Mallory

It’s RACE DAY!

Mallory was BEYOND EXCITED to run her first race yesterday – she did the Kids Dash in the Conor O’Neill’s “Shamrocks & Shenanigans” race. I think Rick & I spent some time in Conor O’Neill’s back in the day, so it was hysterical to be in there with the kids before the race. Mallory asked where the crayons were and I assumed that my old haunt would *never* have crayons, for God’s sake, it’s a BAR! But, I guess they get kids in there now (probably because it’s non-smoking?) and they did have crayons. Phew.

Anyway, Mallory was running the race with Allison – and the girls were beyond adorable all decked out for the race. Mal had a green flower ponytail holder, a green necklace, and a green ring (that I think was in my pocket when she actually ran). We had a tough time finding a green shirt for her to wear so we had to make do with a green-yellow-ish one. We don’t have green clothes in our house, except for when Sue forgets we don’t like Michigan State and includes some MSU gear in the bags of hand-me-downs she give us.

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I realized as I was making Mallory’s sign (actually, I realized it when I went to the store at 8p on a Saturday night to get the posterboard) that this was just the first of (hopefully) many signs I will get make to cheer my baby on for the next decade or two. She has aspirations of swimming for Michigan, so I guess I have like 18 years left to use my Cricut.

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Notice the kid in orange…sizing up the competition…

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Then the race started…20110313-20110313_0123-LR

…and the kid in orange TOTALLY elbowed Mallory to gain an advantage. What???

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Anyway, they started to run. It was too cute to see Mallory running her little heart out. SO cute.

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Then she starts gaining on the kid in orange…

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And then the kid in orange STUCK HIS ARM OUT to try to slow down my pumpkinhead. WHAT????

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But that’s OK – she ends up showing him her taillights, because GIRLS RULE, BOYS DROOL.

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My sweet girl after the race – she wasn’t even breathing hard! Alli’s mom said we totally should have entered the girls in the one kilometer race – maybe next year. :-)

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But you wanna know the BEST part about racing? The TREATS after. How in the world Mallory could actually eat that ice cream when it was like 30 degrees out, I have no idea, but I guess she is her mother’s daughter – can’t ever skip an opportunity to have chocolate :-)

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Rick & I were both so proud of her – it was so neat to see how excited she was to race. The night before she was all “I have to eat my vegetables so I can be STRONG for my race tomorrow!” and “I will go to bed early so I can be ready for my race tomorrow!” and “Today is Saturday, and tomorrow is RACE DAY! But you aren’t racing tomorrow, daddy, just ME!” Rick did think it was weird to be a spectator for the race, and watching someone else be the participant.

Oh, and in case you didn’t see it – Carson was with us (see him on Rick’s back up there in the second picture?) – but he was tired and cold so he spent the whole time in the backpack carrier.