Amara's first Wattle!

We saw a 5k run in GC back in the summer. Amara was very interested in the runners, the concept, and how she could be involved.

Since then, I'd looked high and low for a run near us--specifically one that had a kids run attached to it. That is a relatively new fad where before the 5k, the event will host a maybe 300 yard or less kids run...

It seemed every run I'd find conflicted with something, so we weren't having luck--until I started seeing marketing for the Thanksgiving Wattle.  Thanksgiving morning at 8am, I knew we wouldn't be anywhere else, so I asked Amara and she was THRILLED to sign up for her race.


The night before, I reminded her and she was so excited, so was having trouble getting to bed, then Thanksgiving morning, the first words out of her mouth were "is my race today?!"

We headed over to the area by the movie theater--the staging area, and got all ready to roll.  We only had to wait a few minutes before the kids all got lined up.  The organizer said there were about 1200 in the 5k, and close to 100 kids under 10.

All the proceeds went to Mid Ohio Food Bank, something that Eric and I both talk about a lot and is local here, so we were happy to support their great organization on this important day of the year.

After a quick countdown, Amara took off chasing the teenage turkeys who led the run.  She blazed right past me with the biggest smile you ever saw!!  At the end, the kids were given a medal, and of course a cookie and juice--since it was SO far, haha.  But she quickly took her medal off, as to not ruin it--and i pinned her running bib to it and she hung it up when she got home.

She was asking right away if she could do this every year and asked Cora if she wanted to run it too, so our little girl may have just singlehandedly changed the face of Thanksiving morning for our family forever! That's what kids do, right?  Congrats baby girl!