Harvest Half Marathon & Acorn Kids Fun Run

On Saturday morning Brian ran his first half-marathon (he's done a marathon and 17.5 mile trail race, but this was his first half).  The Brentwood YMCA (where we do soccer) organized the inaugural Harvest Half Marathon which began at the soccer fields and followed the greenway that we always train on.  I had really wanted to do the race but with my marathon being next weekend, I knew it wouldn't be smart.  But I'm so happy that Brian did it and so proud of him too!

I also signed the kids up to to the Acorn Kids Fun Run.  I had assumed that the race would probably be a 100 yard dash but found out at packet pickup that it was actually a 1K race.  Carter has already run a 1K race but I wasn't so sure about stubborn Rylan who still always wants to be carried.

Brian got a nice tech shirt ...

And the kids got nice long-sleeved cotton shirts ...

On Friday while Rylan was napping in the car, Carter and I parked next to the greenway wherever it was close to the road and safe to pull over and wrote Brian encouraging messages.  We included Courtney in our messages too.  Her son Campbell is in Carter's class and on his soccer team.  She had been training for the Chicago Marathon but ended up getting a stress fracture in her foot and had to be in a boot for a few months.  She finally got that off about a month ago and signed up for this half-marathon.

On race morning I bundled up the boys and we parked at Crockett Park and went to the one mile split to cheer on the runners.  We had a very annoying cowbell that Carter rang as well!  (The boys are showing off their YMCA tattoos that they got in their goody bags at packet pickup.)

"Go, Daddy!!!"

Once we saw Brian (and Courtney and her husband Christian), we packed it back up and went to the 3.5 mile mark.  We got there just a few minutes before Brian came through and cheered for him some more!

After that I took the kids to Home Depot for the kids workshop and then we went to the Y for the finish (and to get ready for the boys' run).

Here comes Brian approaching the finishing line!!!

Brian ran the race in 2:08:05.  He did awesome!  And this race really got him back into running so that's even better!

Brian had about 15 minutes to recover before the boys did their run.  A fall festival was being set up on the soccer fields so the kids run was 3 laps around the festival.  The plan was for me to run with Rylan and for Carter to do the run alone but he would see Brian at the start/finish line during each lap.

Lining up for the start of the race and listening to the instructions ...

And they were off!  Carter is in the center of the picture and Rylan barely made the frame on the left.

Rylan actually ran!!!

He looks tired though, doesn't he? :)

He made it once around before getting tired.  I was amazed.  And then he walked the second lap holding my hand.

As Rylan and I were approaching the end of our second lap, Carter was finishing his third.

Somehow Carter recruited Brian to run the last lap with him!  Brian said Carter had been walking some but ran that entire last lap (forcing Brian to run too!).

There were still kids and parents with us that had one more lap to go but because so many kids were finishing with them, they just did two laps.  I really wanted Rylan to do all three so we continued.  I think Rylan realized everyone else was done though so he didn't want to walk or run anymore so I carried him the majority of that last lap.  But he did run out the last 50 yards to the finish and everyone around was cheering him on.  He was really excited about getting a medal!

Carter was too.  He had been invited to a birthday party that was at the same time as his run and when I gave him a choice of which he'd rather do, he chose the race because he wanted to get another medal.

The medals the boys got are pretty cool!

Carter ran his 1K in about 7 minutes and Rylan did his (with me carrying him about 25% of the race) in about 10 minutes.  I still can't believe that it took 2 laps before Rylan wanted to be carried!  He did so, so good!!!

I'm SO PROUD of all my boys!!!

Halloween Bingo

I picked up a Halloween Bingo game out of the dollar bins at Target.  The kids were obsessed with it!!!  They could play for hours!  I got tired of it way before they did.  Luckily I think they've now forgotten about it now :)

Trick or Treat

Since the weather around here was horrible on Thursday, I think most neighborhoods postponed trick or treating until Friday (November 1st).  Which was good because it was safer but then a lot of people weren't around to hand out candy because they already had other plans.  But we didn't want to get too much anyway and the kids didn't care!

For the third year in a row, we went to Missy's neighborhood to trick or treat with her kids.  Also, Jen and Cliff came with Chase, Fabi and Philippe came with Andre, and Kate brought Everett.

We let the kids play for about an hour and then everyone ate some pizza and other food we all brought.

I got the boys in their costumes after they ate and got a picture of them with the fire I made for them.

I think the fire was their favorite part of their costumes (and what convinced Carter that being a dragon would be fun).

They ran around blowing fire and everyone and luckily everyone liked it :)

As Rylan always says, "Our whole family" ...

And the race to get to each door started!  It was hard to keep our whole group together!

The kids had fun though and got lots and lots of candy.  Carter and Rylan asked for some for the first two days after getting it, but haven't asked for any since.  They've both had less than 5 pieces so far.  Unfortunately, I've had more than that!  I think it's time for it to disappear!

All the kids (except for baby Andre):

Zoo

We went to the zoo on Friday with Missy and her boys.  We are still loving those kangaroos!!!

Especially when they box!  The keeps said these two go at it every morning.  One was super red on it's neck and chest from all the action.

Bothering a goat that just wanted to eat leaves ...

We took Missy over to the farm area - she'd never been there before.  I attempted to get a group photo but Rylan was being grumpy and missed out (he needs to sleep more!!!).

But he was happy riding the snake log on the carousel!

Rylan's Soccer Season

Rylan also had his last soccer game last Saturday.  His game was at 2 pm.  I'm never sure whether to give him a short nap before the game or not.  I chose wrong on that day.  We let him sleep on the way to the game (with a little extra driving around) for about 45 minutes.  He never fully woke up until after the game.  It was ROUGH.

If I remember correctly, Rylan started the game and then when taking the ball toward the goal, he tripped and fell and then didn't play again until the second half.  I couldn't get him to stop crying so Brian took him off the field and sat with him on the sideline.  Eventually Rylan calmed down but then wouldn't stand up and just sat there with his head bowed.  It was especially frustrating that he wasn't playing that day because we were finally playing a team that was worse than us :)  Rylan could have scored a dozen goals, at least!

After lots of bribing and begging, we finally got Rylan out on the field.  He immediately took the ball down the field and scored.  Then he tried again and fell again and cried.  I think we got Rylan to play one more time after another break and the other team's coach didn't see Rylan behind him and took him out.

Brian didn't get a chance to take many pictures or videos since Rylan was mostly not playing, but here is a video of Rylan taking the ball down and then tripping.  He did an awesome job though taking the ball away from the other team and dribbling it :)

I think Rylan is an awesome player but he's still young.  Silly things upset him and with being extra tired with our afternoon games, he has trouble getting past these things.  Hopefully he's a little more mature by the spring season.

And I think our entire team had similar issues.  I don't think any of them were 4 years old yet and most teams had at least a few that were 4.  They just didn't have the drive or maturity to excel in games.  But I think they still had fun at practice and don't hate soccer (which is my goal as their coach, and to teach them a few skills).

I organized the same post game celebration for my team after our game.  Brian set everything up for me before the end of the game.  My team even collected money and gave me a $100 gift card to Target!!!

Signup for the spring season is in January and practice starts at the end of February.  I'm looking forward to the break though.  I'm happy to have free Saturdays and two evenings back where I can actually make dinner instead of trying to fit it in after practice and before the boys bath and bed time.

Carter's Soccer Season

Last weekend were our last soccer games of the season.  Brian and I are very happy to have our Saturdays back!!!

It was a cold morning but luckily not too windy and mostly sunny.

I took a couple of videos so I could remember what a U5 game is like.  There is such a difference between U4 and U5!  I'm really glad our league splits the kids up every year at this age.

Carter is pretty good at practice and super competitive.  But that doesn't fully carry over to games.  He tends to give up when the other team touches the ball instead of continuing to fight for it.

He will also stand back and watch the other kids playing instead of getting into the mess.  He just doesn't have the same drive during the game.  I don't think he's scared of getting hurt.  He's just content watching.

I love this one where Carter asks Campbell to pass him the ball.  Sometimes Andrew and Carter passed back and forth during games that they were the dominant team.  Plus they worked on passing this week at practice for the first time.

Even if Carter isn't getting into the mix, he does get back on defense and keeps a lot of balls out of the goal (we don't have goalies but Carter will go straight to the goal when the other team is bringing the ball down and then go to the ball).

During the second half of Carter's game, I set up a table for the end-of-season celebration.  Since Carter's team chose to be the t-rexes, I made cupcakes like the ones from Rylan's birthday party with t-rexes on the top.  One of the parents brought drinks.  And all the kids got participation trophies.  Also, one of parents was the sponsor (he's in need of a kidney and the facebook site with information was what was on the boys' soccer shirts) so we had the sponsorship plaque for him.

At the end of the game, all the parents make a tunnel and the teams go through in different directions and high-five and get cheered on by the parents (it's usually a disorganized mess though!).

The boys lined up in front of the table for Brian to call them up and give them their trophy.

Brian also got thank you gifts from Andrew and Campbell.

Carter is very proud of his third trophy!  And that it is golden again (but has a different soccer guy on it).

Cheekwood

Two Sundays ago when my mom was visiting, we took her to Cheekwood to check out our scarecrow and to walk around and enjoy the perfect fall weather.  I was thinking I'd try to get a picture of the boys for our Christmas card but then it hit me that I let Rylan put a tattoo on his face the day before!  Doh!

Someday I need to just take pictures of Cheekwood.  It is truly a gorgeous place!

After walking a round the boys played tag and hide and seek with my mom.  Luckily Grandma has just about as much energy as they do! :)