Sunday, September 1, 2013

Half Marathon And A Surprise Visit From Santa

HIGH: We had a great weekend :)
LOW: We are all exhausted today :(
We have had a busy couple of days.  Yesterday we started the day at an amazing birthday party for our friends Brian and Julie's twins.  The party was incredible and the kids had a blast.
 They had face painting and airbrushed tattoos. The kids loved getting airbrushed tattoos.
They also had cotton candy, snow cones, and tons of great food.  The kids loved eating all the delicious snacks!
My little clowns.
After the party we headed up to Geneseo to have a slumber party at Auntie Kate's house.  Mark ran the half marathon there today so Auntie Kate invited us to spend the night with her before the race.  The kids had a BLAST!
The kids absolutely fell in love with Mimi, Kate's cat.  They could not get enough of her.  After Mimi got over the initial shock that is Oliver, she was wonderful with them.
While Mimi took some time to warm up to Oliver because he was a little much for her, she bonded with Claire right away.  Claire fell in love with her the second she saw her and Mimi loved her too.  Claire was so gentle and sweet with her, it was adorable.  Here is Claire helping Auntie Kate give Mimi her medicine.
After the kids went to bed Kate and I had a nice night gabbing away on the gazebo.  In the morning, we all got up early and headed to the Geneseo school for Mark's half marathon.
While we waited for Mark to cross the finish line Oliver wanted to run in the kids race.  Here he is waiting for them to blow the whistle to begin the race.
They blew the whistle and none of the kids knew what to do, so I helped Oliver get started.  Once I got him going he was off!!
Here he is crossing the finish.  I am not sure of his official time but, he did great!
Oliver at the finish after his big win!  He was so proud of himself!  He kept yelling, "I woned the race!!"  Claire was shy and didn't want to run with her age group.  But she told me later the reason she didn't run was because she didn't have her running sneakers :)
 Even though Claire didn't run, here are my little winners :)
Here is Mark crossing the finish line.
 Mark did really well!  He came in fourth for his age group and 20th overall!!  
After the race we had a nice celebration breakfast at Denny's.  While we there this adorable couple came in and smiled at the kids as they walked by.  Claire's face lit up immediately and she leaned over to me and said, "Oh my God Mom!  Santa is here!!!!!"  I told her to lower her voice and I said he was probably on vacation before he gets busy for Christmas and that we shouldn't bother him.  I didn't want her to offend him in any way.  Well, the next thing I knew he walked by and leaned over and whispered to Claire, "Shhh...don't tell anyone I am here.  I took the Polar Express here to have a little vacation with Mrs. Claus before the Christmas season starts."  and he winked at her and walked away .  I thought Claire was going to lose it.  She was BEAMING!  Then I started crying because of how sweet the man was and how incredibly happy he had just made Claire.  Well, she couldn't stop staring at him and smiling.  So he invited her over to sit on his lap and tell him early what she wanted for Christmas.  Oliver was totally freaked out by the whole thing but he eventually went over and gave him a hug.  Mr. and Mrs. Claus gave Claire a picture of them with Rudolph and told them be good and to look for him at the Macy's day parade and he would wave to her from his float.  I could not get over how wonderful these people were!  They made the kids whole summer!  Maybe it's the child in me and my love for Christmas but, I think they may have been the real deal!!!
After we got home we all took a loonnnggg nap.  After our naps Mark surprised me with Chinese food and we had a nice movie night.  It was the perfect end to a great weekend!!



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