It's Always An Adventure

For the past two years the ING New York City Marathon and my oldest daughter’s birthday party have shared the same weekend. So, just as the excitement and energy in the city builds for one of New York’s biggest sporting events, the excitement and energy in our apartment builds as one of A’s biggest yearly events- the slumber party- draws closer.

Getting Ready!

Getting Ready =)

My oldest is a bit of a drama queen and loves to get ready for her party weeks in advance. Much like marathon runners, it is almost like she trains herself to get ready for the “big event”. She is almost unbearable in the days leading up to it, barely able to contain her excitement. So, I had a brilliant idea this year. In light of the fact that my good friend Matti was visiting from out of town and as a bit of an excuse to leave the house for a couple of hours on Saturday morning, Ron, Matti, some friends and I signed up for the pre- marathon 5K, Dash to the Finish Line race. It is a very scenic 5k race. It starts at the UN, goes across 42nd Street, up Sixth Avenue and you enter Central Park at the corner of 59th and 5th. The best part about the race is that you get to cross the Marathon finish line without actually doing the 26.2 miles. My kind of race 😉 We left the girls in the very capable hands of Uncle Dano and headed out into the cold, beautiful fall morning. It was tons of fun and the perfect way to wake up and start the weekend.

Uncle Dano's Saturday morning babysitting technique 🙂

Da Girls- post race- Oh ya!!!

The rest of Saturday was spent getting ready for the party and conserving as much energy as possible before the onslaught of giggling girls arrived. At four the fun began as we headed out to see “Puss In Boots” (very cute), back to the apartment for pizza and the huge cupcake and then games and giggling and more giggling… I have to admit the girls were awesome. My only complaint was the lack of sleep and daylight savings didn’t help. Every year I tell myself that is the last sleepover and then I say yes again, must be our job as parents- to torture ourselves!!

Now, wasn't that a party...

On Sunday Matti and I headed out to watch some of the Marathon. I went last year and was truly inspired by each and every runner I saw. It really is an incredible day- over 47,000 runners and 2, 000 000 spectators. The whole city seems to catch Marathon fever. We went early and staked out a spot just after mile 26 so we could cheer the runners on as they made their way up the final climb to the finish. The elite runners were incredible to watch, their pace, strength and athleticism beyond amazing. Although, I have to admit, it is more inspirational to me to see the average joe determined to achieve the Marathon dream.

1st Place Women's: Firihewot Dado (Ethiopia) 2:23:15

1st Place Men's: Geoffrey Mutai (Kenya) 2:05:05

We toughed it out for about three hours and then we decided to head back to the apartment. Marathon watching is hard work! The rest of the day was a pretty lazy one. There was lots of lounging, movie watching, a bit of homework but we were all feeling a bit worn out from lots of running, partying and watching the running 😉 Hope you had a great weekend, if you will excuse me, I am going to go and try and find a place to nap…

Apparently R thinks Matti makes a pretty comfy couch 😉