Marathon Weekend, Part 2: Race Prep

Let me continue this long-winded story...

After E's race (and a subsequent nap by our entire house), we met Grammy and Papa for our customary pre-race meal at Buca di Beppo. It didn't disappoint. We had mountains and mountains of pasta. Truly, it was ridiculous. Upside? We will have leftovers for lunch all week.

Trying to be normal. Well...

as normal as we can be in matching shirts.

This is the real us.

Look at E with his medal...

But, the most ridiculous part was dessert. We let Ethan pick something special since he had just finished his first 'big' race, and he chose well. Of course, he chose the ginormous brownie sundae that could feed a small country. It was no match, however, for the combination of Grammy, Papa, and Jack. Well, mainly Jack. I think he ate every single dollop of whipped cream. And then he proceeded to act like a rabid animal until bedtime, but whatever.

This about sums up our lives everyday.

Ethan laughs like a hyena at Jack being a pig.

Oh, but he's cute.

Sometimes, you need two hands to eat a sundae. 

We got the boys to bed and got ourselves ready for the big day. We decided to wear our Team Lemieux shirts. Our relay team raised over $750 for that charity, which was awesome. And it made our race entry fee ZERO. Even better.

Our shirts, all ready to go

But, the best part of the entire fundraising experience was that we agreed that anything we raised above our Lemieux Foundation requirement would go directly to Finley's Fighters. As usual, Connellsville came through for our family. With their help, along with the many (many) candy bars my students bought over the past four months, we were able to raise...

Close up of by bib. We got to pick a name for it,

so I chose "ForFinley." 

$500 (and some change) for Finley! We are beyond thrilled to donate that to our girl. I wish I could make one of those big checks to present to them. Maybe I can make one out of all the candy wrappers my students bought :-)

Marathon Weekend, Part 1

After months of training by all of us, the weekend has finally arrived! AJ and I did a final long run together yesterday before heading to the expo. I was scheduled to do 9 miles and thought AJ would hang with me for about 5. He was having so much fun (yeah, right...) that he stayed with me for all 9 - his longest run ever! Just wait until I secretly sign him up for a half marathon with me this fall :-)

See? He doesn't even look winded! 

The expo was craziness - so many people everywhere! But we were happy to find our names on the running wall, as well as add our reason for running to the wall. I chose the less sentimental approach and wrote "because I love carbs." AJ, on the other hand, took the better approach and stated the true reasons we are running the marathon relay tomorrow- in honor of Grammy and Finley. (Note: I will do a later, separate post about our fundraising efforts and total. That deserves its own post, for sure!)

Look at the wall of names - an incredible amount of people. 

Look at the 3 Kovalls! 

 Here's my "Why I Run"

 And, AJ's...much better.

This morning, we bundled up and headed into the city for Ethan's big race. He has been so into logging miles since January. He needed to have 25.2 before today, but ended up with 42.5. That's my boy! We had no trouble getting to the start line and parking; AJ and Jack jumped right on the T to get their spots at the finish for us.

All ready in our New Brighton gear

 Waiting in the corral

 Luckily, they had us organized by school sign -

very easy to find everyone! 

 We met up in a corral for Ethan's school. There were so many kids EVERYWHERE! We had to wait for about 25 minutes before our start time, so it got a little loud and crazy for a bit. But once they called our wave up, Ethan was all smiles.

Right before starting. He was ready!

Ethan started out really strong - he ran about .4 of a mile in one shot at a pretty good speed. We got to run over a bridge and under the Runner of Steel banner. He was pretty excited about that.

This picture melts my heart. 

Look at him running to the bridge! 

 We had a selfie stop on the bridge.

Then, he got cocky and started running on and off of a curb, despite his mother's protests. Well, dumb dumb fell and got a scrape on his knee. I looked it over, saw zero blood, and tried to get him going. Well. He had a delayed cry for about a quarter of a mile.

Then, miraculously, we realized we were making the final bend towards the finish line. We knew that we'd see Daddy, Jack, Grammy, and Papa in that stretch, so Ethan broke into a sprint!

That is a face of pure joy!

He was so excited to see his spectators cheering him on! We finished, hand-in-hand, with big smiles on our faces. Luckily, my big sunglasses were hiding the tears streaming down my face as I watched Ethan proudly accept his first race medal. He, like his mother, is very motivated by race medals, so I see more running in his future.

 AJ took a series of shots of us as we finished.

 Yay!

I'm thinking this one needs blown up for the wall.

Look how proud he is! 

 We spotted AJ!

We are so unbelievably proud of Ethan. He signed up for this race completely on his own. He stuck with running today, despite taking a tough fall and scraping his knee. He finished the race in a sprint with a gigantic smile on his face. He wore his medal all day long and showed anyone who would look. That's the sign of a successful first race!

By the finisher's wall

Grammy had her 5K medal!

My running buddy

Good job, Big Guy! I can't wait to run over that bridge with you again next year!

Kindergarten Program

On Friday, Ethan's school put on a  Kindergarten program that was pretty much the cutest event I've sat through. Every student was on stage, and each one had a special part where they were featured by singing, dancing, or speaking. They all did a great job. How the teachers got 100some 5-6 year olds to sing and dance at the same time and not go completely CRAZY is beyond me.

The whole group

E's class

Ethan's part was to be 'Saturday' in the Days of the Week song. He didn't ham it up or act silly up there, but he knew all of the words and dances during the show. I did catch him yawning a few times, though...

My show stopper

Look at him watching all the other kids 

do what they're supposed to be doing...

They did some super cute songs at the end that were simply meant to make the parents cry. Think: songs about growing up, matched with the kids swaying back and forth with their arms around each other. It worked.

Props never hurt either.

I mean. How cute are they?

I don't think that face was part of the program.

He was so excited to greet his family in the audience. This lucky boy had all of his grandparents, his brother, and his mom there to watch him. His father was in New York...

Brotherly love.

It's hard to believe that in 4.5 weeks, I will no longer have a kindergartner. Big Guy will move on to 1st grade. He has matured so much since the start of the year. He went from being a total spaz 100% of the time to only spazzing out every now and then. He loves to draw and to sound out words. He's become a stronger reader and actually enjoys learning new things in math, though gym is his favorite subject. He is delighted when I pack his lunch for school. He loves his friends and his teacher. He hasn't missed a single day of school.

He's ready.

Easter 2014

We didn't have any fancy, pastel outfits, but we had a fabulous day nonetheless. The Easter Bunny did an excellent job on the boys' baskets this year. Lots of books, Legos, crafts, clothes, and planets. No junkies or loads of candy. Mommy and boys were happy. In fact, before bed, Ethan said, "I really have to thank the Easter Bunny. My basket was awesome!" Nicely done, Bunny.

Bunny had to put the baskets out of Ethan's reach.

Ethan's basket

Jack's basket

We got up fairly early, though not as early as Ethan. We heard him running around snooping at 5:45. We kept them at bay until 7:15, then opened gifts and played until my mom came in at 8. We all went to Smiley's House for a nice breakfast with Papa, and the boys were in heaven. Easter baskets and grandparents? What could be better?

Bailey was in charge of guarding the baskets.

Happy Boy

Cute little bunny

His favorite gift - a planet book

Cool Pirates shirt for Ethan

J loves Easter grass...

After breakfast, we had a quick egg hunt in our front yard while our early dinner was cooking. The boys had a blast - Jack ran around like crazy, dropping eggs and squealing. Ethan was very fast and would have taken every single egg before Jack even realized what was going on, but he was a good big brother and pointed some out to Jack to help fill his basket. It was sweet. Thankfully, we had gorgeous weather!

Look at that good Big Brother!

Grandma helped

Full basket!

Full(ish) basket!

AJ and I went for a 6 mile run together while mom stayed and played with the boys. It was HOT and hilly, but we got it done. We returned to a great dinner (ham, my mom's famous potato salad, bread, and a yummy key lime cake I baked from scratch!) and naps. The boys were pooped. We spent the rest of our day outside, riding bikes up and down the street, kicking the boys' new balls around the driveway that was also covered in sidewalk chalk drawings.

Building a new Lego set

Eating Peeps (YUCK!) with Papa

 Checking out all of his goodies from the hunt

He was pretty pleased with himself.

Daddy and the boys after our walk

Lining up his planets (and some balls)

All in all, it was a great day and has been a great break. We are very ready for the school year to end so we can enjoy time like this every day for three months!

Happy Easter 2014!