I originally began this blog to document our life and my crafting, but lately, it's only been the latter. So, I figured there was no time like the present to rectify that! There's no craftiness here, so if you're looking for this, you might want to skip this post. I promise not to be offended! :)
Today, Mika participated in the local "Believe" walk, to honor and support those who had/were fighting against breast cancer. It was truly AMAZING to see the amount of community support for this cause! There were so many participants, not to mention dogs, too - people & animals wearing all sorts of pink in support. My girls were already planning ahead for next year, if we have a dog by then, what he'll be wearing when he walks with them. :)
Originally, the club softball team she is training with (we are waiting to see if they will form a team her own age, so she is training with the team that is one year older right now) were supposed to do the run/walk, but then they were told to volunteer by cheering at a corner. Well, as things turned out, I had registered Mika
before the change of plans and since I didn't want our money back (it was a fundraiser), I told Mika to go out and earn her T-shirt. That's a nice T-shirt, too, isn't it? The idea was for her to run quickly and then join the softball girls (Team Easton) at the designated corner.
Some of you may remember back in April, Mika ran a dismal 5K. It turned out she felt guilty ditching some of her soccer teammates who kept whining, "Don't leave us, Mika! Run with us!" Mika ended up running 5 minutes SLOWER than her younger sister. Appalling! I promised Mika a dollar for every minute she knocked off her spring time.
So, here she is before the race. I knew most of the people would be walking, so I brought her to the front. Then, she wormed her way to the VERY front!
Look! There she is, in the very front, to the left - that's her in the red shorts! The race began late. I think people were thrown off by the start, when the announcer yelled, "BELIEVE!" And then... nobody moved. Finally, the bicyclists struggled to get started and the rest streamed after them. I was pretty annoyed that I could not get a picture of Mika taking off, because chaos erupted after they got going. The game plan had been to walk quickly over to where the Team Easton girls were cheering, because I thought it would make a great picture of Mika running by her cheering teammates. Well, that didn't happen! It took so long to get away from the starting point, because so many people were walking - silly me, thinking the sidewalk would be owned by spectators! It took about 5 minutes to go against walking traffic to get to the next block. We arrived at the cheering corner a little too late, but her teammates were excited that she was doing so well.
Marika and I raced to the end of the race to try and get some final pictures of Mika. Lucky for us, those red shorts were very visible and we arrived just as she was running down the final leg of the race. There she is, running underneath the arch! Go, Mika, GO! I yelled for her to "kick it!", letting her know there was only 100-200 feet remaining.
Look at her! She's kicking it! I timed her race at 27 minutes and 0.49 seconds. I think that's pretty terrific for a 10-year old! Her spring time run was 35 minutes, 19 seconds. So, she added $8 to her allowance stockpile. :) The kid is seriously stockpiling it... no plans to buy anything, just saving. :)
As you can see, she became more adorned as she ran. I asked if she walked any of it and she admitted that she slowed down to get lollipops from people. I told her if she has skipped all the goodies, she would have finished in
less than 27 minutes! But, the heart wants what it wants! Then we rushed over to where her friends were waiting.
Mika isn't part of the older team, but the team mom kindly bought her pink socks and a feather boa. The older girls are SO SWEET and kind to her, we're so fond of this group! They hugged and congratulated her when she returned. One of them even asked me if Mika had won! They're a great bunch of girls and Mika enjoys training with them.
And here's most of the team... there's Mika with the pink boa... after she left, there were pink feathers all over the street, not surprisingly...
I can't very well talk about one kid without mentioning the other, so here's her little sister, Marika, who joined club soccer earlier this spring, at the ripe of age of 7. She's eight now, and it's so fun to watch the team growing and bonding. Marika's the smallest on the team, but quite the bulldog - she's much more solid than I am and stands her ground really well. Here she is at yesterday's game, battling to keep the ball against some kid who is trying to knock her over. She ultimately ends up getting called for fouling Marika - justice is served!
And here's Marika's team - aren't they adorable/ They are honoring breast cancer awareness in October by wearing pink socks all month. We view Marika's participation on this team as a long-term project and have great faith that in two years, the team will be MUCH better and a force to be reckoned with, within another 5 years. Only time will tell, though, and hopefully Marika will GROW GROW GROW! In the meantime, hopefully she is learning that slow, patient, frequent hard work pays off with big dividends.
Thanks for sticking around to read until the end! :)
