Village Run

Today was the annual village run-- 1km for children 10 years to 14 years, 5km for 14 years and older and 10 km for adults. Krista was able to participate in the 1 km run and we both had a blast! Krista ended up coming in 5th place for her age category and ran very well. She was slowed down a lot by the crowd, but was happy with her results. Initally she thought she was 4th place and was disppointed only because she was SO close to being on the podium. I had a wonderful day myself taking pictures of the action. I am currently trying to master sports photography. It is MUCH harder than portrait work, but I am always up for the challenge! I got a ton of shots that I loved so for me it was a big win! I am really starting to get a feel for the AI servio focusing system. I was happy to have such a fun race today to practice my skills ;)

They all did great! Coming in 3rd, 4th and 5th!!

 The girls with their "dossards"

Here are the kids in the 1km. It was a madhouse! So hard to take pictures and video at the same time! Krista and her two friends are together still (the Asasics sign is the starting line).

More shots of the kids...

And you can see Krista here below #465:

Here's Krista at the finish line in the cool down lane..

And now for some photos of the 5 and 10 km. I had a blast taking these shots!!!

This is the winner. He ran 5km in about 16 minutes.

Here's our friend Michele!! She ran wonderfully!

Check out these guys!!!

There was also a father rolling his crippled child. Always such a moving experience to witness.

And the winner of the 10 km in about 33 minutes!

The trophies!

I took this one of Krista before the race on the walk to the cultural center.

Krista's Braces are OFF!

After one full year...it was time to remove Krista's braces! Last Monday was her final day with braces! She looks beautiful and SO much older and more mature :)

Krista's Track and Field Competition

Yesterday was a local track and field competition for Krista. She participated in 4 events and improved on each and every one of her individual performances (although I'm not sure about the relay time since it wasn't listed on the site).





Krista had a huge improvement in long jump and she placed 7th out of about 50 girls. Last competition she jumped 3.10 m and this time she jumped 3.62 meters! This is such a great improvment for her. She was thrilled with her result as this put her in 1st place in her club for the long jump.



Her 2nd best event was a 5th place position (out of about 40 participants) in the shot-put. She had previously thrown 5.16 meters and bumped it up to 5.95 meters! Also a great improvment for her.



She ran in the 1000 meter race and improved on her time by 8 seconds. She went from 4"23 to 4"15! She was happy with her overall performance, but the distance run was very hard for her heel. She said that next competition she would rather run the 50 meter race or 50 meter hurdles.





Finally, she also participated in a relay. Her relay team placed 3rd with all 8 lanes filled. Krista ran 1st position and although it was tough on her foot, I think she did wonderfully! I saw a statistic on the site that there were over 70 girl participants.



The season is coming to a close. There is a select event that is coming up (the department competition), and Krista is waiting to see if she will be selected. She would really love to participate, but we will have to wait and see if she is invited. All in all it has been a fun and learning experience for Krista. I'm so happy to see her enjoying this sport. This morning she was thrilled to see her name mentioned on the Club's website among 5 others of her age group, congratulating them for their scores yeterday. Her friend Clara placed 2nd place in the 50 m sprint out of over 50 girls!



As usual I was in my hayday with pictures. I am just so anxious to get a nice sports zoom lens so I can really dig into quality sports photography. I had to take these with my portrait lens, but I was still happy to have captured their fun and action!

The Girls

Just another one that I adored from this series!! What a great team they make and I was so happy to have captured their sisterness :)

Track and Field

Krista decided to join the Track and Field team last month. There is a family from our school that has their 2 daughters on the team and Krista was so happy to learn about this opportunity! She is so thrilled to learn all of the events and just loves this sport so much--definately her cup of tea! Luckily it is in a nearby town (about 10 minutes away) and our friends have been MORE than helpful in carpooling Krista. I'm happy to see Krista learn about Track and Field. Such a fun sport for this time of year indeed!

This is Krista in her team jersey on her first Track and Field competition! She was competing in the 1000m walk. Sounds easy? No way! Those kids walked FAST! There is certain a distinct technique for speed walking. She did a wonderful job considering she learned it in a matter of minutes before the competition (placed 7th out of maybe 20 kids).

Since then she has competed in one other competition--and also did great for first attempts. The 50 m with 8.44 seconds (winner was 7.54 seconds.. an unbeatable girl from Camaroon in Africa who is MY height!) Almost all of the other times were in the 8 and 9 second range. It was Krista's first time starting on the running block so she did wonderfully. I think she placed somewhere around 8th out of 25. She also did the shotput and 1000m run. All in all she did very well for literally just jumping right in to this sport!

So far her times are as follows:

50 m sprint- 8"44 with -1.4 wind
Shotput- 5m10
1000m run- 4'23"97
1000m walk- 6'59"90

Sisters

One of my favorite recent creations :) The girls in their Easter outfits and hats by the lake. I found a cute quote to go with it. Enjoy!

Krista's Regional Competition

So we had a full weekend with gym. Krista had her Regional Competition and I'm happy to say that she'll be competing in Paris in mid December for the Zone Competition. She had two nice performances (freestyle and hoop). Our goal was to be in the top 10 and she did it!!! (10th place). Her coach was very happy with her because she was really set back by being penalized for her music in the first competition (she placed 6th in the local competition). The judges are a bit biased that she hasn't joined the local elite club so the took the opportunity to take points away on her music!!! Amazing. Especially since they had no problem with this SAME music last year. Really incredible. SO she had to redo her routine completely with new music in 3 weeks! I'm very proud of her and I'm excited for her going to Paris in 4 weeks! Our big goal for this season is to make it to the Nationals. This will be tough, but I think she can do it. Once we are out of Alsace we might get some breaks :) Nothing like local judges to drag down the scores when you are not part of the elite local school.

Krista looked wonderful for her first time performing with the new music (and only 3 weeks to train). She also sported a completely NEW look. She looked so gorgeous! She had been due for a bigger hoop for some time now so we took advantage of the "changing" time to upgrade her. Her old hoop was only 75 cm and she is allowed to use 80 so we ordered her a new hoop (by Pastorelli which makes hoops for the Italian national team). Her trainer decorated it with the colored sparkly tape that we picked out... and since she was changing hoops she had the opportunity to change leotard colors. We thought that with the music change she should change her look also. Our trainer suggested a gymnastics sports tailor and we had her measured for a custom competion leotard. It is beautiful and arrived JUST in the nick of time. The tailor only had 3 weeks to make the leotard. It arrived on Friday (with the competition on Sunday). I also added some sparkly sequence to her old red and black competition leotard for a change also. She used the new leotard with her hoop exercise and her old red and black leotard for the freestyle exercise.

Here are the videos of her 2 routines. ENJOY!

Another Contestant

So I also added a photo of Krista for the contest. I didn't have one of her individually, so I took some today. If you want to make me SUPER HAPPY you can vote a 10 for all four kids every day!! The contest is a little bit political (in that it is of who and how many people you know, that makes the photo earn points). The rules state that they will take the top 100 photos with the highest points and then those will be sumitted to a jury of judges (who are both professional photographers and also in advertising). I really hope to at least place in this contest. I'd love to win some free photo books. I always take so many pictures and print so few. A year supply of photo books would be just what I need to bring my portraits to life :) THANK YOU!

So ad Krista to the competition!!!

New School Year Kick Off!

So it is offical, the 2009/2010 school year is in full gear! The kids were up at 6:45 (on their own) this a.m. and SO excited to start the day! I put everyone down by 9 last night and Evan went down at 8! We are off to a good start and I'm hoping to keep it that way!

Erik is entering 2nd grade today and Krista will be in 5th grade. This was the LAST "First Day" that she'll have in this school! I can't believe that! It seems like yesterday she was in her first day of Elementary school there!

It was great to see all the parents and kids this morning. We arrived at school before the gate opened and then I stayed until the bell rang and the kids went inside the building. Today they were allowed to socialize and parents were welcomed into the courtyard. The only year where parents are allowed in the school building is for the first year (CP).

I am so happy the kids are so looking forward to starting off a new year! They were both chanting last night "We can't wait for homework!!! We can't wait for homework!".. I had to get the video camera out for that because I'm sure they'll be chanting the opposite in 5 years time (but hopefully not!).

I LOVED my morning with Kaitlyn and Evan today. I'm feeling very happy about the fresh new start! I got a lot done this a.m. since Evan took a nice big morning nap from 9:30 to 11:30. I even had time to make a onetruemedia video!

When I picked the kids up from lunch they were THRILLED! Both had wonderful mornings. Krista just loves her new teacher (this is the 1st year the teacher has been at our school) and Erik has one of Krista's favorite teachers from when she was in 3rd grade. We lucked out big time. SO happy that they are content! We had black bean burritos for lunch (Erik's favorite food in the world) and I just sent them back for the afternoon. Evan is doing his afternoon nap now and I'm just praying that this rhythm will continue!!!!

Krista's Art Work!

Krista is spending 5+ hours a day doing an art "stage" this week. In the a.m. she is with the younger kids and primarily painting...and in the afternoon she is with the older kids (up to age 17) and working on sketching and drawing skills/techniques. The class size is very small (only 4 kids per class). She did her first charcoal yesterday, her first "fruit and veggie" still-life on Tuesday and also a self-portrait! Today she worked with sanguine. I was truly impressed with her work. She has a real hand for art according to the teacher. I'm glad to see her enjoying herself so much! Here are a few examples of what she has done this week. Click on the image to enlarge for detail.

Krista's First Communion

Here are some of the promised photos from Krista's First Communion. It was a GORGEOUS day...the weather was wonderful, the kids were well behaved and we won first row seats in the Church for the service (lottery style seating)! Can't ask for more than that :) It was surely a day to remember. The service was very lovely. Krista looked beautiful in her dress and the children sang heartwarming songs and all marched proudly up to receive their First Holy Communion. They have been busy preparing for this day for 2 years!! They've attended classes every other week for the last few years, so it makes the day all that much more meaningful for them. I'll upload a shot of the bread itself. DEFINATELY an advantage to having your First Communion in France! LOOK at that bread!!

We took plenty of photos of the big day and also some family portraits outside the church after the service which I'll post (later) as well. It was also Father's Day so we had a nice gift opening ceremony afterwards, and later in the evening went out to dinner to celebrate both Krista and Toomas' big day. Krista received a white gold cross and a mass book with rosary. I might post some more shots a bit later. I got some cute ones after the service of Krista and Kaitlyn and also the whole family together!! :)