Girl Day

Remember how exciting school field trips were? Your regular school routine was thrown out the window and replaced with extra noisy bus rides, spending time with classmates outside of the classroom and enjoying some sort of new adventure. 

Today I lived vicariously through my 4-year-old during her Pre-K field trip to Stages Theatre Company in Hopkins. As a class they read Spookley the Square Pumpkin and today experienced a live theatre version of that very story. In true field trip fashion you could see the excitement of these 4 and 5 year olds. The thrill of boarding an actual school bus and seeing friends from your class with their grown-ups and even old buddies from the year before - all of it was just so exciting! 

The show was adorable and they did an excellent job keeping the attention of their young audience. Plus the overall message was a great reminder for our kiddos and even us as adults. Be kind to each other. Keep trying, don't give up - and we shouldn't judge people for the way they look, get to know them first. It was our first time at Stages and after today I'm already planning our trip back to see Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer this winter. 

Since I knew the work day would be half over by the time we got back to school, I decided to take the entire day off of work and make it officially a "Harper/Mama" day. It's been awhile since just the two of us spent an entire day together, so I was looking forward to our girl day. After the play we headed to Noodles for a signature Harper meal, did a little shopping and wandered in the woods looking for Fall colors and jumping in piles of leaves. More than once today I found myself just watching her, smiling and thinking how I wanted to pause that exact moment and store it forever in my archive of memories. We laughed together, we were silly together, we ran through the woods together and even argued together - all that combined made it the most perfect girl day with my sweet Harper. 

 

 

So, somehow Halloween is only a couple weeks away and the topic of costumes has been a part of our family conversation for the past few months. It was settled pretty early on that Super Mario was our costume theme this year. From day 1, Emmett has said he wants to be "Ario." (For those of you who don't speak Emmett, that's Mario). Harper didn't want the title of sidekick, Luigi so she decided Princess Peach was a more appropriate option for her. 

We went to Party City, (or what my kids refer to as "the spooky store") to see what our options were. Unfortunately it was slim-pickin's and I quickly realized most of my Halloween shopping would need to be done online this year. Although we didn't buy anything during our "spooky store" trip - we did try on our fair share of masks. The photo below was my favorite, but both Harper and Emmett wanted to try on all types of masks. Cute masks, character masks, political masks, scary clown masks, completely weird masks - they didn't care. We spent more time than we should have swapping out face after face, but it was an oddly enjoyable family trip to the store. Costume pieces have been ordered, so stay tuned! (assuming they arrive in time for our parties!)

Since 2012 I've been running the Twin Cities 10-Mile with my co-workers. I did take 2014 off since I had just welcomed lil' E into our family, but we jumped back in for 2015. 

Last year was rough, actually as I type that I'm realizing that's a huge understatement. It was terrible. I barely trained and thought at 30 I could just wing it and comfortably run 10 miles. I was soooooo very wrong. My body ached most of the race and I hobbled the last two miles with a throbbing knee and jacked up hip. It hurt to walk but I managed to cross the finish line. Afterwards I was frustrated and negative, I may have even said something along the lines of, "I will never do this again." 

8 months went by and my co-worker asked if we should sign up for the lottery to run the 10-Mile again in October. Without hesitation I said, "Yep, I'm in!" Wait, was I nuts? Was running like child-birth? If enough time goes by do we just forget about all the pain and remember the reward and accomplishment we feel at the end? In the back of my mind I did think, "maybe we won't get in!" but just like every other year - we did. 

I vowed to train more than I did last year. So I started running earlier, at least once per week. I ran on the weekends and sometimes at work during lunch. Everything about this year felt better. My attitude and my body. I made it to 8 miles in my training, but honestly that 8 miles was hard. The thought of going 2 more sounded awful and I thought we may have a repeat of last year.

We went down to St. Paul on Saturday to get my race packet. Since we were in the area, we brought the kids to the Minnesota Children's Museum. We had no idea it was under construction, but we still had a fun time. The kiddos enjoyed the Thomas exhibit but playing in the car wash at the "Forces at Play" exhibit was by far their favorite. 

The kiddos stayed at my parents Saturday night so Mitch and I could wake up early for the race on Sunday. When we were leaving and saying goodnight Harper left me with this little message, "Good luck at your race Mom. I hope you win!" Haha!

Mitch dropped me off at the start around 6:45am and in 36° weather. It was chilly, but thousands of us huddled in our corrals waiting to start. I heard the announcer say "GO!" and we were off. I've always been a pretty consistent runner as far as my pace goes, I'm just not fast. My goal was to run 10 - 10:30 minute miles. I crossed the mile 1 marker at 10:00 exactly and I was feeling good. Things were great up to mile 5, where I was playing a mental game with myself. I felt tired from inclines and my feet felt extra heavy, not to mention my pace was getting slower. Between miles 5-7 I was battling myself internally, trying to tell myself to stop thinking about those negatives and focus on something that will keep me going. 

Luckily something clicked at mile 7. I put in a new piece of gum and stopped at the water table to regroup. For the next three miles I was focused and back on track. Surprisingly I felt great! I saw the State Capital so I knew the finish was right around the corner. I had enough energy left to pick up the pace and really push to the end. I crossed at 1:44:57, that's 10 minutes faster than last year. Overall I ended with a 10:30 pace which isn't fast - but it's what I was hoping to do. 

We made it. Another 10-miler in the books, and 8 months from now I'll likely say again, "yep, I'm in!"

 

 

Until next time…

The Helleen's