Cross Country Elementary School Race

On Saturday, September 24th, Washington County held its annual Elementary Schools Cross-Country Race for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. This was Landon's first year to be able to do this race and he was pumped!! Here he is right before the start giving me his best "running pose!"

We had gone the evening before to practice the race course at Eastern Elementary. He ran it twice and wanted to do it a third time but we thought he had better save some juice for the next morning. Landon definitely has some great endurance!! He ended up doing really well and finished the race in 5:15, coming in 23rd place out of 155 runners in his age and gender group. 

Here he is picking up his ribbon for placing in the top 30!!

He was pretty excited!!

Here are the 3rd Grade Boys top 30 for 2016!! Landon told me that next year he wants to place in the top 15 so he can earn a medal. He would have some work to do, but I think with some good training, he could do it!

Here is his name in the paper the next day...

Here is Abby before the start of the Girls 5th Grade Race with all the girls running from Paramount Elementary. Abby was really excited about doing this race but had also put a lot of pressure on herself since she had finished in the top 30 the previous two years. Unfortunately this was not a good race for her as she battled stomach cramps for much of the race. She still managed to fight to the end and finished in 37th place out of 121 girls!

The next day we talked about some important lessons that she could take away from this experience. The first one is that she didn't train as much for this race as she had the previous two races which is one of the reasons she probably didn't do as well. If you want something in life, you have to work for it. The second lesson is that sometimes there are things that come up (like stomach cramps) and you have no control over it no matter how much you work and train. The most you can do is keep plugging along and finish the course, never giving up. 

I'm proud of both of my little runners! It's been fun to pass on my love of running to them!!

Chocolate Face!

In case you were wondering, this is what an almost 2-year-old looks like after eating a Nutella sandwich!!

Very messy, but oh so cute!!

Walk A Thon

Last Wednesday was Paramount Elementary's Annual Walk-A-Thon, their biggest fundraiser of the year. Normally it is held right after school, but this time it was held during school so that all students could participate. They were worried that this may mean less parents would be able to come along, but there was a great turnout and once again Paramount proved its parental involvement in school activities is top notch! Maylie and I got there a couple of hours ahead of time to help mark out the course around the neighborhood behind the school.

Then we picked up this little man who was pretty excited to participate in his first Walk-A-Thon as a student!!

Nolan's teacher, Ms. Austin lives right along the walking course so she had bubbles and Popsicles waiting there for all of the kindergartners and their siblings to enjoy. Maylie was quite a fan of this!!

Nolan and I finished the course and then I waited a bit to see the 3rd graders come through and gave a quick hug to Landon. His teacher posted these pictures for us all too see of the kids during the walk since I had to stay with Nolan's class.

Then I waited a bit longer for the 5th graders to come through. Abby had a great time walking with her friends and its hard to believe that this is her sixth and final Walk-A-Thon!!

Here is her 5th grade class along with their teacher Mrs. Crane...

Such a fun group of kids who are all growing up way too fast!!

Muddy Mamas

Last Saturday Abby and I ran in the local "Muddy Mamas" obstacle course 5K to benefit Girls, Inc. and Girls on the Run. I have to admit I wasn't particularly excited about this event going into it, but it turned out to be a lot of fun and Abby and I both had a great time together.

Here we are leaving the house, much cleaner than we would be a few hours later!

This was the group that participated together from our ward. We called ourselves "Mormon Mudders (Mothers) and Daughters." It was a lot of fun to be able to do this race with such a fun group of women and girls.

At first Abby and I were really trying to race this thing and we were way out in front of our group, but once we decided to all stick together and just have fun, it became far more enjoyable. We slid down into pits of mud, crawled through mud holes, jumped over hay bales, ran through tires, walked across a tight rope, climbed a cargo net, maneuvered across monkey bars (I was most proud of making it all the way across the monkey bars...not as easy as it was when I was a girl!!) and even rolled through mud at one point.

We crossed the finish line together looking like this...

Yes we are some Muddy Mamas (and daughters!)

And Abby was pleased as punch to earn that bling at the end!!

Baseball Shenanigans!

Another season of Little League baseball is upon us with Landon playing fall ball. Jason is assisting with the team again this year which means I am on "kiddo duty" during their games. It takes a lot of snacks and diversions to keep these little ones entertained...

There is a little creek nearby which fortunately provides a lot of entertainment too. Here is Landon showing Maylie the finer points of fishing with a stick!

We ended up announcing and keeping score for one of the games this week in the press box. This meant that there was a lot more equipment to get into trouble with and keep us all entertained.

I think Nolan is ready to officiate a little baseball now!!

Library Storytime

I have been going to Toddler story time at our local library ever since we moved to Hagerstown nine years ago. I took Abby, then Landon, then Nolan and now we are on to Maylie.

She was a little unsure of the whole experience for a while and just sat and stared for most of our first week. Elmo did help to ease the transition though!!

By week #2 she was already back to her crazy, loud self so I think she is getting used to it. I love being able to do these one-on-one activities with my little sidekick!!

Lunchtime!

It's a pretty special treat for Maylie and I to go eat lunch with our three favorite Paramount Elementary School students. This was Nolan's first lunch date as a student rather than a visitor and he was pretty excited about it!!

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Maylie was just excited about getting her very own juice box to drink!

Peek-a-boo!!

It is a bit too difficult to stay for all three lunch periods back to back, but we we were able to go one day for Nolan and then we ate lunch with Landon and Abby the next day. It is fun to see them during the day and get to know some of their classmates since they can invite one friend up on the stage with them when a parent comes to visit! Maylie is always a huge hit and is always sure to put on quite the show for everyone to laugh at!

Augustoberfest!!

Last Saturday we decided to hit up "Augustoberfest," an annual party that the City of Hagerstown throws to honor its German heritage. We had never gone before, had a free Saturday, and decided to see what it was all about...

We especially loved the roasted nuts and fried donuts. The kids also enjoyed playing in the kid's area...

They had a few crafts for the kids to work on...

Plus a fun reader's theater and puppet show!

Maylie enjoyed wandering around the Maypole...

Nolan picked up this fun souvenir, a puppet crocodile!

He also had his face painted to match his souvenir...

And Abby really liked her flower design!

Maylie didn't want to be left out of the picture taking, so here she is in all her messy face glory!!

It was a fun event, but mostly about drinking beer so not really up our alley. It was fun to go once though!!