Run Like The Wind...

The only fund raiser for Hayden's school each year is a Bear Fun Run. Each student asks  people to sponser them. Then all the kids in the school run at varying times throughout the day. The money raised goes to help the school. Our goal Thursday of last week was to get to LaGrange in the evening, spend the night with the Marx family, then watch Miss Bailey Friday morning so Andie could volunteer at the school in the morning, then in the afternoon all of us would watch our little man run as many laps as he could.

Off we went to LaGrange Thursday evening. We did stop at Chili's in Frankfort for a nice dinner together on the way over.

Hayden was at his Cub Scout Pack Meeting. Michael had taken him. Bailey and Andie were at home when we arrived. We watched a little TV show with Bailey's, read some books and enjoyed our little darlin' for a bit before her bedtime.

Sometimes Bailey likes to dance to the music that will play on her CD player all night. When Andie was putting her to bed, she decided she needed to dance with Ma (me). I can't hold her for that long because of weight lifting restrictions since my surgery a couple of years back. Andie reminded Bailey of this. Not to be deterred Bailey looked at Andie and said, "Pa can hold me." Andie called downstairs and Claude went up to dance with Bailey and put her to bed. Cute, clever little lady.

Michael and Hayden finally made it home at bit later than expected. I got my camera ready as soon as I heard the garage door. In bounded the cutest little cub scout I have seen for a long time.

Andie shared a scrapbook page she made of Michael when he was a Cub Scout. He and Hayden enjoyed looking at it after Hayden put on his Cub Scout uniform. This was before we arrived.

Hayden and I read some before his bedtime. Then he asked me to go upstairs with him and Andie. As we got ready to tuck him in he said, "Mommy I need a snack after that long meeting with NO food! I think it was two hours!"

Friday we enjoyed Bailey in the morning. When it came time for her to get dressed for the morning, she and I headed to her room. She rummaged through her play clothes drawer and found her leggings with horses on them. Bailey does love all things to do with horses. Next she needed a top to match. She pulled out a blue one that really didn't match in coloring with her leggings. I asked the question about a top that really went with those leggings. I was sure they came with a matching top. Bailey looked at me and said, "These match. See the horse on the front."  Sure enough, there was a cute horse with a bow on its head and she did have horses on her leggings. Who can argue with that logic? Not me!!! So she wore leggings and a top that matched because they both had horses on them.

We purchased lunches for Hayden, Bailey, Claude and me at Subway and went to Hayden's school to have lunch with him. He was very happy to see us. He was allowed to invite one of his classmates to sit with us at the guest table. His little buddy was very pleased for the invite. Miss Bailey opened her sandwich, found the olives (cut into little rings) and placed them on her fingers for consumption. Some fun habits just never get old.

It turns out the weather was beautiful but a mite colder than I figured it would be when I packed. In fact, when we opened the garage door on Thursday to go out, I felt a blast of cold air and commented to Claude about the temperature. I had on my capris and sandals. I hurried back inside and got a sweatshirt. On Friday, after going to the school to have lunch with Hayden, I found that nice breeze was quite cool. I knew we would have to be outside for Hayden's run so I made a ploy to Claude to go to Walmart in LaGrange so I could get a pair of jeans. He made a run to Walmart and I did find some tan jeans to wear that afternoon.

We met Andie at the Marx home. She did her volunteering in the morning so she could watch Hayden run in the afternoon. We all got in the Marx van and back to the school we went and found the field for the fun run.

Bailey was delighted to run the track before the Kindergarten/1st Graders arrived.

Then Hayden's class arrived with Hayden as line leader for the class. He gave us a big wave when he saw us.

They first give the kids instructions, then they do warm-up exercises with them, then they repeat the instructions and send them out to the four corners of the racing area. The warm-up exercises were the standard kinds of warm-up exercises. The cutest part was when they kids had to stretch and touch the ground. You heard an audible groan as they stretched to touch the ground. One would have thought they were a group of 60 year olds instead of five and six year olds. All the adults got a chuck out of this. Bailey was back with Claude at this point and she also enjoyed warming up with the kids.

The kids are divided into four groups. Each child has a piece of paper with their name on it penned to the back of their shirt. Each group of kids is sent to a volunteer standing by a cone in a corner of the running area. They are to stop at this volunteer each lap and the volunteer puts a hash mark on their paper. The kids will run for a set period of time, music will play while they run, another volunteer will have them change up the way they are running which keeps them revitalized and going. They would run one direction, change directions, skip a while, etc. This is not a race. It is each child running as many laps as they can during the time frame. They can walk a lap during the race if they want to catch a breath, they just keep going. Hayden was a trooper. He kept going and would kind of pick up speed and grin when he got in front of Andie or my camera.

The Bear Run began and the kids were off and running. In the second picture Hayden is running toward Bailey and Andie who had their hands in the air to give him a 'high-5'.

When they finished we had a bunch of very tired kids. How grateful we were for a cool day and lots of sunshine for them to run.

We also had one very proud little sister of her big brother.

The kids lined up with their classes and headed to the school steps for a popsicle treat. Bailey and Claude headed to the car.

Hayden had a cute comment for Andie before his class left the field. She assured him the next time we would see him would be at the bus stop when he came home from school. The bus stop is 1/2 block from their home. Hayden looked at Andie and said, "Mom, you might want to bring the car to the bus stop, I don't think I'll be very interested in walking when I get off the bus!"

We were very happy with how Hayden did in the Bear Fun Run.

We had to leave in the late afternoon since Junie was arriving that evening. We took the Mini-Marx's to Dairy Queen for dinner and a celebratory ice cream treat on our way out of town.

I have to say this is just a great way to earn money for the school. All the kids participate and get exercise out of it. No one goes to doors trying to sell candy or wrapping paper. It is just a good way to do the fund raiser. Claude and I totally enjoyed this opportunity to support a good cause and to see the grandmonsters doing good things.