Fun run

This week at school Kennedy did a fun run to raise money for two service projects: Children of Ethiopia Education Fund and Navajo Adopt an Elder Program. Each year her school sends money and yarn to three Navajo grandmothers and provides tuition assistance for seven girls to go to school in Ethiopia. The kids all run laps in the gym for 15 minutes and earn money based on flat donations or an amount pledged per lap. Thanks to all of Kennedy's generous sponsors, we collected $185. It's great to see the values of service and philanthropy taught to kids at such a young age.

The night before the run, we carefully selected her "most speedy sneakers" and some comfortable running clothes. She was so excited about the whole thing. As soon as she got home from school she called me at work and said, "Mom, guess what. I ran 20 laps. I was faster than everybody else!" I was sorry to have missed it, and I hope someone got a picture.

That night we went out to dinner at a Japanese hibachi restaurant. I thought it would be fun to get out and combine an evening of food and entertainment, since the girls had both napped until 6:00pm. Our chef kept asking if we thought the baby would be okay with the fire, and we assured him that Macy would be fine. And she was...it was Kennedy that was terrified by the flames right there at our table. After hiding her eyes for a few moments, she became interested when the chef starting twirling his spatulas and throwing eggs up into the air. Kennedy's favorite moments of the night were when the chef built an erupting volcano (the fire was more acceptable this time) out of a stack of onion rings. He then turned the volcano into a steam train, complete with clanging from the spatulas and choo-choo sounds. She also loved it when the chef threw shrimp through the air for us to catch in our mouths. I almost had it, but the shrimp bounced right out and landed in Kennedy's booster seat. Macy seemed to enjoy the whole spectacle. It was a fun night out.

Incidentally we went to the track a few weeks ago to jog, and Kennedy ran one full lap and then most of a second lap. I'm not sure that she's a future track star, but it was fun to get out and exercise together! One of us would jog, while the other kept pace with Kennedy and pushed Macy in the stroller.