Blue Belt

Congratulations to Bootsie! She earned her blue belt in karate this past Thursday.

She & Daddy Duck practiced all the blocks, katas (sorry - I'm sure it's misspelled), take-downs, etc... in the weeks leading up to the promotion.
The promotion itself was pretty tough. I was only watching from the sidelines, and I had to keep reminding myself to breathe. Bootsie looked sharp and did a great job!

Here she is receiving her belt from her sensei.
And of course, we had to have a blue belt cake to celebrate the occasion! :D
Daddy Duck (who is also a blue belt) has promised her that she will not get the next belt before he does. :)

It's that time of the year again.

Baseball is underway once again! This year we've got an Oriole and a Philly.

Take me out to the ball game

Superhero is playing T-ball this year. He loves it. T-ball is hilarious to watch & I marvel at the coaches' patience!

Monkey Man is playing kid-pitch ball this year & ended up getting to pitch a little in their first game. He was so nervous (me too!!), but he did great. He looks so big in this picture. (sniff, sniff)

We did it!

Monkey Man and I ran an 8k today. That is 4.97 miles. He ran the whole way and barely broke a sweat! We finished in 55 minutes and 46 seconds. I am so impressed and proud of him! There were are in the center of the picture. It was cold, dark and wet when we started. Monkey Man was up before 5am this morning, worried that we wouldn't get there in time.

Daddy and the ducklings got up at 5:30am to drop us off, park and then cheer us on. They also explored the capitol while we ran.

Meanwhile, Superhero was busy saving the city from super galactic kryptonic battle droids.

I did it!

I beat my goal of finishing my 1/2 marathon this morning in less than 2 1/2 hours. My official time was 2:11! Yeah! It was harder than I anticipated, but a lot of fun. The best part was seeing my sweet family there, cheering me on. I had expected to see them waiting at the finish line for me, but they surprised me by showing up around the half-way point as well. Daddy Duck and all my sweet ducklings were lined up, holding signs they had made that said "Go Mommy!" It was such a special moment that I will never forget. They were also waiting patiently at the finish line for me. :)



Meanwhile, Superhero has acquired a new costume. He saw it in the store yesterday and begged me to get it for him. I didn't (trying to save $, you know) and he was heartbroken. He asked Daddy Duck about it when he got home from work & we decided to go back today to see if it was still there. Superhero rarely asks for anything and he has such a love for costumes! He put it on right away, and will probably wear it everyday (and night) for the next 6 months.

Race Day

Tomorrow is race day. Hopefully, by this time tomorrow I'll be trotting across the finish line. The weather is supposed to be in the 70's and humid.


I don't normally drink gatorade or eat sports bars, but the race is later in the day (7am) than I normally run (5am) so I thought I'd better eat something. So... I'll start sipping a little on the gatorade this afternoon, have the power bar for breakfast and then gulp down the Gu energy gel after running the first hour.


My new shoes feel so good on my feet that it is hard to resist wearing them throughout the day.

Anyhow... if I don't do too terribly, I'll post a race update tomorrow. Back to the regularly scheduled programming...

Little League

Monkey Man is playing baseball this year! He loves it.

He has a game tonight & it is my turn to bring the snack. I made these:

Do they look like baseballs? They are supposed to. They are rice crispy treats dipped in white almond bark with the lines painted in chocolate candy coating. The hardest part of making them is keeping all the ducklings' eager fingers and tongues far, far away.