Run or Dye (or is it Die)!

The things I'll do for my boy!  

Grom heard about a Color Run and decided it would be a lot of fun.  I heard of one coming to our area, Surferman volunteered to join us.  Memories were made.

Here's our before picture.

My guys were great about waiting up for me.

Can you see all the runners behind them?

Run or Dye is a 5K Fun Run.  There are dye stations along the route where you get pelted with bright colored powdered dye.  So much fun.

Here's our after picture!

I can't say I did much running, but I sure had a lot of fun and completed my first "race". 

Here's some well earned wisdom in case you ever participate in a color run.

1. Get a pair of cheap sunglasses to wear.  You will get dye in your face.  My much-loved Maui Jim's will never be the same.
2.  All that dye will come out.  Don't think you'll have a great shirt after, it mostly washes out.  
3.  A snack sized ziploc bag is the perfect sized to protect your phone, and you can still take pictures through it.
4. We got a back pack when we checked in and all of us were reluctant to use it.  It would've been very handy to carry water and sunscreen.  Anyone want a brand-new Run or Dye backpack?  I don't know what to do with them now.  sheesh!
5. Leave plenty of time for parking and getting started.  There were over 9,000 runners at our race.  These are very popular events.
6. Baby wipes work for cleaning off the majority of the dye.  Bring towels for your car to keep the seats cleanish.  I was also glad that I wore a tank top under my t-shirt.  After the race, I took off my t-shirt and was able to shake off a lot of the powder.
7. Plan to go somewhere for lunch.  Wear your dye proudly.  You just finished a 5K.

Christmas Countdown Activities

I'm committing this year to follow through with our Jesse Tree.  I thought it would be a great addition to have a fun way to countdown the days until Christmas too.   I've seen a couple of versions of the idea around the web and am tweaking it for our family and my personality.

1. TJs chocolate advent calendar
2. build a sandman (we live at the beach)
3. string a popcorn and cranberry garland
4. make snowflakes to decorate the front door
5. decorate a gingerbread house
6. make fudge
7. make cookies
8. make holiday brownies
9. make Christmas Tea
10. take goodies to neighbors
11. have a tea party with the girlies
12. call Mimi
13. call Grandma Kenlyn and Grandpa Bob
14. make meal bags for the homeless to keep in the car
15. decorate gingerbread men with a buddy
16. watch "Hoops and YoYo ruin Christmas"
17. watch "Nestor the Donkey"
18. make Printable Nativity
19. read a Christmas book
20. read a Christmas book
21. wear a star on your face all day
22. say "la la la" everytime someone says "fa" all day
23. hot chocolate under the stars
24. Christmas lights decoration ride

Now... how to present it?

definition - Grom

grom (n.) - shortened form of the word grommet. refers to a YOUNG surfer... usually under the age of 15. Most of the time people that are called groms are youngins who RIP (are good)

used in a sentence: That grom surfs better than I do

Putting on sunscreen and ready to hit the beach.

Now you know where his nickname comes from.

Beet Chips

I found a way to get Grom to happily eat veggies. Beet Chips!

They are pretty easy to make. Here's how we do it...

1. preheat your oven to 350F.

I use our convection setting.

2. wash and peel your beets

veggie peeler works great.

3. use a mandolin to slice the beets into thin slices.

Grom has mad knife skills. He respects a sharp blade and is very careful. I was still watching close when he gave the mandolin a spin.

4. spray a cookie sheet with olive oil spray.

I like to use my Pampered Chef stoneware pans.

5. arrange the beets in a single layer. it's ok if they overlap a little bit.

6. give the beets a light spray of olive oil.

I think Grom thought he was spray painting them. He got a bit heavy handed. In his defense, I think spraying cooking spray is fun too.

7. give the beets a gentle sprinkle of salt.

Our last batch was pretty salty. I think I'm going to try giving the sliced beets a salty water bath before cooking next time.

Don't worry if your hands get stained. It just shows that you really made these amazingly yummy chips. (And it comes off pretty easy with a little hand soap.)

8. bake for about 15-20 minutes. flip them over about half way through.

9. chips crisp up as they cool.

10. enjoy!

Be warned, beets can make you think you're having a medical emergency. This too will pass... literally. hee hee.

Mike the Barber

does good work.

before and after

It's fun to go through pictures.

The last young man is Beat.

He was here from Thailand with the same exchange group as Gogo.

Belt Test

Grom had his first belt test a couple of weeks ago.

Meet the newest "white with a black stripe" belt.

Buddies

I love hanging out with 6 year olds.

He's a good egg

Grom's school had it's annual Egg Drop event.

50 kids with incredible contraptions

designed to protect an egg from a two story drop.

Grom came up with his own design which was revised and refined as it was tested in our kitchen with him stand on our counter to launch.

Finally... a small snap lock container,

some bubble wrap and 6 balloons from the dollar store.

Our firemen came with their engine. They climbed up to the roof and then (kids don't try this at home) stood on top of a plastic box to get even higher.

Experiment after experiment confirmed the law of gravity.

Some landed with sad sounds that you just knew signaled bad news.

We couldn't know for sure until all the eggs flew.

Grom's egg survived.

And he already has a new plan for next year.

yon

another one!

What is three in Japanese?

Grom earned another bar for his obi.

Does that look like the face of a kid who doesn't enjoy karate?

Buddy Bowling

We got to go bowling for Grom's BuddE's 6th birthday.

Check out Grom's bowling style... he puts everything into it.
Skip, plant your feet, toss, fall.

That's my boy... notice he's rocking overalls.
Overalls go very well with bowling shoes dontcha know.
Size 12 bowling shoes are precious.
I wish I got a picture.

Bowling takes a while when you're six.
The ball moves s.l.o.w.l.y down the lane
You watch and watch...

and then watch the scoreboard to see the cartoon that shows how you did.

And are SHOCKED to find out you got a STRIKE!

High Fives all around.

All the cool kids...

do their school work at Starbucks.

When school gets hard, a change of scenery (and a cup of coffee for Mom) always seems to help.

Look up "Soccer Mom" in a dictionary...

and you might just find a picture of me.

minivan... check.

lots of driving... check.

uncontrollable need to be at soccer games cheering... check.

Last Thursday was Gogo's last soccer game. They lost.

I wish they had done better. Their final record was 1-14-0.

Can't even say... at least they had fun. Gogo took losing really hard.

Look for #8. That's Gogo.

It's hard to capture the action of soccer.

It is getting easier to capture this one though.

I think he's stinkin' cute.

on to Volleyball...

Crazy Hair

Grom and I had a lot of fun doing his hair for Kids Club at church.

He sat so still.

Did you notice the double toothless sized gap?

My baby is getting adult teeth. sigh.

Girlies, a superhero and cereal

Buddies

I took Grom and his buddy to see A Christmas Carol at the beginning of December. We had some fun taking pictures before the performance. I loved the metal backdrop.

These pictures and lunch were the best part of the day. The performance was a BALLET! Somehow we missed that detail. And because it was a matinee for school kids, they started the story in the middle. I know the story and I was lost. I don't know how the boys behaved so well. They did amazing and totally deserved dessert with their lunch.

Cookies!

One of the fun things about having a blog is the fun opportunities that present themselves. This week we got to make cookies. I received a prize pack through My Blog Spark. It contained a package of Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix, a set of Gladware disposable storage containers and a gift card for Safeway Stores (we have Vons around here).

One day last week it was time to break out the fun.

The mix was easy enough... add some butter and an egg... and...

stir it up. I love the look on Grom's face as he supervises his buddy's turn at stiring.
Next time I'd use my Kitchen Aid. It would've been a little quicker.
And the little boys had some trouble getting all the butter incorporated.

I used my cookie scoop to portion it out. To get the kiddos involved, we added some M&M's. The Girlies did a great job of pushing the candies into the cookies.
A few M&M's got pushed into their mouths.

My sister has been decorating cookies with the girls.
Their cookies were cooked and they could eat them straight away.

It was a little hard to convince a 2 1/2 year old to wait 12 minutes
before they could enjoy their sweet treats.

It made a batch big enough to eat immediately,
give some away, and stash a few in the freezer for later.

These cookies Grom and Surferman took to our neighbor Connie.
She crashed her bike and broke her femur (ouch!).
We were hoping these would cheer her up.

So here are my thoughts on the products...

You don't see the Glad containers. They are in the freezer or fridge. They were put to use immediately. They sent the large size. It's a great size for leftovers and putting meals away in the freezer. They are inexpensive so I don't get upset when they get stuck in the freezer for a while.

The cookie mix was good. The mix sped up the cookie making process, which is important when your sous chefs are 2 1/2 and 6 year olds. We baked some sweet memories.

disclosure: I was given a prize pack by Safeway, Betty Crocker and Gladware through MyBlogSpark. My opinions however are my own and are independent of the BlogSpark.