Color Run: Hair Drama

Soooo…we did the Color Run this morning. Matt and I and a good portion of our small group, plus about 20,000 of our closest friends and neighbors gathered in downtown STL to run/walk a 5k* and get doused in powdered color. Sounds fun, right?

Well, it really was. The weather was crappy (50 and drizzling the entire time), but that totally did not stop us from having a great time. The atmosphere is fun and getting covered in color and looking ridiculous was a blast.

pre-race, all clean and happy

post-race fun!

However.

Because of the rain, we knew that the color would likely stain worse than it does on a typical day. When we got home, Matt showered first, and texted from upstairs, “You better pray hard you didn’t get much pink on you.” When he came downstairs a bit later and I saw why he said that, I got a little nervous…his neck and head still had dark stains on them, even after being thoroughly scrubbed.

pretty awesome, right? i actually loved the green/blue streaks down my ponytail!

And my hair had a LOT of pink in it. I started having flashbacks to 5th grade and my punk-rocker Halloween costume, complete with pink sprayed hair. That stayed pink for a couple of weeks.

I quick headed to the shower, bringing along Dawn dish detergent when my friend Robin suggested that it helped. I scrubbed and scrubbed my hair with 2 different shampoos AND the Dawn, and it was quite evident that the pink? Wasn’t going anywhere.

In a panic, I texted Kelli, consulted Matt and his mom, who was our super-helpful household manager while we were traipsing around downtown getting colored cornstarch shot at us, and eventually decided that I needed to enlist the help of Anne, my amazing hairstylist, because I seriously looked like a drug addict. (Psst…if you need a new stylist, call Anne, and tell her I sent you! You don’t have to wait for a hair emergency to call her .)

more than slightly concerned at this point, right before my appointment. the color is all in blotches, and it’s all over my head.

I won’t bore you with the details, but let’s just say that a) there was a LOT of laughing at the salon, with everyone in disbelief that the Color Run could do something like this to my hair and b) even with their products and mad skills, my hair was still orange/pink in spots after a few tries at removal.

Eventually, Anne was able to lighten the color up enough that she could highlight and lowlight my hair, fixing the problem spots, and getting it looking like a normal non-Color-Runner’s hair again without damaging my hair. Thank God.

after 3 hours of work! phew!

Since getting home tonight, I’ve learned this fun information from googling Color Run hair stain: you’re supposed to coat your hair (particularly if it’s light-colored) with olive oil or coconut oil before the race, or completely cover it. Obviously, had I even remotely thought this could be a problem, I would have done one of these things. I recommend that if you’re considering doing a Color Run, YOU DO THEM ALL. (Reportedly, you can also try ketchup or OxiClean for removal from hair, too, which I didn’t try, but have very little faith that they would’ve done anything to remedy the situation.)

Share this with the blondes you know who might be doing a Color Run, and save them some drama, okay?

*More on this later. This 5k was the impetus for our major lifestyle change around here, and it deserves more than this post about my hair issues.

Eight.

I started writing this on April 6…since Bennett’s birthday is April 7…and it’s now April 23…

I had all of these thoughts in my head that just haven’t made it to the computer regarding Bennett’s birthday (delayed for the most part by me needing to finish up a mere 1635 magnets from the last Very Jane sale, which are finally done! OH, and the past 2 weeks having a combined 17 baseball games and practices.). In typical “you’re the second kid, sorry,” fashion, I’m now days late and well, it is what it is.

As I reread his seventh birthday post, I really felt like, “Yep, that’s still a really good description of him!” His intensity, for the most part, is working to his advantage, and I sincerely hope that only improves with age (though, don’t misunderstand me…he’s such a typical sibling, particularly in his ability to instigate). He’s improving as a student, and, I think, overall becoming more confident in his abilities, as well as just understanding who he is a little better.

While his love and understanding for sports has only grown in the past year, I’d say that the best by-product of this is that his bond with Matt has strengthened because of their shared love of Illini basketball and the game of baseball. Luke really likes both of them, too (Jack Henry’s interest is increasing, but he’s just not there yet)…Bennett’s just more passionate about them. And, frankly, about everything in his life.

Case in point: his teacher has this cute birthday bag that goes home with each kid on their birthday. There’s a book to read and an activity to do, which is to fill in a page with a picture and a couple of sentences about what you would wish for if you had one wish. Nearly every entry in the book from his classmates is for an iPad or something similar. Bennett got the book, and thought for a while about what one wish he wanted, and he couldn’t come up with a “thing” that he really wants (which is fine by me…he has enough stuff, and he’s just not a “stuff” kind of kid, anyway). So here’s what he wrote:

I wish for the Illini to win a National Championship and for Illini to win a Big 10 Title in the same year.

For real. This is his one wish.

Of course, I haven’t planned a friend party for him yet. I think we know what we’re doing, but it’s not on the calendar, and there is no excuse (I mean, HELLO, I KNOW his birthday is coming every year) except to say that I suck at planning birthday parties, plain and simple.

However, we did have a really fun family birthday party for him and his cousin Will over Easter weekend, and I have the pictures to prove it. And, we did celebrate our boy as a family on his actual birthday. So don’t feel too bad for him.

Take a look!

my nephew will and bennett…they are such good buddies!

there was an unfortunate accident with the cookie cake…still delicious, though.

i love this kid so much!

the fam on easter morning

brownies were his requested bday treat…and isn’t that magnet picture that JH made for him cute?

posing goofy, on purpose

presents from mom & dad! that giant backpack is his baseball gear bag for the team he’s on this year.

Spring Break 2013

SEVERAL weeks ago, I started mentioning to Matt that I wanted to take the boys somewhere for a long weekend for spring break. For whatever reason, he kept dragging his feet about making a commitment to this, and I lovingly, patiently waited until he decided he was in (insert eyerolls, lots of sarcasm here).

When it was all said and done, it was nearly a last-minute trip, at least in this planner’s eyes. Late on Tuesday night we solidified our plan, which was to leave Thursday when Matt got home from work and drive up to Chicago and stay three nights. Oh, and we weren’t telling the boys about it, so it could be a surprise.

Can I just tell you how hard it was not to spoil the surprise, even though it was just 2 days? I had so much packing and planning to do and had to be so secretive about it, but we pulled it off!

Here’s the video of us telling them what was up…I knew the second they saw the DVD player hooked up in the van, they’d be confused…

Aunt Heidi and Uncle Jeff, I hope you feel really special right now

The first 20-30 minutes of the trip was spent telling them what we planned to do, and nonstop excitement and chatter. So fun. This included lots of talk about watching the Illini/Indiana Big Ten Tournament game the next day, which was being held in Chicago (the boys asked immediately after that video ended if this meant we were going to the game). Tickets had long-ago sold out, but Matt was holding out hope for scoring (relatively) cheap standing-room-only seats on StubHub. However, we didn’t let the boys know this; we told them our plan was to drive by the United Center in the morning so they could see where the game was, and then head up to Lincoln Park to BWW to watch the game.

Obviously, we got into Elmhurst (where our hotel was) really late, so we got everyone to bed as quickly as possible. First thing in the morning, Matt was online seeing if tickets were available. They were, and barely under what we decided we were willing to pay! He printed them out and presented them to the boys at breakfast…lots of celebrating followed, as you might imagine!

Only Jack Henry was less-than-thrilled about our non-seats…we got in the United Center right when the doors opened so we could claim a good standing spot, so our total time at the game was 3 hours+. He sat on the floor and asked when it was going to be over a million times, and the Illini lost, but it was still totally worth it. It was such a fun experience to be at the Big Ten Tourney, and one that the older boys will certainly remember for a long time!

We spent the rest of Friday afternoon having lunch at Pockets and then traipsing all over downtown in a steady, cold rain, until we were freezing, drenched and crabby. We spent some time recharging in the van on our way to see Aunt Heidi, Uncle Jeff, Lucy and Rockit dog, so by the time we got to their condo, everyone was in a good mood again. We walked to a bar & grill a couple of blocks away and had a fun dinner with family to wrap up our night!

Saturday’s agenda was to see Wrigley Field (just a drive-by) and my old apartment (no one cared but me), and then head down Lake Shore Drive to Hyde Park for the Museum of Science and Industry. By some miracle, we literally crossed over the Chicago River AS it was being dyed green for St. Patrick’s Day…like we could see the green swirling in the water! So cool, especially because it was something we hoped to see, but knew that we’d have to go out of our way later in the day to make it happen.

The Museum of Science and Industry: love, love, love. Would definitely recommend to anyone with kids 4 and older, or even just adults. Tons of great stuff to see, lots of buttons to push, a huge variety of neat exhibits. We saw the new Animal Inside Out exhibit, which prompted alternating “ewww” sounds and hilarious laughter (there are a few human specimens – all male, by the way – in addition to animals).

The rest of Saturday was spent driving to Schaumburg {during which time I enforced “mandatory napping or you don’t get to swim in the hotel pool tonight,” which was glorious and one of my best ideas all weekend} to go to Ikea and then have dinner at Portillo’s, which was, of course, delicious, and the only meal all weekend that pulled me off my diet.

The boys all got to swim, but I bowed out gracefully when we saw that the pool was FULL of people: primarily unsupervised children age 7-15. Our boys didn’t care, and swam for a bit before bed.

Sunday morning wasn’t quite as early a wake-up, and I was shocked when I texted Matt from the fitness center to come join me for breakfast and got a reply that everyone was still in bed. At nearly 8:00am! This is simply unheard of in our family, which means, I guess, that we sufficiently wore them out over the weekend.

We had one more fun thing to do, though, before leaving the Chicago area, and that was stopping to visit our friends, the Kellys. I love what Karen said in her post: so good to see your BFF in real life, and know she exists outside the virtual world we use to stay connected. Our kids just pick right up where they left off nearly 2 years ago, the last time they saw each other, which is just so fun to see.

After a too-short stop with them, we headed back to STL a bit nervous about the weather, but only encountered a brief stretch of sleet before it turned into all rain for the remaining 100 miles or so.

Here’s a photo-dump to wrap things up!

hotel breakfast…actually, quite good!

group shot at the united center

excited fan

copycat excited fan

he’s an original :)

my favorite lunch

our rain-soaked reflection in the bean

at cousin lucy’s condo (first visit there for the boys!)

not a great pic, but lucy was imitating jack henry after dinner and it was so cute

a framer for their room – particularly because they rarely have a nice moment together right now.

at the museum of science and industry, watching baby chicks hatch. like literally one came out of its shell while we stood there waiting.

the boys were super excited to get inside the full-size jet!

afore-mentioned mandatory naptime.

ikea fun!

waiting for dinner at portillo’s, one of the boys noticed this sign, and that it was their initials! i had to explain who LBJ was…

playing the DS together in the hotel room

college roomies together again!

our combined crew of kiddos

Ode to a Table

Ok, this isn’t really an ode. I don’t write poetry. But “Tribute to a Table” doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it? Forgive me. The only rhyming that may happen here is purely coincidental.

Today, I sold a piece of my boys’ childhood on Craigslist. It was only last night when I listed it, and I honestly thought I’d have a little more time to be sad about it leaving our house. Instead, the bandaid was ripped off quickly, which is almost always better anyway, right?

The little wooden table and chairs set that Matt and I bought for Luke for (I think) Christmas when he was 1 now has a new home, with 3 other little boys who will love it and climb on and learn at it. We were given a (smallish, but adult-sized) table and chairs from some friends, and I’ll be refinishing them in the near future for use in the playroom.

It’s weird to me, and I’m sure I’ve commented about it before on here, how some things hit me hard when it’s time to move on. I mean, we all understand that taking the crib down for the last time is traumatic. And putting the potty chair in the trash after the last one is potty trained is cause for much celebration. But watching the boys simply outgrow something that was really meaningful is hard.

All of the boys learned how to draw shapes, write their names, and how to use scissors at that little table. They drew pictures, made cards for friends and family, made some fantastic Thanksgiving decorations and Luke went through his crazy tape obsession (oh my gosh, I forgot how adorable his homemade Christmas lights were) there.

here’s the table with luke on the day he decided to change his skin color.

something to stand on and freak out their mom when they were toddlers

as it often looked.

quick pic today before it was picked up

Sigh. It’s just a table.

Interesting…

Per the child who reported this to me:
The mark on his jeans made by pen was an accident.

Yep. That looks just like an accident to me.

Cookie Day!

I have a confession that makes me sound like a horrible mother, but here it is:

I don’t really like baking with my kids. Shhhh…

I SO WISH my mom was still here (for a multitude of reasons, of course) so I could ask her if she actually liked baking with me and my siblings when we were little. Because it was, from my perspective, always fun. So either she really liked it, or she did a darn good job of faking it.

Anyway, for the first time this year, I let the boys help with cutting out the sugar cookies in addition to icing some (as always, I only let them frost the ones they get to eat; if they’re going to neighbors or for me to eat, I take care of that ). The cutting out part was a little stressful, but overall, much more fun than I’d envisioned.

Plus, we cut them out one day, I baked them the next, and they frosted them the next. Spacing it out made it much better, too!

Figuring it out…

JH: “This is just like playdoh!”

tempting…

Apparently, We’re Raising Alex P. Keaton.

This is Jack Henry today at his preschool Christmas program. {side note: this is our final preschool Christmas program. Sob.}

Evidence he’s Alex P. Keaton despite having never seen an episode of Family Ties:

1. He chose his own outfit. For real.

2. He didn’t want to tuck in his shirt, and I wanted him to, so I offered him a quarter. He wagered back with 2 quarters. Deal.

Love him!

Thanksgiving 2012, In Bullets, Because Now It’s 6 Days Late.

*I hosted Thanksgiving for my side of the family last week! It was a success, if I do say so myself. We had 11 adults and 6 kids, and I made a boatload of turkey (recipes will be posted to Three More Bites soon!). It was my first time cooking something with a carcass a turkey, and while I didn’t love the process at all, the end result was quite tasty!

*I made this thankfulness tree, and I was happy that people participated! Here’s how ours looked:

*The only other fun Pinterest-y thing I did was use Mason jars and label them with our names, which was an easy solution to the “we don’t have enough glasses” problem I was facing:

*On Friday, we headed to Effingham to hang out with the Diehls! We ate til we were stuffed yet again, and enjoyed some good times with the family. I have to get better about getting my camera out at these gatherings, because I have no pictures of the boys playing with their cousins!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Strange, but Harmless

I try to bring you accurate, current medical updates when I can, because that’s just the kind of friend I am. (Also – I totally missed my calling in life. I should’ve been a nurse. I know that now.)

Remember Jack Henry’s teething freakshow? (For real, people, if you haven’t seen that, take a look.)

Or Bennett giving himself a frenectomy (that didn’t work, and then he had to have one surgically)?

Or how Bennett passes out when he loses teeth?

Or our trillions of croup episodes, or crazy allergic reactions to amoxicillin?

Well, here’s a new one for you:

It’s called geographic tongue. And Jack Henry has it.

As the title says, it’s harmless. The dentist and hygienist mentioned today that we could see the spots migrate around his tongue, but that generally, people don’t report that it’s painful or causes any issues.

Weird.

Parental Guilt, and the Debut of Luke’s Cross-Country Career

Ah, guilt.

I know things will never be totally fair between siblings, no matter how hard parents try. And really, there’s no way to make things perfectly fair, and it’s a good life lesson for kids that things just balance out along the way (as long as parents truly aren’t favoring one child over the other, which I’ve seen happen).

Mostly, this isn’t something I sit in and worry about. We try to be fair, we explain what’s going on when things don’t seem fair, and that’s that.

However, something had been eating at me a bit over the past few months.

Last fall, Bennett was placed on a baseball team at random. It turned out to be a really, really good thing for him. One of the coaches was getting ready to form a team for the spring, and he asked Bennett to be a part of it. At first, we were taken aback by the level of commitment it was going to take, but after we thought it over, we decided it would be a great opportunity for him and went with it.

Being that this was our first experience with a competitive team, we didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know if the parents would be too intense, and too critical of other kids.

I couldn’t have been more off-base. Midway through pre-season practices, Matt became the third base coach because we’d become so invested. Not only were the parents totally encouraging, but we became friends with the coach and the other parents. Like, I miss hanging out with them regularly now that baseball season is over.

Not only that, but Bennett loved it, and grew so much over the year, and formed some awesome friendships with these kids.

Which brings me to fairness. And Luke.

Luke has always loved baseball, and he’s a good player. But we’ve never been fortunate enough to get him on a team with a group of kids that’s as dedicated as Bennett’s team. He has nice coaches, a good friend on the team, and some kids on his team who play hard regardless of skill, but still: there is a huge chasm between our two boys’ teams.

Luke doesn’t complain about it, but he’s certainly aware. And honestly, unless the boys are playing catch or football in the yard together, they aren’t fiercely competitive with each other.

But, I had this nagging feeling of guilt. Of wanting Luke to have something that is his that he can excel at. Of hoping that when he grew up, he wouldn’t look back on his sports experience and feel like he got ripped off.

I remembered a friend at church mentioning that her daughter ran with a running club (um, could anything be more foreign to me? I think not.). I got some information from her and contacted the coach, and Luke was able to join the team.

That week, he went to his first practice, where he probably ran about 2.5 miles after running a mile at school that day. That sounds like torture to me, but he loved it. He’s been going to practice once a week for a month now.

Monday, he ran in his first ever cross-country race, which means that I got to attend my first-ever cross-country race. It was far more exciting than I’d envisioned, and because Luke’s race was fairly short (2.5k, or about 1.5 miles), over quickly.

He ran the 2.5k in 12:44, which I think is a great place from which to start! He knows that he can run a mile on a track in about 7:20, and that cross-country miles are harder, but figuring out a pace was probably tricky for him this first time. Plus, I know he was just a bit nervous about the whole thing, including making sure he didn’t get lost:). It’ll be interesting to see what he does at his next event!

crossing the finish line!

stretching before the race

so happy :)

this was close to the end of the race – probably 10 minutes in.

the brothers…ironically, bennett is wearing his tigers baseball tee, having just come from practice! not sure why he’s making that punk face.

Who knows if this (or Bennett’s baseball) will be something that we stick with for years and years, but for now, these are great opportunities for the boys that I’m glad we were able to take advantage of. Just one more reason I’m so thankful we’ve chosen to raise the boys in a metropolitan area…so many choices!

Of course, we still have another kid who will someday need to find his niche…