Our Pot of Gold

Back in April we were at the Mall of Dubai and Stinkerbell saw an advertisement outside of a bakery and stopped in her tracks.  She declared at that moment that this, this was the cake she would have for her birthday party and that the theme would be rainbows.  Who am I to argue?  So I did a bit of research and found that the cake just looked difficult and I could, in fact, do it myself...the invitation she picked, on the other hand, looked simple but took me a lot more time (but they were really cute...)

With the theme and cake decided upon, and the invitations cut and pasted, we just had to decide on the location.  Stinkerbell kept going back and forth between doing a spa party,  a painting party and a "crazy" party at the trampoline park.  But mostly she wanted to have her party at Beckiland like every other kid in Prague (including her sister).  But the site closed late last year.  Thankfully, it opened again, under new management and a new name, Toboga, the month before her party!  Invitations - check.  Cake - check.  Location - check.

Let the Rainbow party commence...

Gift bags - a blank canvas, paint pallets , rainbow Twizzlers and a gold chocolate coin.  Because no rainbow is complete without a pot of gold at its base...

J and Stinkerbell ready to attack all that Toboga has to offer.

A couple of hours into the celebrations we wrangled them to eat...

The food was good but they didn't really want to sit still...so she proved she ate 

And then we sent them off to play again...Until it was time to dig into the cake that started it all...

Pre - frosting.  Layered and ready to go...this monster would take an entire four cans of frosting to cover!  But it was exactly what the birthday girl ordered and that made all of us smile!

We lit the candle.  Or rather the sparkler and her face say it all...

And after singing to her we tried to blow it out, but it was just had to burn itself t

100 Books

This may be one of my favorite pictures ever.  Not because it is perfect or because the lighting is just right or because Stinkerbell looks beautiful (though she does) but because of what it represents.

This is a picture of fierce determination.  Of setting a long term goal and then working hard, sometimes harder than you thought you would have to, and still keeping at it - even on vacations and when you are sick or when it just doesn't sound like much fun.

 It is a picture of pride in oneself and of pure giddiness at achieveing a goal.  A goal that wasn't given to you but set by you.  A goal that may have seemed unachievable just a short time ago.  And a goal that was set with an end date not so far away...

Congratulations Stinkerbell at reading 100 different books titles in just over 118 days.
You Rock!

Living Life in Full Color

Ever since my girls can remember, I have been a runner.  Well, more of a fast jogger.  And randomly, I sign up for a 5k or a 10k or a relay just for fun.  And for as long as I can remember they have wanted to come race with me but the timing has never been right; either the race was too late at night, or B wasn't home so he couldn't take them when they finished and I had to run, or they had other commitments.  So when my friend J asked us to join her team in walking the Color Run - we jumped at the chance.  And to add to the fun, so did many of our friends.  The girls were instantly excited and talking about how they were going to race.  Stinkerbell was planning on doing cartwheels for the entire 5k.  MadHatter was going to hold hands with her friends.  Me, I was just going to enjoy.

Started in 2011 in Phoenix, AZ to promote health and happiness and bring runners and non-runners together the run is an untimed event that emphasizes fun over competition.  Runners begin the race in white t-shirts (and pants) and are sprayed each kilometer with a different color of brightly dyed food grade corn starch.  Fittingly, it is known as the "Happiest 5k on the Planet".  It also holds the title of the World's Largest Running event with over a million people running one of the 200 races in over 40 countries. And this year, to mark the 5th anniversary of the race, they created a unique Tropicolor World Tour with brighter colors, island scents and a bigger after party.  And it seemed like a lot more people too - 12,000 to be exact.  

It was a lot of fun, and now I think my girls have the wrong impression of what my runs look like.  They believe that I always throw color, get dirty, walk the race, grab my medal and go to dinner.  Maybe another run is in their future.  This time, one that makes them actually run and finish the whole course because we ducked out of this one before finishing even 2k.  And that took us over 90 minutes to complete because of the bottlenecks and the crowds.  But they girls are glad they did it and had so much fun with their friends.  So did I!

Tattoos.  White clothes. Attitude.  Ready to catch the tram!

Our first throw of color.  They had no idea what to expect.

Our littlest participant was more than happy (some of the time) to plaster you in color.

We had 1 1/2 before race time, so we were a bit colorful before we even lined up to start.

And since we had so much time, we headed out for ice cream.

When we got back, it was people as far as the eye could see...

We had the kids pose with the Unicorn Mascots

And then we did it too...

Finally, we were off.  Only 40 minutes after the official start of the race (no wonder it isn't timed)

About 100 yards in, this was our first color!  We saw it coming and had plenty of time to prepare...

This is how she prepared.

We made it out the other side.  No worse for the wear, just purple.

Then we soaked up pink...

True to her word, she did a lot of cartwheels with her friend S.

There was that 5-minute stretch where no one was throwing color at us, so we took matters into our own hands and gave the girls some ammunition.

Finally, we had enough.  It was slow, there was dust in our mouths and our ears and our noses, and we were very thirsty.  So we cut across a field and headed to the finish line.  Now the kids wanted to run, so run we did.  For about 200 yards.  But hey, that constitutes a run...right?

We finished!

Relay

Back in January I got an email from RunCzech, the organization that puts together many of the competetive races here in the Czech Republic.  They were trying something new and wanted to give me the chance to sign up first.  It was the first annual Prague Relay.  Teams of four would run a total of 20k (12.43 miles) or 5k (3.1 miles) each member.  I signed up right that moment (these things tend to sell out fast) and then I asked my workout partners if they would like to run.  Within minutes we had our group of 4, and we just had to sit back and wait until race day.  Which was last Tuesday.

The day was cold and windy!  And it never got above 50 degrees.  But I just put an extra layer on and a jacket and laced up my sneakers...

I trammed it down to the park and waited for the others to meet me outside of the starting hall.

We checked out the grounds and selected the spot where we would do our hand off of the timing band.  Though it got a bit confusing at the time of handoff because the J banner we had chosen to meet at had been moved to another spot making it difficult for JB to find me in the corral.

We snapped a quick picture of us outside and then went in to have a cup of coffee - yes, it was that cold!

 JB ran first (and killed it) and I took the second leg (and did pretty good myself).  We got our shiny new medals - and our shiny space blankets and after a quick picture and interview on the Czech radio station (think they understood us at all?), we went back out to cheer on R and see H off on the final leg.

3 of the 4 runners down on each team.  We are waiting to snap our closers as they cross the finish line. (There were quite a few friends that also ran with us)

 We all had such a great time.  We ran fast and hard.  And we were a bit hungry after we finished at 7 pm.  Thankfully, RunCzech also provided us with a free picnic for after the race so we all sat down and fueled up again before heading home and calling it a day.  I only wish I would be here for the second annual relay...Munich isn't too far so we will see.