There they go

This morning started really early. After a late night! Our 6 year old had her race today - The city we live in holds an annual kids race at a central college track. Kids from all over the city come to run. It's more of a 'run' than a race. Every kid gets a medal and certificate. And my kids look forward to it every year.

We decided this year to only enter one child in the run.
The oldest, Boy, is running track at school. The next, S-girl, had a broken shoulder and isn't into running; our other Miss M. has been running with me to do a 5k (next week!)
And so we signed up the Princess M for this run. She had her clothes out and ready last night - actually I think she even slept in them. And she was up wayyyyy too early! 4.5 hours before her race.
The weather this year was perfect - not sunny hot, not rainy or cold. 

snuggling with Dad - a favorite pastime

We had a pretty good seat and could see her taking off. When she started out, G counted her at about 87th. Then she made her way up to about 30th halfway through - he had binoculars and could see the cross country course well. And then the finish! Oh that was exciting for this mama. M. entered the track at about 20th, and overtook a number of other runners to finish about 13th (We'll get the final results tomorrow!)

So proud of our little princess M and how well she ran!
(Can you tell by all my exclamation points!?!?!)
Miss M is at the X in the photo.
(and can someone tell me how to get that black spot off my lens?! I can't wipe it off!)

After lunch and a nap (not my nap, unfortunately) it was time to get the kids cleaned up and dressed up. Not always an easy feat at 3 in the afternoon with 5 active children.
But we did it.
We met a friend from church, who is also a photographer,
at a local park, to get the kids' pictures taken. 

Little K did pretty well for the first half hour. The 2nd half hour there was a but more of a wrangling ... not just for little K either! The older kids' focus was distracted by the lure of sticks and rocks and a running creek nearby. But we managed to get some nice photos taken, and I am really looking forward to seeing the final products in a couple of weeks!!

Not bad for a Saturday.
I even managed to resist getting take-out supper and made it at home instead.