Four Day Weekend for the 4th

(too bad i didn't use "4" four times in that post title...hmm, still thinking about how i could incorporate it :)

So, our 4th of July weekend was busy--how about yours?! We started the celebration on Friday and kept going through Monday. I honestly think that the 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays--running close to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Here's our 4-day recap:

Friday

We prepared for Jen-Gram and Gramps/Papa to arrive and then had lots of fun with them once they came--together with J, they took Cutie Face to the pool! she LOVED it and so did they (or so i hear...)

Sadly (more like--shockingly!) i have no pictures to document this day 

...save for two of Cutie Face playing with her car...

clearly, it needed gas

Saturday

Cutie Face declared "i dough noo wad firah words is" (translated: I don't know what fireworks are) during breakfast. I was telling her all about the exciting day we were going to have tomorrow and it left her a bit confused. 

So, we did an impromptu craft (painting fireworks and stars)

and watched a YouTube video to help explain fireworks.

You, too, can watch the same video Cutie Face is watching...click here!

the crafting continued...

until i finally took one sheet of paper and stuck it on the fridge

(if i kept it in front of her she would have kept painting and stamping until the whole sheet was covered--as she did for the first 3 papers we went through...and as she is still doing in the background--look closely)

then we cleaned and got ready for the rest of our day

which was busy busy with 4th of July prep 

(food buying, Peachtree Road Race preparing, and baby watching)

Around 8:30 PM, once the babes were in bed, we finally settled in for the PERFECT pre-race meal...

i know you eat mussels the night before you race, right?

I don't! but J did*!

*could that be why he left a lovely deposit on the side of the road halfway through the race? perhaps!

anyway

Sunday

We were up and at 'em bright and early for the Peachtree Road Race (the world's largest 10k with 60,000 runners, held every 4th of July down one of Atlanta's most famous streets--you guessed it--Peachtree). Technically, I'd been up 2x before that with each girl but...whatevs...such is life.

I do want to say that I gave great thought to whether or not i wanted to run this race. I was mortified by my lack of training, horrified by what my race time would be and that it would reflect negatively on my competitive racing team and on myself. 

I thought and prayed about it for a solid 2 weeks. Then I finally came to the conclusion (obviously with the help of the aforementioned prayer) that all my runs are to be for God's glory (not mine or my competitive team's) and that, when i'm standing before my Maker, I want to be able to say that I ran (or did anything for that matter) to please HIM and NOT people. 

So, i gave the race over to God, declaring that any result, good time or poor, would be run to His glory. I was not nervous, I did not fret, I did not mentally prepare--i just ran with what God gave me. And that day He graced me with speed as I ran my second-fastest 10k. I'm still in shock. But I'll say it again--to GOD be the Glory! I can honestly say i can take NO credit for that race result!

posing with my speedy friend after the race:

Okay back to the post at hand

we hosted a quick family brunch post-race--it was fun and Cutie Face LOVED having her cousins at "her house" again.

good times, horrible photos

Cutie Face had such a good time that she wore herself out and went down for a nap...but Cutie Cakes got to stay up and be entertained by her cousins:

Following a lazy afternoon, we prepped for our neighborhood picnic

Cutie Face donned her Patriotic Dress 

and practiced balancing her dolls like J balances Cutie Cakes (scary, right?)

finally it was time to go to the picnic!

delicious food

lots of fun

cutie kids

and Patriotic CUPCAKES!

(we told Cutie Face we were going to a party and she automatically assumed there would be cupcakes there--in her mind party=cupcakes. Remarkably, someone came through and brought Red + White +Blue cupcakes as their contribution to the picnic.)

Thankfully, Cutie Face bounced off her sugar high in the bouncy castle

she wasn't afraid of it this time! yay!

After the girls went to bed we decided to head to J's office for some last-minute fireworks viewing 

(don't worry--the grandparents stayed with the girls--thanks guys!)

here's the view from his floor:

Monday

(i've been composing this blog post for a solid week now and i just want it finished--so here are some pictures and we'll call it done)

Starbucks date with the girls

Playing in Mimi and Poppy's new kiddie pool with the cousins

so much fun!

and eating watermelon

good sticky fun!

Phew! That post was a week in coming. 

If you read all the way down--I'm impressed. It clearly took me 7 days to write it but i hope it didn't take as long to get through it :)

Track ★ {star}

After eating half a bag of chocolate chips and crunchy brownie leftovers, i felt like a run was a necessary addition to the day. The more i thought about it, the more i thought, why not actively involve Cutie Face in the run? As in, let her RUN run, too!

The track club that i belong to runs a summer all-comers track meet every Tuesday night. With my women's Bible study every/other Tuesday night, we can obviously only make it those "other" nights. They have tons of events to participate in, even one for Cutie Face--the 50 m dash. 

Since they don't really make track duds for the under-2 crowd, we made a track★ outfit up for her. We went for the all-white clothes + 80's workout sweat headband + pixie pigtails + speedy-mcspeedy-shades look. Whaddaya think?

She was required to sign her own name on the participation form. Those ladies were sticklers (true story. and they got mad that she might steal their pencil. seriously.)

It appears that her new MO is that she needs to warm up to a social setting before she's fully comfortable. But once she's warmed to where we are, she's completely at ease. So, knowing that, we let her just watch the kids running. She really got into cheering them on to the finish:

Once she was ready, man was she ready! 

She instantly met a new friend and they romped in the grass (and even went to the potty together--too cute).

Seriously, they were like instant buds!

So much so that other girls wanted in on the action

Then it got really fun

they were all very intrigued by the sound of the start gun

("what was dat?" "noise?" "i'm afraid of guns."<--good!)

Finally it was time for them to start. Cutie Face was so excited that she false started and ran ahead.

That, unfortunately, was the last time she was really happy tonight. The (very nice) starter, picked her up and carried her back to the starting line. Guess she hadn't warmed up to him quite yet. Which meant she went from shocked to upset to crying very quickly. Poor kid.

I hated that she was traumatized by it because i wanted the track meet to be a positive experience for her. I think everything but the start was, though, so we'll try again in a few weeks...

She did eventually make it to the end of that 50m. 

Next time I'll be at the end waving her security blanket...incentive and comfort at the finish :)

obladi oblada...life goes on