R is for Running

I saw a great idea on a blog about having fun with your kids during the summer doing an ABC summer. An ABC summer is a different activity for each letter of the alphabet. I think that my original list was a little ambitious since I did not properly take into account that for the first month of summer I would be out of commission with having a baby.

Now I feel a bit of a rush to get thru our alphabet. I let the kids help me come up with the activities. Some are pretty simple and can be done at home with little or no planning. Others require more effort. The letters do not have to be done in order but it is our hope that we get to all of the letters.

For the letter "R" we were working on everyone running to improve their mile time. This is a test that the kids have to do at school throughout the year and so we thought that it would be good practice for them. I was exempt from "running the track" since I am only 3 weeks out from having Eliza and the 2 little boys did the best that they could..... so really it was Charles, Brooklyn, Brigham and Emmelyne who were up for the challenge. The rest of us walked the track and cheered them on as they lapped us.

We ended up at the high school track. Boy is it WAY better than when Charles and I went there. Brooklyn was a little embarrassed to be there since there was a high school aged soccer team training on the field while they ran. It did not help that I pointed out to her that she and her father were matching from the red shirts to the blue shorts and all the way down to the Nike running shoes. Charles loves it when he can embarrass her.


Here are the runners at the starting line.


Brooklyn was a good sport. Running is not her favorite thing to do but she cooked up an upbeat playlist on her IPOD and cranked away.


Brigham was unfortunately plagued with some bad side cramps and was not able to do his best. He normally likes to really run hard and fast.


Rexton did not want to be left out. He was a little discouraged in the beginning since everyone was so much faster than him but he kept looping back and running with the kids and dad when they would come around again.