Library Summer Reading Program 5K Color Run

On the 4th the girls and I did our first 5K.

It was the kick off for the library's summer reading program that is themed 'Ready, Set, Read' this year. After an early morning run, you could come back that afternoon for an ice cream social and to pick up your log books. So the ice cream was a good incentive to finish the run. :)

I thought I was going to die after the first couple of blocks.....I'm not kidding. It was a major wake up call that I can't do a 5K with never working out.....ever. Kylie did just fine. :)

But hey, after that first 1/2 mile I felt a whole lot better and we managed to finish in under an hour. And considering Sidney was running/walking for some of it, I will call that good!

Also.....I have never heard of a Color Run that involved paint. All the ones I've seen involved a powder.

We were squirted with paint..... paint that required quite a bit of elbow grease to immediately scrub off in the shower when we got home. Kylie's legs were stained for a couple of days and Sidney had some green spots on her scalp for a couple of days. Wow. But for some reason....the color washed completely out of the library program shirts we were given to wear.

The girls and I decided to go by some tie-dye and re-splatter our shirts with paint. It worked out quite well.

Anywho..... 5K pictures....

Mike happened to be home and came as our

moral support. :)

He looks thrilled to be out that early on a Saturday

morning, doesn't he? :)

Our pre-run photo with clean shirts

Race route

Everyone lined up to get started

Sidney running her heart out

Kylie walking so Sidney could keep up with her

Sidney got tired!

I pushed her more than she ran/walked.....but that's ok.

better work out for mom that way!

Mike waited for us by the half way part/water station

so he could snap a couple of pictures of us.

Then he walked back to the library to wait for us to finish. :)

At the finish line!

Getting a high five from Ms. Liz, the children's librarian

oh my, look how colored Kylie was....

I had to almost drag Sidney through the last station.

she was pretty nervous about those paint squirters....

there were like 6 of them at the last station..

Sidney looks a little put out because the paint squirter people

got her a little too well at the last color station....

Kylie had so much fun doing it!

The summer reading program is going well. Both girls get to go to a 30-45 minute program each week and hear a story and do something active. Kylie is working on her third log book and Sidney has just finished her first log book.

Here are the girls at one of Kylie's weekly programs. Ms. Liz lets Sidney participate during Kylie's programs too. :)

I'm so glad that the girls love books so much. I loved reading and I really need to make more time to read an actual book these days...besides the kid books I read to the girls. :)

The program is over July 12th so that the library can get ready for Fur Trade Days here in Chadron.
Looking forward to seeing what that is about since we missed it last year when we were gone back home.

Clean Team

Clean Team is a group of kids that meet Wednesdays for a couple of hours in the morning. They meet at various places in town and spend some time cleaning the area up by picking up any trash they can find. Then they place some games or learn something about that particular area or do some sort of activity revolving around recycling. The program is put on by 'Keep Chadron Beautiful' and the lady who runs it is the wife to someone Mike works with at the Job Corp Center.
She is a fun lady and makes it really fun for the kids to want to pick up garbage. :)

The first week, everyone tie-died shirts to wear the remaining weeks and then played games made from recycled materials. :)
They also walked down the block to tiny park and picked up some trash.

Sidney with her trash grabber

The second week, the kids picked up garbage around one of city parks and then played water games since it was crazy hot out!

Sidney was in front of Kylie, but then quit when she

got wet once... :)

Pouting about getting wet.

loving the water melon snack!

And her tie-dye shirt!

another water game....not involving getting wet.

a water version of duck duck goose. It is called, drip, drip, drop.

you drip just a few drops on each head until you get to the person you pick, (the goose)

and you drop (pour) the whole cup of water on their head.

 Week 3.
Kylie was at art camp, so she missed out on going to the pond by the college.
I didn't get many pictures. Way too hot and I was way too sneezy.
Here is Sidney playing pond tag.
The kids played a game to learn about how certain bugs being in the pond show that it is a good healthy pond, then picked up trash along the walking path, then got to collect water samples to see if they could find said bugs, and then got to take home a little book to make leaf rubbings. It was a pretty fun clean team day, despite Sidney getting stung by something. :/

Not sure if we will be able to make anymore this summer due to a change in our schedules coming up, but we'll see.

Hair Cuts!!!

 I had been wanting a hair cut for the longest time.....so I finally got one scheduled!
It was so long it was starting to be completely impossible. But it was also so long that I was able to donate it to Pantene Beautiful Lengths again. They are based out of Grand Rapids, MN and make wigs for women suffering from cancer.

My before pictures:

My after picture:

I cut off over 14 inches of hair. And once these ponies are trimmed, they

should have around 12 inches of hair to use for wigs.

And of course, as soon as I got mine cut, Kylie was ready to get hers cut. So the week after my hair cut, I was able to get her in.

She also wanted to donate her hair, and had to realize that in order to have enough hair to donate, it has to get cut a little shorter than she wanted. But she was up for it!

She originally wanted it cut just below her shoulder, but it ended up a little above that!

Kylie's befores:

getting her hair washed after it got cut off!

making it all even

Kylie's afters:

Kylie had just enough to donate to the organization Children With Hair Loss (CWHL)

 that is out of MI. They give wigs to kids who are suffering from any

medical condition that causes them to lose their hair.

All dolled up by Miss Jennifer.

:)

She looks SO different with her hair cut!

I am so proud of her for wanting to donate her hair to other children. It took me a little research to find a place that gives their wigs to children, but who will also only take 8 inches of hair. I'm really glad I was able to find CWHL.

And now, of course, Sidney wants to get her hair cut. To her chin.
We'll see if that happens. She was terrified of her first hair cut, so we'll see. She won't have enough hair to donate, but maybe she will want to do that when she gets older. :)

Fishing

 The last weekend in May we picked up the girls some new fishing rods. They had kept arguing over who was going to have to use the old mickey mouse rod we originally bought for Kylie a few years ago, and who was going to get a new one. We gave up and just let them each pick out a new one.

So they spent the rest of that afternoon practicing their casting. They were getting pretty good at it. Sidney even got hers over the fence and into the neighbors yard once. And she managed to only put it over a wire (a not live wire) to the house, twice. :)

I brought the cats out for some outside time and they had a blast chasing the little rubber fish as the girls reeled them in. :)

Terra was really tired after all that chasing.

 The next day we took the girls out to the city ponds. We hadn't gone fishing around here yet, and we had heard good things about the ponds, so we thought we'd give it a shot.

Sidney's little baby fish. :)

Kylie letting a fish go.

can barely see our bobbers

Sidney just wanted to hold one for a second...then

gave it right back to dad!

Kylie caught the first fish, and Mike got a picture of her

on his phone.

Kylie caught the only perch. A small one. Then between all of us we caught another 7 fish. All bluegills. And only 1 or 2 kinda worth keeping, so we didn't keep any. But we caught enough at a decent pace to keep the girls entertained!

Hopefully we can take them out again soon and try out a different place!