Happy Birthday, Drew!

September has ALWAYS been an exciting month for me, because my birthday is in this month.  6 years ago, it became even more exciting because Drew entered our lives.

Drew's birthday was especially drawn out this year because we waited for 2 weeks after his actual birthday to host his party.

On his actual birthday, Drew had school.  We celebrated early, with pancakes for breakfast (with a candle, of course!).

We picked Drew up early from school on this day.  I was really considering letting him stay home from school, but it was so early in the school year I was worried about starting bad habits....so he went, and then we rescued him early.  His teacher made a big deal of his day, giving him a card and a "giant" box of smarties.  He was all smiles when he came home.

Once home, we built his new lego sets.....that took a while.  A LONG while.  Nana, Papa, Grandma and Grandpa then joined us at East Side Mario's for our traditional birthday meal.

Drew was SPOILED by his grandparents.

To top off the evening, we ate cupcakes.

The next time we were at Nana's, Drew had this awesome toy to open.  Aunt Fran couldn't join us for any celebrations this year, so she sent this instead.  The boys LOVE this boat.

It floats, AND can attach to a playmobil motor that we have.  Woohoo!

The BIGGEST excitement though, was saved for the 21st of September.  We met his friends at Chuck E Cheese and PARTIED.

It was a fun-tastic time.  The kids were great (for the most part) and Drew felt very loved.

The "free ticket" game.

Happy birthday, Drew.  We love you so very much.

Tri it, you'll LOVE it!!

Last weekend, the boys participated in the SunRype Tri-kids triathlon.  It was fantastic, I can't say enough good things about the event.

Last year, a facebook friend had posted some pictures of her son participating in the event and I remember thinking to myself that I wanted my kids to give it a tri (ha ha).  Registration was all the way back in January and seeing as I live in Milton, it was stressful trying to get in (the event sold out).

Hunter participated in the 3-5 age category, a category where the athlete has to have a parent with them at all times.

Drew was in the 6-7 age category, a category where he has to do everything himself.  No worries, I thought, he'll have the bike-riding down by race day.

Not so much.  That is to say, once he gets going, he's fine....it's the getting going part that worried me.  About 2 weeks before race day I found out that parents weren't even allowed to help out in the transition area.

I started panicking.  I emailed the race director with a million questions (yup, I was THAT parent), we talked about maybe putting his training wheels back on, I thought about putting him in the lower age category.....

You know what I learned from this race?  I don't give my children enough credit.  I was literally up at night, worrying about Drew and this race.  I was picturing him freaking out in the transition area because he couldn't get started on his bike, because he couldn't get his socks on, etc (there were various themes to the nightmare)...

Race day turned out great!  They had a volunteer helping each kid find their bike (there were A LOT of volunteers and a LOT of bikes, Drew and his volunteer actually had trouble locating his bike!) and then a set of volunteers standing at the spot where the kids were to mount their bike, to help them start and give them a little push (PERFECT).  Drew seriously had never ridden his bike so fast!!!!

After the race was done, both boys were SO proud of themselves and were talking about their next race.  What an amazing experience, I highly recommend it (Laurie, Hadley will be old enough next summer - just sayin'!!)

Hunter's race was at 8:30, so we had to be at EC Drury for 8 to set up both boys bikes in their transition area.

Hunter swam 1 width of the pool (every child was given the option of wearing a life-jacket - in ANY of the age groups).

They all got the timers, even in Hunter's age group - so cute!

Go Hunter go!

He was freezing at this point!

500m bike.  Hunter can't quite pedal effectively on his own yet....parents were allowed to help.

100m run....this was his favourite part, I think.

The finish!!!  Well done, Hunter!

Every finisher got a medal!

Drew's race was at 9:50...he was STOKED!

Getting ready for his swim.

Grandma and Grandpa missed H's race (Nana and Papa ended up on deck for Hunter's swim-not sure how that happened!  lol) but everybody was on hand for Drew's race.

The 6/7 year olds do a 25m swim.

Drew is the 3rd lane from the top.

The volunteers helping with his bike, he can't quite get it started on his own yet....he didn't even have to ask.  It was fantastic!

1.5km bike...he smiled the whole way!

500m run

The smile on his face is because he came from behind to beat the boy to his right.  He was really quite proud of himself (don't worry, we weren't encouraging him to win, win, win....were emphasizing the "finishing" aspect of the race, but it was a race after all...and what a confidence booster for Drew!)

He was so tired after!  Well done, Drew!

The boys were both so proud of themselves (we were so proud of them too!).  Drew's  finishing time was 16:15 and Hunter's time was 14:49.....times to beat next year!

The race is one of a whole series.  We're talking now about registering them for several next summer, instead of soccer.  We'll see what they want to do when the time comes around, but for now, they are really excited about triathlons!