Onward and Upward to Grade One!

I remember his first day of junior kindergarten. I was so unsure how he was going to do. I didn't know if he was going to make friends or be the shy child. It was a big transition for him, and one that took him a couple of weeks to adjust and realize that when you go home from school at the end of the day, you will come back the next day.

Now, as soon as we get to the school he runs off to find his buddies. It's difficult for me to get my goodbye hug in sometimes because he is just so excited to see his friends. My heart swells knowing that he is such a likable kid.

 Yesterday was his senior kindergarten graduation. Yes they do actually have them and I am so glad they do! I couldn't believe that two years had come and gone already! We packed into the gym with the other parents and grandparents. We sat through two songs, which they sang to their hearts content. I was trying to listen with difficulty to the words they were singing, but gave up and watch the gestures that went along with the sings.

And then one by one they walked up to the stage some excited and some shy to be in front of such a big crowd. Then came Logan. I walked up front and center to get that picture. I wanted to have memories of this moment forever.

Before we knew it, the ceremony was over, I was a little glad to be getting out of the now too stuffy gym. And we walked out of the gym and they had posters on the wall of what the kids wanted to be when they grow up. And sitting there was Logan's. And of all the things in the world to be he has made big dreams to one day be a fire breathing dragon. Yes you read that right a fire breathing dragon! My first thought was my child is awesome! I loved how original he was. How amazing it is that he can think outside the box. Keep dreaming big buddy, I can't wait to see at your grade eight graduation what you want to be when you grow up!



I chased him around the yard outside after all the kids were treated to ice cream from the local ice cream truck just to snap some pictures of him with some of his friends. He has a lot more friends then I knew about, and I hope they last for years to come.


We are coming up to the last day of school and it will end with excitement and lots of hugs and possibly a few tears. I sometimes feel like kindergarten is a special safe place, so now naturally I have new concerns and fears for him. But like always he will prove to me that I have nothing to worry about and he will be just fine.

 

Grade one here we come!

Band on the run

I have lost track of the amount of weeks we had been training for. All I knew was that the day was quickly approaching.

When I first started running I didn't think it was possible for me to run 5k. I had seen my Mom run many races going all the way up to  marathon and I never thought it would be possible for me to run a race with her. But I did. And it felt so great!

I took this challenge on not only for myself, but for my children as well. And I am so glad that my son was able to see that hard work does pay off and if you set a goal you can achieve it.

The day of the race I was so nervous. My daughter was so nice that morning that she woke me up at 5:45am, giving me a few hours to get my nerves running high. At 8:00am we made our way down to the race. We turned the corner and the crowd, oh my goodness the crowd! There were over a thousand people there and my nerves shot into overdrive!

Stay calm, I told myself and don't compare. We were running the 5k, but there was also a 10k and half marathon being run, so there was some super athletes there and I had to keep telling myself that everyone started somewhere and this is my start.

We watched as the half marathoners and the 10k runners took off and it was finally our time to start. We walked down to the start line and stood in the huge crowd of runners shoulder to shoulder ready to go. Nervous energy surrounded me. And the feeling of being in that crowd and getting ready to run is unexplainable and different for each person, but it was a great feeling. I made sure I was on the one side so I could high five my son as we went by.

And then we were off.

We were met with a giant hill right off the start, but just remember hills are your friends! We turned the corner and saw a glorious sight, downhill! But it wouldn't last long as the whole first half of the race was up hill. We reached the top of the last hill and saw the water station and I knew that we were halfway done. And I was feeling ok. Then we heard someone say, it's all downhill from here! Just what I needed to hear to keep me going. We reached kilometer 4 and my Mom asked "do you want to take your walk", I said "no lets run the last kilometer." She asked "are you sure" and I said "yes." We finally reached the bridge and I could see the finish was coming up. We turned the final corner and I looked at my Mom and asked "are you ready?" She said "go for it" and I ran it straight in to the finish and it felt amazing.

We didn't finish first and we didn't finish last, the point is that we finished. And to be exact we finished in 469th and 470th place out of 572 runners in the 5k race. The course was a lot more challenging then I was expecting. We didn't do a lot of hill training, but we still came out alive!

After the race my Mother asked me "are you going to keep running?"

I replied "of course!"

I was already thinking of our next race to do.