Keiki Triathlon

Last week Jeremy's mom and her husband came to visit us! We had a lovely time playing tourist with them! They arrived just in time to see the Ironman Triathlon World Championship. The week before, Jillian's school had been preparing for their very own triathlon...one day an athlete who had artificial legs came to speak and show the children his special legs that God had given him. On Friday, her school coordinated an event of major proportions.....all 70 kids from preschool and kindergarten participated in 3 events....biking, running and swimming (kind of). Nana and Papa Dan came along and it was a wonderful morning!

Here is a picture from the outside of Jillian's school.


Mrs. Desiree is pinning Jillian's race number to the back of her swim suit. Go #9!!!!


Jillian and Nana doing a project together...I think this one practices pouring beads from one glass jar to another. Before morning circle time, the children have free time where they can choose a project to work on or read books.


Morning circle time. Number 9 is mine. :)


The kids lined up to head out to the race start. I love this picture because Jillian's classroom is half inside and half outside, and this shot shows much of the outside area. All arts and crafts are completed outside. All of the classrooms in her school only have 3 walls and utilize a separate covered outdoor space for part of their learning. It is so cool. However, since this is Hawaii, you can only imagine the bugs. Hmmm, actually I've only seen ants....which in my opinion are the least horrible. And before you feel jealous and wish you could go to school here too, I should mention that since the cubbies are also outside, by the time I pick her up from school her lunch box is full of a zillion ants eating her leftover lunch out of zippy bags that weren't completely closed. And they start crawling up my arm before I can get to the car. Yuck.

The kids started the race with a bike ride.....Jillian is riding the red and yellow trike on the far left....only four girls in this group. The kids were split into groups of 4-5 all girl or all boy racers.

Go Speed Racer!

Miss Anna, our preschool director, is helping Jillian around a turn. We LOVE her and Jillian can't leave school without giving her a hug.

Since there were 4 of us attending the race, we volunteered to help. Nana ran with Jillian every step of the race and Jeremy followed taking video and pictures. Papa Dan and I were assigned corners for the run/walk portion. Our job was to clap and direct the kids where to go next. I loved cheering the kids on...but I missed running with Jillian and taking pictures. Jeremy did an awesome job though and snapped this shot of Jillian running to my corner....she is almost done!

The two pools were at the very end. Some kids dove right in and others ran through....Jillian ran through. :)

Finish Line! They used toilet paper for each child to run through. Jillian's time was 4 minutes even.....go girl! Which I think was about average.... :)

After the race the kids snacked on cold water, peanut butter crackers, and frozen yogurt pops.

Circle time after the race. The kids are waiting to get their medals.

Mrs. Desiree and Miss Karen are handing out the medals. Every racer received the same medal, personalized with their name and race time.