I'm really going to miss working at Grant Wood for many reasons. The biggest reason is that I love going to Running Club each Tuesday and Friday morning. We've come a long way from 8-12 kids after school to having 190 of the 320 Grant Wood students came to at least one day of Running Club last year. This season we had a pretty consistent group of 85-95 people each day.
This program wouldn't be what it is without our parent volunteers. I feel so close to them and I will miss not getting to see them on a regular basis. Above is Kim Sherman and Karla Westpheling. Kim and Karla provide so much support and motivation for the kids. Here they are providing a breakfast for the runners during our last GWRC practice. The menu was oranges, bananas, trail mix, bagels and trail mix.
This is John Gianforte. John is not only my favorite person to sub for me when I'm away from school, but he is a GREAT addition to the Running Club. John took over the stretching portion of our workouts. He made the decision to change from traditional stretches to plyometrics. Each day we try many different movements to loosen up our muscles prior to running. The kids love him!
This year we added a "Runner of the Week" award. Sometimes we gave out two awards per day, other times we gave out four awards. It was very hard to decide who earned the award. The Cedar Valley Running Association gave us a bunch of leftover medals from previous races and we passed those out the the "Runner of the Week." The kids responded very well to this. More kids showed their personal best this year than they had in the past. Here are the "Runners of the Week."
The Lace Up For Learning 5k and 10k was Saturday morning at 9:00. Our school had a lot of runners this year compared to last year. Many of the 5k runners had not ran a road race before. I was very proud of this group for their dedication and hard work. All of our 5k and 10k runners finished the race with a huge smile on their face. Above is a picture of some of the runners and their parents who ran with them.
This was the best moment of the day. This parent is an accomplished runner. He ran in the Boston Marathon a few weeks ago. I asked him before the race what his goal was and he said he was going to take it easy. He also told me that his son wanted to run the 5k, but dad didn't think he could finish. After a long conversation, the son convinced dad that he could do it. The picture shows dad as he is running the last 50 meters to win the 10k race. Although it's an accomplishment, he is more proud to be able to watch his son as he finishes his first ever 5k race. This was a moment that I'm sure I will remember for a very long time. I can't wait until Grayson and I get to have moments like this
Here is the group of One-Mile Fun Runners. I think I counted 44 people in this picture, but there were closer to 55-60 students that ran in the race.
This was a cool moment watching all of the yellow shirts walking to the starting line. It amazes me that this many Grant Wood Griffins would come out to run in a race where the temperature was 42*.
As you can see, there were a lot of Grant Wood Griffins! I found out yesterday that we won the traveling trophy again for the highest percent of school population to run in the event. The kids will find out in two weeks when the Cedar Rapids Kernels come for the Summer Reading Program assembly. Mr. Shucks will present the students with the award.
Here is Karla as she continues to cheer on the runner all the way to the finish line.
Here is Nick Gearhart, Kim and Doug Thompson. Nick played a huge roll in motivating the kids to participate in the race. All three of these GWRC volunteers also were on the Lace Up For Learning committee. Doug is our school building engineer. Everyone at GW love Doug. He loves the kids and is committed to staying healthy and being a great roll model. He will do anything for anyone at anytime.
As you can see, I am really proud to be a part of the Grant Wood Running Club! I wish I could stay at Grant Wood next year. I'm going to miss everyone a lot.
Aunt Trina meets Quinn for the first time.
Uncle Tanner is holding his new niece.
Quinn, Grayson and Paige are going to have fun being cousins.
Here are some updated pictures of Grayson. He is now able to sit in his Bumbo without being held up. His neck muscles are getting much stronger.
Trina thought it would be a good idea to put Grayson in the dog/baby pool. He did pretty well so she stripped him down to his diaper.
When he isn't hungry or tired, he really enjoys being in the water.
Nana Juilfs always wants to know if he is using his had rattles. Here is proof that we do put them on him from time to time.
Here is last month:
Here is this month:
These pictures don't show how much he has changed this past month. He is really filling out.
First, he lets me soak my feet in warm bubbly water while I have my back massaged and eat ice cream.
He couldn't leave out the foot rub...ahhhh.
And here he is putting on the polish.
After several additional steps, here is the finished product. Not bad at all! If he was smarter, he would have done a crappy job...now I know he has skills and will want another one!
