melted smoosh

last Saturday, I laced up my running shoes and joined 5500 (!) other runners for the Pittsburgh Marathon weekend 5K! the 5K is the first distance I've ever raced, and as my running has taken a long hiatus after each pregnancy, it's certainly the most attainable distance . I've run a few 10Ks, including my absolute favourite race to date, the Great Race with a slightly downhill course from the university district all the way to the downtown point where the three rivers converge; and trained for the Rome half marathon, which was scheduled for March 8, 2020 and got canceled three days beforehand for obvious reasons, so I ran it by myself. I still want to run an actual in-person half marathon -- maybe this fall? we'll see!  start line feels (also, LOVE my special Pittsburgh edition hat from Another Mother Runner! look at all those bridges -- and the inscription on the cap reads Runner of Steel) anyway, my training was fairly lackluster for this 5K, squeezing it in on the t

dear Victoria, this month, your personality has really blossomed! you are very chill most of the time, but every once in a while you erupt into happy pterodactyl squawks to make sure that we're paying enough attention to you. you also are starting to get into more of a rivalry with Elizabeth -- you are very interested in whatever she's doing, and if she bumps you (sometimes on purpose, sometimes on accident) you immediately scream with rage and turn to us as if to say "can you believe this?!". you are constantly getting picked up and cuddled by Greta and Cecilia, and in general living your very best fourth child life.  one night Greta put this tiny backpack on you and we couldn't stop laughing after a few weeks "bear crawling" around the house or pulling up halfway on your car seat or bouncer, you are now pulling all the way up to stand. you sometimes get stuck that way and need help bending your knees to get down. you are super speedy crawling around an

1) the first annual school carnival. our school is only three years old, and this year has seen tremendous growth in social events and community-building activities outside of school! with our work schedules and the littlest ones, we aren't able to volunteer and help with the planning as much as I would like to in a future season of life, but we so enjoy participating in these events and appreciate the hard work it takes to pull them off!  the carnival was set up with a dozen different old school arcade-style games and stations, including a firetruck and police motorcycle. the kids got their game card stamped at each spot and after their game card was filled up, they could trade the card in at the candy bar and fill up a treat bag to take home. I thought this was a genius way to get the kids motivated to try different games or things they might not have gravitated towards at first, and it also made sure that kids weren't filling up multiple bags of candy! several of the 8th gra