• Slideshow Widget

    Archive for May 2011

    A Memorial Day Weekend to remember

    Tuesday, May 31, 2011

    Familie Schmitt

    Benjamin ran his final leg of the Med City Kids Marathon this weekend. Mike has been coaching a running club along with a teacher at Benjamin's school twice a week for a while now. The kids had to run 25 miles on their own, over the course of many weeks and the last 1.2 miles was done this weekend.

    Med City Kids Marathon - Benjamin finishing

    The kids all crossed the finish line for the "real" Med City Marathon and even were featured on the Jumbotron! It was a great experience. Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Bert were able to come to town to watch Benjamin race and because of the gorgeous weather we had, we also had a picnic at a local park.

    Sunday was the full Med City Marathon and our family tradition is to pack up as many noise makers as we can and sit along the race route cheering on all of the runners.  It is always a fun time and this year we were excited to bring Lucy along for her first Med City experience.

    Backing up a bit...last weekend Benjamin did  his longest solo run yet at the Twin Cities Kids Marathon Cross Country 2 mile race at Como Park in St. Paul.

    Speedy dude

    He ran it in about 22 minutes, 30 seconds which is about an 11 minute per mile pace; pretty impressive for an almost-6 year old!

    2 Mile Finisher

    Lucy is turning 8 months old tomorrow, which seems just crazy to me.  Time is flying by way too fast.  She also is getting in four of her top teeth.  Her outer two are coming in faster than the middle two, so we may just have ourselves a little vampire for a while.  The growing teeth have been making her cranky, which is so unusual for her as she is so even tempered most of the time (unless she's hungry, of course).  She hardly smiled at all on Sunday and you can see her discontent in this photo Mike snapped of us girls:

    Mommy and Lucy - Med City Marathon Team R.E.D. Water Stop

    But through the pain, she still manages to be impossibly cute. Here she is making her own music with one of Benjamin's old baby toys:



    Backing up even more...Mike raced in his first marathon of the season a couple of weeks ago.  He finished the Lake Wobegon Marathon in 3:18:28.  He is looking forward to many more races this season!



    Benjamin's Day

    Monday, May 09, 2011

    Benjamin pre-race

    Saturday was Benjamin's day.  We all woke up bright and early for the Spring Classic Kids 1 Mile, which was the second time Benjamin has run this race.  The weather was cloudy and cool, but not wet - thankfully.  Benjamin finished the race in record time, 10 minutes, 30 seconds and was very pleased with himself that he "passed lots of kids and also big people!"

    Finisher! 10 min, 30 sec mile!

    In the evening we headed over to Benjamin's school for the "Spring Round-Up," which is a new event featuring musical performances by kids from Kindergarten to sixth grade. Benjamin had been rehearsing the two songs that he and his fellow Kindergarteners from his classroom and the others with their music teacher for quite a while. They sang "Do Re Mi" from The Sound of Music and "This Land is Your Land." Benjamin introduced the songs by reading a little background on one of them:

    Please forgive the lousy video quality.  I'm still working on taking videos with my new camera on the fly.  I have to focus the lens before each video and with things moving so quickly, I sometimes forget.  This next video is the beginning of the "Do Re Mi" performance.  At first glance, you may think that Benjamin keeps looking at the kid standing next to him because he needs some guidance on the hand motions, but as you get further along in it you can see that he actually is doing it because this kid isn't singing the song correctly and Benjamin is trying to help HIM!

    As usual, Benjamin was a total ham when it came to performing in front of an audience.  It was such a fun thing to watch and I think indicates that we may have a little actor on our hands (no big surprise there!).  He's a natural.

    Benjamin after the finale

    We're sitting!

    Tuesday, May 03, 2011

    Lucy sitting and playing with her blocks

    Lucy has mastered the fine art of sitting up. It really didn't take her very long to fully get the hang of it. Early last week she could sit up for about 30 seconds or so at a time and we always had to be close at hand to catch her when she started to fall. By Friday she was sitting up full force for indefinite lengths of time. It seems like such a small feat, but in the scheme of things it is a huge development. Now she can sit and play with toys, interact more with us (especially Benjamin) and there is another option for her when she gets tired of the exersaucer or her highchair. I don't remember this feeling of new found freedom when Benjamin began to sit up, but I can compare it to when he began walking. You suddenly can accomplish so much more and it all comes to you so much easier than before they could walk on their own -- or in this case, sit up. However, of course this means that she's growing and getting older and becoming less and less of a dependent baby and we will miss this time.

    Sibling Love

    Here is a fun video of Lucy interacting with one of our favorite tv shows: