Those trotting turkeys

Last week was the girls' annual turkey trot at school. Evie's was the earliest, so I got to go hang out with her first. This was the first year that the kindergarteners participated. They only had them run half a mile though.

She did such a good job reading a book to me. Her reading ability is really blowing up lately! I was impressed.

Pretty hard to get 90 5 year olds to all look in the same direction, especially when half of their parents are standing around on the field during school hours!

She did have a hard time, and complained a little, but she ran the whole way without stopping. It helped her along to have all of the 4th graders cheering.  Evie knows a lot of 4th graders thanks to Kara. At one point, she had about 8 big kids running with her and saying encouraging things.  I asked them to spread out, and help all of the other kids too.

The kindergarteners didn't get timed, but they all did great! They ran half the distance of the older kids, but it felt so much longer, and was much more eventful and dramatic.

Kara's class visit was next. She was there for a few minutes, but then had to leave early because she is a character congress representative, so she was helping with the race. Luckily, I knew several kids in her class, so I hung out with the ones who didn't have parents in attendance.

Kara shouted, "tacos" for some reason, right before the picture was taken.

Kara didn't want me to run with her. I did see her walking at the end, so that's probably why she didn't want me there, making her keep running. She finished 52nd, which was great for her. She hasn't broken the top 60 before, so that's an improvement.

Sweet Kiersten asked a friend to read with us because he was sad that his mom wasn't there. He was a sweetie too, and they both read so well.

The second graders are a pretty silly group.

Ready to go!

She said she wanted me to run with her that morning, but changed her mind before the race, because she was worried I would slow her down. Haha. Just for the record, her time was a little over 9 1/2 minutes, and I could have kept up! But it's easier to take pictures of her if I'm not running, so it's okay.

On her way up the finish line, a boy shoved her back, so she finished 29th. Her goal was to break the top 30, so she was very excited. (Though she still maintains she should have been #28)

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A pretty fun day! I just should have stayed at the school. I had about 45 minutes between each of their runs, and each time I came back, I had to park slightly further away. But we all need our exercise.

That is her teacher to the left behind the girls wearing a green shirt. She is awesome and Kiersten just adores her!

Here is what I ended up with for Bus Driver Appreciation Day. These whipped up pretty quickly.

I was going to make 3D ones, but ended up doing more of a gift tag style. I like the way they came out.

The final product. The kids enjoyed going to the school to hand these out to all of our amazing bus drivers. I think they were a hit!