's 9th birthday! She has been excited from the moment she woke up!! We made her a sign for the kitchen and had balloons lining the staircase as is our usual birthday decorating.  Gary's mom, Gary and I joined her for lunch at school. For her treat to share with her class she asked for us to bring doughnuts. The kids were so excited. Kind of fun to have a doughnut with your lunch!! That afternoon we enjoyed gifts and a nice celebration with the family. After soccer practice, she wanted to have Memphis Pizza Cafe for dinner and then Yougrt Mountain for dessert. That was a perfect way to wrap up the day! Can't believe I have a 9 year old...where has the time gone??

She was so excited when she woke up! She's 9!

Fun to celebrate at Yogurt Mountain

Easter Day

We had a pretty calm Easter Sunday but it was nice to spend with so much family. Gary's mom was in town through Tuesday night so it made it special for us to spend the weekend celebrating the The girls were out of school on Monday and Gary took Monday and Tuesday off to spend with his mom and the girls so I was the only one to bed early on Sunday! Happy Easter!

the girls in all their glory with their easter baskets

sweet sisters

ready for church

mandatory silly pose

the zyrieks

three generations....gary with his mom and the girls

gary and his mom

the girls with mimi and papa

Easter Egg Hunt

Gary's mom arrived on Thursday night for the long Easter weekend. First activity on the list was for the girls to enjoy Good Friday off from school and with Gammy. The girls were interested in doing an Easter Egg Hunt and we had not even done a single one yet this year. All of the popular ones in town were going to be during Anna's soccer game on Saturday, so the hunt on the square in Collierville on Friday seemed like a good choice. Mom offered to drive the crew out to Collierville so Gary's mom would not get lost. The reports were that the weather was nice, the crowds were too big and the ladies organizing the hunts were not very organized. The hunts were by age group and as she would start a single age group she was say "Are we all ready" and so ALL the kids would go and hunt for eggs. Then they would make the kids that were the older ages put the eggs back. This went on 2x and got old fast! Anna ended up with only 4 eggs having to put back the golden egg she had found the first time. Not so fun but at least the girls had a good attitude. They then had to wait in line for a balloon animal. The grandmothers were very patient with this process. Maybe the Ladies Auxillary will have a better plan next year or be more organized. Maybe we can find a better solution next year ourselves!! The Botanic Gardens was great last year!! Hope did not have an egg hunt this year because they wanted to have a Spring VBS and have kids participate in a mission project instead of the hunt. Great idea and that is for a later blog post. Good start to Gammy's visit despite the craziness and the girls enjoyed the hunt plus lunch with their grandmothers. 

Caroline with her eggs



After having to put them back several times, Anna ended up wtih only 4, but still had a great time

the girls with gammy

i think the line took 1 hour to land these balloon animals!!

Anna's birthday @ Bumbletees

Anna had her 9th birthday party at Bumbletees Sewing Studio. It is located in Germantown and Anna has fallen in love with the place. As you have seen in previous blog posts she has taken 2 sewing classes at the studio making a pillowcase and a tote bag. She really does enjoy doing crafty type things (I wish I was more crafty!!) and so we thought it would be fun to have her party at the studio. The studio has done a few birthday parties and suggested an appliqued pillow case project for the girls to work on during the party. They only allow up to 10 girls so it was a great sized party. Each girl designed their own pillowcase and enjoyed picking out the fabric for the designs. Some of the parents that stayed helped to cut out the designs and get them on the pillowcase. The 2 employees helped stitch the designs while we enjoyed cupcakes and opened presents. They all turned out great and the girls were all so proud of their designs. My mom helped Caroline with hers and she had great ideas too. We ended up buying Anna a sewing machine for her birthday. She is doing a camp this summer where she can use it and hopefully I can take a few classes and learn as well. Always a good skill to have! Fun birthday party with some great and creative minded friends. Anna is blessed wtih great friends.

the birthday girl hard at work

everyone was busy on their designs

me with the birthday girl! she is growing up fast!

mimi ironing the pillowcases....her therapy is ironing!!

ready to blow out the candles...caroline on the side to be the assistant.

sweet girls

all the girls with their finished creations!

End of March wrap up

I have been behind on blogging, so before I hit April with birthdays and Easter, thought I would do a short catch up on what the Zyrieks are up to at the end of March.

Gary is training for triathlons full speed ahead. His first one is April 1st in Oxford, the Rebelman Tri. Last year it was in the 40's for the triathlon so hoping for better weather this time around. He did the Germantown (dreadful) half marathon with me so once that was over he could focus more on his speed work and hitting the pool. After Rebelman he is focusing on Memphis in May triathlon where he is signed up for both the sprint and olympic distances. He stays busy coaching Caroline's soccer team at Hope and with his Elder responsibilities at church as well. He is meeting weekly with a group of fellow endurance athletes for Bible study which has been great as well.

I am wrapping up my training for the St. Jude Country Music Half Marathon which is on April 28th in Nashville. Hoping for a great day weather wise and hoping I can do well. Gary will be cheering me on from the sidelines and looking forward to it. I am approaching my 1 year anniversary with ALSAC/St. Jude and have truly enjoyed this first year of my new job. I have learned a lot, worked on some great projects and had so much more balance in my life, which is the most important thing in my eyes. I am on the Finance Committee at Hope and that has been great so far having just started serving in January. After the half marathon in April, I hope to do some shorter distances and manage through the heat. Would like to do the St. Jude half in Memphis in December.

Anna is doing great in 3rd grade and the year is almost over! She is a great reader, reading on the 6th+ grade level. She enjoyed basketball in the winter and is playing spring soccer on the school team. There are a lot of girls from the basketball team on the soccer team so that is great to see the same girls.  Anna has been enjoying learning how to sew and teaching herself new things on the computer each day it seems. She is a great helper around the house and has asked for more chores so she can earn more allowance. She is a saver for sure and does not spend a lot of her money. She has made all A's on her report card all year and has worked very hard on her school work. She is in a kids small group at church on Wednesday nights and has learned quite a lot about having a quiet time, memorizing scripture with a purpose and different aspects of the new testament. She is really growing a lot physically, mentally and spiritually these days!

Caroline is our crazy child. She is doing great in school. Seems to run the classroom from the way she tells it. She is ready for Senior K in the fall and has learned some site words and anxious to put them together and read books. She is playing spring soccer at Hope and has turned into quite a little runner. She can run all over the field. She has not scored a goal yet this year but really likes to stay active.  Caroline loves to manage herself which means not allowing anyone else to manage herself. Sometimes that can be a challenge for her parents! She is ready for summer, camps, swimming, the beach and vacation for sure. She asks all the time how many more days of school there are.

The Zyrieks are doing well and staying busy. I feel like this is a catch up and can now move on to April posts!

Western Day

The kindergarten and junior kindergarten students enjoyed Western Day on Friday at school. It was "W" week for the Jr. K students. They all dressed up in their best Western duds and enjoyed fun and games, crafts and of course a cookout for lunch. I surprised Caroline with an outfit that I purchased at Target the day after Halloween in 2010 for $5!!! What a bargain. It fit perfectly and she loved it. We even dug out the boots Anna wore for Western Day from the attic and they matched just right. Caroline wanted to sleep in this outfit once she tried it on at home. Fun day for the kids and the parents as well.

ready for western day!

love the hats and the outfits

caroline and best buddy ava

caroline and marshall

ready for the first game

sitting on the saddle for a game

so cute!!

Germantown Half Marathon

I have been training since late December for the St. Jude Country Music Half Marathon which is April 28th in Nashville. This is the first year that the event benefits St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, so I thought I would give it a shot. I have been working with Lesley Brainard as a running coach and that has definitely given me perspective but also focus on what I am doing each week. Along the way of training for the Nashville event, I thought it would be a good test to run the Germantown Half Marathon. We would treat this as a "long run" and not a race and see how my efforts paid off.

Well, I bombed this long run or this test. It just was not my day at all. Gary has been doing all of my long weekend runs with me which has helped keep me motivated. He is a fast runner which is the opposite of me, but according to Gary I have become pretty strong and to my own credit I have not skipped or missed a single workout since starting to work with Lesley. Gary ran with me for the Germantown half. Mentally I just was not in this race. Gary said he could tell from about mile 1 or 2 but it took me a few miles to figure out that I was not strong that day and every mile was going to be a struggle. Here were my list of complaints: It was hot, my race number was bothering me, my heart rate monitor was not on tight enough, people were passing me in droves, the sun was in my face, Gary's friends were about to finish and I was just halfway done and so on. It was definitely not a good day for me and poor Gary just kept running alongside me. I finished in 2:26 which was about 15 minutes slower than I wanted to be. Of  course I know that I am better than that. I did 13 miles with Gary about 2 weeks before the race closer to 2:10 or less, so I know I can do it. Chalk this race up to a training run that went poorly and I have to keep training.

Nashville is only 6 weeks after the Germantown race, so I know that I have a few long runs ahead. Nashville will be challenging. I will be running alone, but at least there will be lots of entertainment!! It is hillier, but hopefully with some of my training efforts being focused on hills, I won't be so intimidated.

Thanks to our cheerleaders during the race. Dad and Julie met us at the entrance to Houston High School which is mile 6 and the exit which was after mile 7.  They were great cheerleaders 2x for us. Megan and Kyle made us a sign around mile 10 which was great.  Mom, Dan and the girls were at the finish line. The girls had made signs with us on the podium and with medals on. They were so proud. Even though I was mad at myself and disappointed in my efforts, they made me smile because they were very proud and they did not even care about the time on the clock!!

our great and awesome cheereleaders!

gary and i afterwards with anna

caroline was so proud of us and her sign

blair with gary and me after the race