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HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

the past few days have been on continuous halloween celebration. on satuday, we started off with a running race. ella and fiona both participated in the dracula dash, while i did the great pumpkin chase 5k. the girls won an award for best kid’s costume for the second year running! (all credit goes to grandma sandy!).

after that, we headed home for lunch and then to the science museum of minnesota for boo-ology. another costume contest, and another win for our flower fairies! the brought home a gothic garden kit, a pumpkin carving kit, and a few treats. they had a great time doing all the spooky activities at the science museum too. AND they were giving away pumpkins!

tosay we had a regular monday - ella off to school, fi and i off to ecfe, bill off to work - but then spent the afternoon getting ready for a small neighborhood potluck at our house. after that, we headed out to gather as little candy as possible while still getting the full halloween experience. the girls had a good time.

We got this year’s halloween costumes from Grandma Connell last week, and they are fantastic. Buttercup flower fairies, as requested early in the summer by Ella (pictures to come soon). We had a chance to give them a public debut at the Zoo Boo event at Como Park on Sunday night. Both girls got cute hairdos complete with their fairy crowns and a liberal dusting of fairy glitter dust. Unfortunately, it was cold enough that jackets were required for the outside walk, but they still looked adorable. It was useful though, in guaging what to layer underneath for trick or treating next week. We have a fun run next week where they’ll run in costume, a party at a friend’s house, and a neighborhood pre-trick or treating party here monday, lots of costume days to some.

Ella has been doing great in her new school, and is showing a real interest in numbers lately. She likes to count all kinds of things, and has been figuring out the beginning of addition by herself. She likes to have us ask her 2+2 and 3+3, and for a challenge, we’ll mix them up: 2+3! 4+1! After a couple of days off last week for teacher conferences (plus one sick day), she was excited to go back today.

Fiona continues in her mischievous, ever more verbal ways. She’s adding new words daily, and loves to participate in conversations with us and chatting with Ella. She’s been doing more art projects in her ECFE class, so we’re slowly collecting some Fiona originals to hang on the fridge next to Ella’s recent works.

We’re definitely in real fall weather here, with somewhat frosty mornings and cool days. Less biking and running, but more from the usual round of colds than cold weather. We’re also finally on our way to getting the sewer line in the street repaired, with the final flurry of faxes finished up and a set of flags marking underground lines in the front yard. One less thing to worry about, hopefully.

Of course, more updates and lots and lots of pictures coming for halloween.

Another fun weekend of racing for the whole family! We got up early on a Saturday and headed south for the Nerstand Big Woods Run, where Autumn did her second 1/2 marathon trail run. The run is almost entirely within the Nerstand Big Woods state park, but the start/finish line is at a small church just outside the park. Last year it was very cold and misting for the race, but this year it was warm and dry and we had a good time watching the race and walking through the old cemetary. The girls had fun playing with a tiny little chihuahua named Pedro while Autumn was running before their race started.

Autumn has had some problems with her ankle lately, specifically achilles tendon irritation, so it was a little iffy whether she would do this race or not, or if she should scale back to a shorter distance. Since she had done a good job of training though, and she was able to get some good rest for the ankle this past week, she ended up doing the planned 1/2 marathon with no problems. Not only no problems, but she finished 14 minutes faster than the same race last year! Here’s her write up on the race:

i love this race. its funny - grandma’s marathon in duluth advertises itself as a big race w/ small town charm. THIS race would have a better claim to that title. the race is put on by a small church and there are little old women everywhere, cooking and helping out. there’s a bake sale. for schwag i got a shirt and a jar of homemade grape jelly. we parked in a mowed down corn field (last year it was the unoccupied half of the local cemetary). do i need to explain more? it is a low-glamour, low-image event…and all the better for it. that, and its a wonderful place to run! the trails can be tough at times, but it just keeps it from getting boring. i much prefer this one to the bjorklund (which is awesome and i want to do again). both are scenic, but the big woods is just glorious. last year it was beautiful and the weather was yucky. it was that much more beautiful today since the weather was flawless. through one stretch, i was listening to one of my favorite bjork songs and looked up into the canopy of glimmering lime green and pale yellow leaves. i stretched out my arms and felt i could fly right up into them. it was just as dreamy as last year. i also saw two different deer busting through the woods at separate points in the race. bill and the girls also had a good time - a better time than last year since it was nicer out and there was also a kids race. the girls both got race numbers, shirts, and handmade necklaces w/ a little angel (made from a paper binder, some beads, and some string). hope i’m fortunate enough to be able to do it again next year.

The girls did the kids race, a new event this year. Ella has done a few of these, but it was Fiona’s first race ever. It was a 1k run, so a little long for even Ella, but both had a lot of fun. They lined up with the rest of the kids at the start, holding hands in the minutes before the race start while they got the final instructions. When the horn went off, Ella was off like a shot, hanging right in with the pack even with the 8-10 year olds until the first turn. I ran with Fiona for about 50 feet then carried her along so i could get some pictures of Ella, who was running down the backstretch past a row of cedars. Ella ended up getting a little help from teenaged girl who gave her a shoulder ride for a while, then Ella ran the last 1/2 lap to finish up. Everyone got little angel necklaces made from a giant paper clip and beads, which they both liked.

After the race, we had a little soup and bread for lunch, provided by the church, and got a nice jar of home-made grape jelly as a door prize. Before we left, we got a couple of chocolate cupcakes from the bake sale, and after eating (and fiona partially wearing) those, the girls sacked out in the car for the drive home. Autumn looked good coming in at the finish, but i got a lousy picture of it:

Sunday it was another cyclocross race for me, this time at Boom Island park in Minneapolis. This is the same park where Autumn had an early running race this year. The park has a nice little playground, and the race course was set up in a curvy layout around the park, passing by the playground and through a big field, so there were lots of good places to watch the racers go by. Autumn and the girls cheered me on every time i went by, a nice thing about cyclocross and the multi-lap race. If you want to see a good description of cyclocross, check out the wikipedia entry.

The field was bigger than the race last week, probably because the race is so close to town and many people just biked to the race. The course was harder than the one last week, with 6 barriers (2 last week), and a good mix of grass path, dirt track and asphalt. It was a shorter lap too, and fast. I did the C race again, 30 minutes plus a lap, and ended up riding 7.28 miles over 6 laps. I was much smoother over the barriers this time. It’s harder to be smooth at the end when i get tird, but i was able to hold position over barriers most of the time, and even pass a couple of riders after them. Besides the barriers, this course had a few sections that were tricky, designed to either slow you down or test bike handling: turns on off-sloping hills, descents to sharp curves with wide grass at the bottom, sharp turns before barriers. I saw a few good crashes, glad to not have any myself.

Next week it looks like we’ll do a little camping trip, if the weather holds up. It’s been beautiful the last two weekends, cool at night and warm in the day, dry, and peaking fall colors. I may yet do another bike race (the season ends in November), but i’ll wait and see what comes up in the next few weeks. Some of the races are too far to go, and we have lots of halloween plans coming up. Autumn and the girls are doing one more running race in a couple of weeks, the Pumpkin Chase. It’s a 5k for Autumn, and the kids do a fun race while wearing their costumes, it’s a good time, and should bring lots of great pictures of our two little flower fairies.

this weekend was a busy one. on saturday, ella and i both raced at the autumn woods classic. it was a cold day for a race, but still pretty (much like our wedding day - cold, but clear and sunny, leaves changing). i ran the 10k with a personal best of 55:53, despite slacking on the training lately. last year my time for the same race was 1:02:44; my personal best at a 10k was at the get in gear back in april with a time of 56:19. we met up with some triathlon friends there who were running either the 5k or the 10k. some were doing their first 10k and everyone else also set personal bests. ella did the kids dash and declared that she ‘won’ after she received her finishers ribbon. we have no idea if she was first or not. she said she wanted to run by herself, but we chased after her with a ‘go ella go!’ sign and the camera…but could not catch up to her! she is a very good runner. she had a great time at the race, as did fiona. its a very family friendly event. after the race, we headed to a bday party for one of ella’s good friends. it was a full, but good, day.

on sunday, it was bill’s turn! we got up and had a relaxed morning since, unlike my races which start at the crack of dawn or shortly there after, bill’s race didn’t start until 11am. we had tea and waffles, read the paper, etc. finally we headed out and got to lake rebecca park with just enough time to spare to allow bill to preview a bit of the course and for us to hike out to a good spot to watch. if you are unfamiliar with what cyclocross is, the easiest way to explain it is riding mountain bike type paths on a road bike with slightly fatter tires…and with obstacles (logs, water, fences, etc.). sounds, fun, no? we found a nice spot in the sun just off a straight, clear part of course, close to the start/finish. nearby there were trumpeter swans in lake rebecca and the girls had a treat seeing and listening to them. it was fun being the spectator for a change, and even better to see how happy bill was while racing. it had been over 10 years since he had done a cyclocross race and about 8 years since his last mountain bike race. we did a duathlon together this past spring, but that was as a team. anyway, he did a great job and looked very much in his element. he is hoping to do at least one more cyclocross race yet this fall. after bill’s 4th (?) lap, ella yelled after him ‘go papa! I LOVE YOU!’ which bill barely heard, but all the other dads waiting around for the next race asked ella to cheer for them too, since their kids were at home. on the way out, ella amazed us by figuring out a way to hitch a ride on bill’s bike. she stood on one of his very small clipless pedals and held on to the top tube…and rode that way for at least a half-mile. after that, we came home so bill could clean up, had some lunch, then headed to the bike shop so i could take advantage of my store credit (the reimburse for some of the races each team member does). we also asked about a cycling team for bill to join so that he could hear about more races and also get some discounts/credits with the shop. after that, groceries, home for dinner, walked greta, baths, and early to bed since its a school night!

ella heads back for her second week at school tomorrow, riding the bus there for the first time. bill or i will still pick her up at noon, until we know that she feels confident taking the bus. if it all goes well, she may start taking the bus home as well (EEK!). going to school is an adjustment, and she confessed that she misses some of her regular play mates, so we’ll need to set up afternoon dates with them. other than that, thing seem to be going really well.

fi is her usual self, although she’s been up more at night lately. we suspect her 2 year molars are the culprit. she is ever silly and mischievous, keeping us on our toes. she is a great cheerleader. she has mastered ‘go mama go’, ‘go ewwa go’, and now ‘ go papa go’. next weekend we’ll be shouting ‘go fiona go!’ as she does her very first race. its a very non-competitive, very short kids fun run which bill will do with her, but she LOVES to run with ella and wants to do everything ella does. ella was 3 when she did her first race, so fi’s a bit young, but then again she can’t be kept on the sidelines much longer.

up next: big woods half-marathon trail run for me on saturday, kids races for ella and fi while i’m out slogging on the trails, more cyclocross for bill on sunday. if the events and/or race fees don’t kill us first, we’ll be living to a healthy, happy, ripe old age with all this exercise and time in the fresh, open air.

today ella had her first day of school at j. j. hill montesorri school..it was a tough choice to send her off to school when we had settled into homeschooling for kindergarten already. we will still be doing some of the homeschooling we had already started, but will keep it to the afternoons and focus most on things that reinforce what she is doing at school (like the letter of the week). she had been on the waiting list at j.j. hill, which was our first (and only?) choice for her, and we declined having her attend an alternate public school. the hill school is really wonderful and implements many of things we want for her education. here’s a basic introduction to montessori education (be sure to check out the links

she had a wonderful time and is eager to go back again tomorrow. she has her first field trip (well, first with the hill school - with homeschool we had a field trip last week to see how the bread is made at great harvest bread company!). the students will be going to the childrens’ theatre to see that cat’s journey on wednesday.

when we dropped her off, we didn’t have time to get weepy. bill still had to bike to work (late), and fi and i had to get back home in order to make it to ecfe on time. as we biked away, fiona looked back and said ‘ewwa? ewwa?” - not sad, just confused as if we had left ella behind by mistake. fi was closer and quieter in ecfe compared to her normal outgoing self - she missed her big sister. i had a lump in my throat during ecfe circle time, watching some of the other older kids do some of the helper activities that ella always liked doing there. seeing the smile on ella’s face and her cheerful wave, as she stood in line with her classmates after school was over, made up for any sadness.

by the holiday break, we’re hopeful that we’ll have a sense of whether or not this is the best place for ella. we will reassess then and make a choice to have her continue at hill for the rest of the school year. next year, she would be attending all day kindergarten five days a week, which is a little hard to fathom…but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

here are some pictures from her first day: