October 31 - A 5K and Candy

   CCHA is a sponsor for the Lawrence Township Schools' fun run/walk that happens on October 31. As a sponsor, they were given ten registrations. I asked if I could run and bring Nate and Xela. There were no objections, so they signed up with me.
   Xela was grounded because she had a B+ in a class so it was just Nate and I that went on the run. I was impressed at how well Nate did. We didn't walk as much as I thought we might have and he didn't really slow down for the first mile. After that we would walk a bit and then find a spot to jog too and go.
   After the second mile, I turned on Pandora music on my phone. We both agreed that I should have done that earlier because it was motivation to keep running. We finished the third mile and then as soon as we saw the finish line, we put our boosters on and sprinted.
   The times were posted online later that afternoon and, even though we crossed the line at the same time, the time posted put me a tenth of a second behind Nate. "I beat Mommy!" became his slogan for the day.

Nate the Great running buddy
Can't wait for our next run!

   We did the 3.2 miles in about 35 minutes, which, again, is much better than I thought we would do. I need to start signing up for more of these, and bring a running buddy when possible!

   That evening, of course, was trick or treating. As Graigry turns 12 this  year, it will be his last go round, then he will stay home with the older kids.

My little cell phone, princess and then some creature from
Harry Potter.

   Last year, because it was freezing rain, we went to Little Flower's Halloween Bash which was indoors. This year, without the rain, we went to Irvington to collect unneeded calories. We went to Dunahee's and walked around with Myran, Myya and then Liam Turner and his mother Courtney joined us as well. Max Dunahee went around as a supervising adult. It was kind of fun to talk to him while we walked and trying to keep kids within reach.
   Neta was given her princess dress, which was marvelous. Nate wanted to be something (I can't remember what), but I wasn't going to have time to make it so he was brainstorming while I kept trying to give Graigry different ideas of what to be.
   Graigry wanted to be something scary, like the Grim Reaper and I didn't like that - why be scary when you can be creative? I kept rattling off ideas (which is where the cell phone idea came out that Nate grabbed onto) I guess being older, he wanted a costume that was more "big boy" than little kid. Did I mention this was his last year? HOORAY!
   Xela had fun drawing some of the details of the cell phone (like the power, volume and camera buttons). The cell phone was much easier to get in and out of than the cardboard Mater that we created for Nate last year.
   The kids had a good time and collected a sufficient amount of candy.We stayed out a little longer than I had planned, which typically happens, but oh well. I think we got home around 8:15, the kids dropped their pillowcases of goodies, changed and went to bed.