The Burlingames

A while back I found a link on Pinterest to make something fun…sponge balls. I thought the boys would love it. Today I bought some sponges and made them into balls. We had a blast! We had a race to see who could fill up their buckets of water first. Fun times!

This is what the finish product looked like. It took me about 2 minutes to make. Just long enough to drive the boys nuts! :-)

Here is a video of the boys playing with the sponge balls.

Here is the link that I found the sponge balls at – http://innerchildfun.com/2011/07/sponge-bomb-bucket-toss.html

Now go make some sponge balls and create summer memories!!

So yesterday was the Heartbeat 5000 5k Walk/Run for Children’s Hospital. This is our 2nd year participating and I have a feeling it will become an annual thing. :-) Which makes me happy! It is a small gesture to say “thank you” for what Children’s has done for us. Between medical science and the power of prayer – we have a busy 4.5 year old who is thriving on half a heart. Amazing!!!

This is why I ran yesterday. I ran for my miracle baby!

I’ve written several times about our heart journey with Eli. Here’s a very, very brief synopsis…20 week ultrasound revealed two things – 1. it’s  BOY!! 2. he has HLHS = hypolastic left heart syndrome. He had 3 open-heart surgeries and countless doctor visits in the first 2.5 years of his life. Now, he’s 4.5 years old and is getting ready to go to preschool in the fall.

This is my race time. It was a great race with beautiful weather. Felt amazing to run for Eli and so many other heart babies!

We were so blessed to have some amazing friends and family come support us. It was fantastic!! I was overcome with emotions several times throughout the morning. The amount of support that was evident at the Heartbeat 5000 was so amazing! Tons of people supporting someone they know with a CHD. Amazing!!!

I love my family!! Such amazing support system. Thank you Dad and Brianna for joining us!

It was fun to see families who were in the hospital at the same time. Very heartwarming to hear more about their journeys.  Some journeys have been very successful and others have not been. Tears were shed and hugs were given.

Without having done any training or much running since the last HB 5000 – Dave has an amazing race time! He split his time between walking and running. Good job babe!!

Some of the people we had the joy of seeing at the race…

Megan and her boys, Elijah and Sammy. Elijah is a heart warrior. He rocks some awesome scars like Eli. :-)

My amazing friend, Cheri, from college. She is a rock star!! Thanks coming friend!!

Francis and Laura Tutell from church came out to support us as well. This was Laura’s FIRST race, it was also the furthest she has ever run. She rocked it!! Thanks again!!

I didn’t get pictures of them but we also saw Casey & Jade Underdahl and their little heart baby, Ailee (adorable!!). A student of mine from school, DJ, and his mom (Julia) were there as well. DJ has received some heart care from Children’s as a baby.

There was a kiddie race and we signed both boys up. I was thinking that Eli would take off running and be super excited and Noah would be shy and reserved. Nope!! Noah took off running, he was on a mission!! He gave the Children’s mascot, Star, a high-five and kept going straight (he was suppose to turn around and head back).  He didn’t want to be done. He refused to turn around and finish the kiddie race. I had to carry him.

The start of the kiddie race. They are all lined up and ready to go!

Mommy & Noah finishing the kiddie race. He loved it!!

Eli was more reserved with the whole running idea. He stuck pretty close to Dave while running. But he had lots of fun still.

Daddy & Eli finishing up the kiddie race.

Eli with his ribbon for running the race. He was super proud! As were mommy and daddy.

I think next year we will walk/run with the boys in the stroller and let them run when they want to. They enjoyed getting out of the stroller and finishing the race at the end. It was fun to watch!

Here are Poppa, Auntie Brianna, Eli and Noah’s times. Such fun!!

We got to see Dr. Rios (Eli’s cardiologist) and Jocelyn (a cardiologist we’ve seen often while in the hospital). It was so wonderful to see them as well. I enjoy seeing them outside of the hospital setting.

After the race was over, we lost Noah to the bounce house. He apparently had more energy to burn. :-)

We had 16 people on our team and raised about 64% of our goal. Whoop whoop!! If you still want to donate, please do. http://www.heartbeat5000.com, “donate”, “Team E” with Megan Burlingame as the team captain.

Mommy and Noah – we had fun!!

All in all, we had a fantastic day. I’m so thankful that Children’s sponsors an event like this, it is so nice to be able to “give back” to a place that has given us so much. We are so thankful and grateful for the love, care and support we received at Children’s.

Thank you Children’s Hospital of Minnesota!!!!

We are officially baby-less in our house. Eli is 4-years old and Noah is 2-years old. They are BIG boys! Over Christmas the boy’s room transformed from a baby/little boy room to a BIG boy room.

We had excellent helpers. They made good use of their new book shelf…by sitting in it.

With the help of some generous family members (Poppa and Aunt Cheryl) we were able to purchase the boys some bunk beds for Christmas. They were very ready to move onto “bigger and better” things. :-) Mostly Noah, he was ready to get out of his crib.

The boys were such good helpers. They made their “bed” on the kitchen floor using their new sheets and blankets (a Christmas gift).

Yummm…boogers!

Super excited big boy!!

We took down the changing table (sold it on craigslist) and put up a new shelf. We now change Noah on the floor, which is where a lot of diaper changes took place anyway. The crib is in the basement, we are trying to sell/get rid of it as well.

New shelf – it houses their books, diaper changing stuff, puzzles and random toys.

Since we took out the changing table, which had all of Noah’s clothes in it, we added another dresser to the room. Each boy has their own dresser of clothes.

Fun fact: this is the 3rd generation of dresser use – my mom and her brother used them, then my sister and I used them, now the boys are using them. There are matching bed frames as well, but those are at Poppa’s house.

Noah’s dresser – he can reach the bottom three drawers and pull out the bottom two drawers.

In our dilemma of what to do with such a small room and the basement room not being ready yet, we decided to get bunkbeds. We wanted twin-over-twin bunk beds, this way we can separate them later. Eli sleeps on the top bunk and Noah sleeps on the bottom bunk. Noah fell out the first day (we found him sleeping on the floor), but otherwise, no one has fallen out. We now have a bed rail on Noah’s bed, this helps to keep him in as well.

New bunk beds!

We bought these beds from Walmart for a really good price, at least we think so. Best part – the boys love them!!

Another angle of the beds.

As Noah has been outgrowing clothes, toys, etc. I’ve been passing along the items to other people with younger children. Now that the changing table and crib are gone, we are officially baby-less in our house. It’s a weird feeling, but we are enjoying the stage the boys are in right now.

We are truly blessed by our BIG boys!!