"Running On Faith" 5K & 1 Mile Run & A Gymnastics Meet

The big event of the week (or at least for me) was the 2nd Annual St. Joseph the Worker "Running On Faith" 5K & 1 Mile Run. Helping to plan and co-coordinate this event has been a huge commitment of my time over the past couple of months. Just under 170 people participated in the run which upped our total by 50 from last years participation. I'm sure the gorgeous November weather on Saturday helped the turnout as we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day! We had many great sponsors and volunteers on race day who truly helped to make this a huge success. Thank you to the grandparents for helping with the kids on Saturday and especially my mother-in-law for spending a couple days prior with us so that I could wrap up all last minute details. Wes couldn't have been more supportive as he gave up his time to help me mark the course, set up sponsor signs and help with the dreaded clean-up. He was also both the lead and follow-up biker. Jaidyn, Addy & Levi all enjoyed participating and seeing their faces of determination while running the course makes all the hard work worth it in the end! The proceeds of the run help our St. Anne's Guild group at church fund many of the youth activities throughout the year. Addy was the 3rd overall female in the 1 mile fun run! Jaidyn is so competitive and pushed herself so hard that she threw up crossing the finish line. She highly deserved winning the first place medal in the 11 & Under age group. She finished the 5K in 27.11 which is a PR over her last 5K last spring by about 3 1/2 minutes! She's one tough competitor! And as if hosting and participating in a 5k wasn't enough for one day, the girls had a gymnastics meet in the afternoon. Jaidyn finished 2nd place in the 7 year old Advanced Division for her floor routine and that finish wouldn't have been too disappointing if she wouldn't have left out an easy-peasy one-armed cartwheel out of her routine. Forgetting that one element cost her 5/10ths of a point and also cost her the gold medal. Oh well, live and learn! Addy finished 1st place in the 6 year old Intermediate division for her floor routine. I loved watching her climb to the top of the medal stand mat! Dynamite Duo! Haven and Jaidyn helped one of the judges out during another session by showing the score received on a marker board. Jaidyn & Addy's #1 Gymnastic Fans! And a I have a few random pics to share... The girls dressed festively in their red, white and blue for the Veteran's Day assembly at school. Reid all crashed out while still wearing Levi's rain boots! Both Jaidyn and Addy had turkey "dressing" projects for school. Jaidyn wrote the cutest little story about her turkey who she named Wee Willy Gobbler and dressed him wearing flannel pajama pants and a night cap. With the help of her Dad, Addy dressed her turkey in camouflage garb hoping to help disguise him from being the next Thanksgiving Dinner. :)

80 Years Young

This weekend we took a nice long road trip to North Missouri to celebrate Grandma JoAnna's 80th birthday. The festivities included a song & dance performed by the great grandkids, early morning hunting and a big catch fishing trip for the dinner fish fry. Song & dance serenade! Grandma in her new Red Hatter's Visor. Wes took Jaidyn, Addy and Haven on an early morning youth hunting expedition. I am not sure who had more fun, him or the girls. Wes said that he laughed the entire time as they were just sure that every moving shadow was a deer. They didn't last very long out in the windy cold and then just spent the rest of the morning driving around just seeing if they could see any out and about. Arriving back from the trip to the farm pond with lots of fishing loot! While all the fish on the stringer were very nice in size, Jaidyn was the winner for the biggest catch! You would think that she would learn to quit messing with her Papa! Big fish like Redd's Apple Ale too! Wes and one of his best high school buddies! Happy 80th Birthday JoAnna! Jaidyn received a very nice art award last week. This was written on the school website about her award. Her drawing of an owl is hanging on the principal's window with a blue ribbon attached. Way to go Jaidyn! "Congratulations to MATHEWS' ARTISTS! Mrs. Kelli Stricklin entered 5 works of art into an Art Show sponsored by the Southwest District Art Teacher's Association on October 27, 2012. Mathews' artists competed against other elementary student artists from surrounding schools (like Ozark, Republic, Springfield). All five entries placed in the categories they were entered in. Jaidyn Collins, 1st place Drawing, Division 1" On Monday I received an email from Jaidyn's teacher telling us that a child in the class had lost his home due to a fire over the weekend. She was encouraging the kids in class to do some chores and bring in some change to help purchase a Wal-mart gift card for this student. Before I even had a chance to talk with her about it, Jaidyn had raided her piggy bank of a $5 bill that she had received from a relative on Halloween. And Addy who doesn't even know this student made him a card and also gave half of her Halloween $5. This is a lot of money in their world as their normal piggy bank earnings come from the Tooth Fairy and the recycling of aluminum cans. Their actions of selflessness blew me away as I knew how excited they were to have received this money only days earlier and now to give it away. Just a couple of weeks ago at church during our priest's homily, he was telling us that in order to live the life Jesus wants for us, we need to act more like a child...so proud of Jaidyn and Addy's efforts of reaching out to another. And yes, I think that I can learn from my kids actions. :)

Halloween is over, done, and completely put away (that is if you don't count the massive kid stash of candy)! While Halloween is my absolute favorite, the decor has been dangling around my house for the past 31 days so I felt there was no need to let the holiday linger around any longer. With the exception of a few stand-up decorations that need to be taken out to the shed, by 9:00 this morning, all of my Halloween decor had been tucked neatly away in the storage bins and placed back in their corner of the laundry room. Thankfully, we had a beautiful day and evening perfect for Halloween treating! These two cuties were trying to trick me early in the day! Levi is trick-or-treating the halls of the church office at preschool. He has had a crush on this cute little witch for the past 2 years. Nana brought a bag of clementines for the kids to draw faces. I think she thought she could trick Levi into eating one this way...he didn't give in to her efforts either. We have the BEST neighbors!! They brought each of the kids a Halloween book for Halloween. We read a couple last night and then the boys and I read some today before nap time. "Papa, don't close your eyes!" Never Fails! We ran in to some of Jaidyn's friends from school. Jaidyn trick-or-treated her 2nd grade teacher! I'm pretty sure this is the biggest house cat that I have ever seen! The girls visited their Kindergarten teacher. From her they received a big homemade chocolate chip cookie. Now that she is retired she said she actually has time to bake. :) My mom bought me this "Give thanks for the bountiful harvest" towel a couple weeks ago. I'm guessing it was probably to remind me to not put up Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. Hmmm, we will see how long that lasts!