Friday, April 27, 2012

The Smile Train Mini-Marathon & Michael Jackson

I LOVE the boys' PE teacher at school.  He is a nationally board certified teacher (you don't see that all the time...especially with PE teachers!) and is such an awesome role model and champion of active, healthy children!  Being a runner, I LOVE that he is a runner and has fun running incentives for the kids all year long.  

He also was born with a cleft lip.  He and his wife have supported the Smile Train Organization for years as a way to help other children have the same surgery that he did as a child to correct his condition.  He leads a fundraiser for the kids at school to raise money for this organization while running a mini-marathon around the track.  Families are invited to join them, so of course we did!
 Callie jumped at the chance to wear her "outfit" again :)  (And I don't have any idea where she learned how to pose like this!!!)
 Josiah's grade was running first, so we all headed out to meet them.  David ran with Josiah for a bit while I ran with the younger two (I really did run - big pregnant belly and all!!)
 Then Callie was DYING to run with Daddy, so we switched.
 Josiah was happy to help lead a pink-cheeked Caleb around the track

 Callie and her daddy
 Worn out! That was a lot of laps for this little guy!!
 Happy runners!!
The younger kids and I went over to our neighbors back yard and enjoyed some play time in their new sandbox and little trampoline!!  (David meanwhile, was setting up a trampoline in OUR backyard that some friends who are moving away gave us....kids were so excited to come home and see it!)
 Jacob's grade was running right smack in the middle of naptime, but David was a good Daddy and went back to run with him...even if we couldn't all join him!
 David said at one point, he asked Jacob (sort of half-joking) if he wanted to hold his hand while they were running.  Jacob said "Sure!", and held on to David's hand for the rest of the way.  This boy.  Precious.
 We ended the night by going to celebrate David's birthday - by seeing the Cirque du Soleil Michael Jackson show.  It was AWESOME!  We had never seen a Cirque show before and we were so impressed.  It's amazing to think of how someone came up with all of the many moving parts that come together in a show like that - and then to have it all set to Michael Jackson music?  Doesn't get any better than that!!


We weren't allowed to take any pictures, but this was the last image on the screens at the very end of the show as everyone was leaving.  Figured it was okay to just take one :).  Awesome!  My sister Kelli was SO jealous!



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