A Partial McFs’ Visit and Alcee’s Inside Out Birthday Party

Jenn and Margaret McF arrived in NOLA last Saturday morning for a two-night stay. Margaret had appointments scheduled at Tulane on Monday; she’s applying there for admission next fall. (We won’t talk about how exciting it would be to have her here for four years. Because it would be. Super exciting. But she’s also looking at two other schools, so I’m not getting my hopes up.)

Nola, the boys, and I picked them up at the airport and brought them back to my house. Riley was SO excited to see them; he could barely contain himself. We played here for a little while and then went to get lunch at Parkway. Lizzie, UJ, QP, and James met us there.

The four of us parted ways with the rest of the group after lunch and headed to Storyland for Alcee’s birthday party. Diana did such a great job with the theme of Inside Out, especially considering merchandising for it is surprisingly non-existent. Everything was so cute. Diana’s mom even made Alcee her own Inside Out skirt to wear!

The kids had a great time running around Storyland and riding some of the rides in Carousel Gardens.

 

 

Happy happy birthday, Alcee! We’re glad we could be there to celebrate with you.

Once the party was over, we went home to relax for a bit before heading off to our next event. Nola and Nopsi hosted everyone at their house for the LSU game that night. LSU beat Western Kentucky, but the only picture I got all night was of Doug reading to Rory. Cute.

The next morning Kenny made a pannacake breakfast. Jenn and Margaret were thrilled. Everything was so good.

Then we had everyone over to our house for the Saints game. It was a close one, but we beat the Colts in the end. And alas, this is the only picture I have. But it’s a good one.

Sunday night was an expanded version of our normal dinner at Nola and Nopsi’s house. The kids introduced Jenn and Margaret to their weekly dance parties and everyone had a great time.

Jenn took Margaret to her meetings at Tulane on a rain-soaked Monday, and we saw them back at Nola and Nopsi’s that afternoon before they flew home. The Tulane visit went well, so we shall see what happens.

Such a busy, fun-filled weekend. We always love seeing the McFs, even it was only half of them.

Have a wonderful {Halloween} weekend, everyone! The weather here is unfortunately supposed to be pretty nasty tomorrow, but luckily we have the Boo Bash tonight at Riley’s school. Stay safe, y’all!

The Rest of Oktoberfest 2015

We ended up out at Oktoberfest all three Fridays of the annual festival. We had a pretty big group the second Friday: Dana, David, Claire, and Colin came out again, and Nola, Nopsi, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Jeff, Aunt E, and Kate were there too. Lizzie, Doug and Sarah also made an appearance.

Dana and I did not participate in the beer stein holding contest again, but we had a great time nonetheless. The kids ran around, played, and even did the chicken dance together. However, Rory mostly just wanted to drink beer. He got pretty insistent about it, too. Crazy fries.

 

 

Our final night out at Oktoberfest was last Friday, and this time it was just the four of us. We only went for about an hour, mostly to have dinner. Riley was SUPER excited to be there.

He kept trying to convince us not to go, and I absolutely love the picture I snapped of the four of us right when we got there. His expression is priceless. But lo and behold, he ended up having a great time with his little brother. They were both so non-stop that they’re blurry in practically every picture I took.

 

And wouldn’t you know: Riley has already asked a number of times when we can go to Oktoberfest again.

Stinker.

Bubble Run NOLA

Last Sunday morning Kenny, Riley, and I did something we had never done together before. We ran a 5K. But it wasn’t your average, ordinary 5K. Nope, we ran the Bubble Run.

Way back in March, I started seeing posts on Facebook about the Bubble Run coming to NOLA in October, so I looked up what it was. Here’s what I found on the website:

“Clad in white t-shirts, participants run, walk, dance and play across 3 miles of absolute fun! Waves start every 3-5 minutes. Then, at each kilometer, participants will run through the Foam Bogs where there is enough colored foam to cover you from head to toe!”

It sounded like lots of fun, so I sent an email to family and friends asking if anyone was interested in registering, even though none of us really knew what to expect. I got a lot of positive responses, so I created a team for everyone to join. I chose the team name of “Geaux Bubbles,” and we ended up with 19 members, including 5 kids.

However, by the time race morning arrived, we were down 3 adults and 1 kid, most notably Nola and Rory. The little one picked up a nasty stomach bug from somewhere and was up all Saturday night throwing up. Six times in 8 hours. My poor, sweet boy. Nola graciously offered to skip the race to stay with him so Kenny and I could take Riley. THANK YOU, NOLA!

The Bubble Run took place at Zephyr Stadium, so everyone met there around 8am on Sunday morning. Uncle Jeff, Aunt E, and Kate picked up donuts on their way, so we all loaded up with sugar before heading to the starting corral. The kids were pumped!

Team Geaux Bubbles!

We ended up pretty far back from the starting line and as such had to wait a while before beginning our Bubble Run. But there was music pumping and great energy all around us so we danced while we waited.

  

I think we ended up starting in the sixth wave. Our first taste of bubbles was right at the start: two machines spewing out plain, non-colored bubbles were suspended over us as we crossed the line and began our race. Once the crowds dispersed a bit, Riley took off. He’s a fast little wonk potatoes; Kenny, Nopsi, and I had to run to catch up to him! Riley soon tired, though, and didn’t really run anymore for the rest of the race.

The course took us down a blocked off street, through a wooded area, around practice baseball fields, past the performing arts center, and then back into the stadium parking lot. But the best part were the four colored bubble bogs spaced out throughout the course. Red was first, followed by green, then blue, and finally yellow.

We lingered in the last bog for a long time; the kids had so much fun playing in the excess bubbles. They got completely covered from head to toe and loved every second of it.

We finally pushed the kids out of the bubbles and back onto the course so we could finish the race. Riley kept saying he was a bubble monster and tried to scare everyone. He did look pretty crazy!

Once we crossed the finish line (about an hour and a half after we started), we met back up with Claire and David, who had taken off way ahead of us practically right from the start. The DJ was onstage and cranking out the music, and there were two cannons spraying the crowd with green and blue foam. The kids got even more covered and also laid down to make bubble angels in the parking lot. Too funny.

 

 

We hung around the finish area for about 20 minutes and then said our goodbyes. Kenny and I decided we needed to get back to Rory (and Nola). Amazingly, he slept until 9:30am and woke up with absolutely no symptoms. Nola said if we hadn’t told her he threw up 6 times the night before she wouldn’t have believed us. So grateful he got past it as quick as he did.

Lizzie said it best: the Bubble Run was lots of fun, but mostly because of the kids running with us. It was so wonderful to watch them enjoy themselves so much. And although he was really dragging towards the end, I am so proud of Riley for doing the entire course all on his own. Kenny and I had a really great time with him.

In fact, Riley has already said he wants to do the Bubble Run again. Hopefully if it comes back to NOLA next year, all four of us can participate. In the meantime, we’ve got lots of pictures and three really cool colored shirts as mementos.

Oh, and if anyone has any solid ideas on how we can get the color to permanently stain our shirts, let me know. It normally washes right out, but we want to preserve our colored fun.

Yay Bubble Run NOLA!