Our 8th Anniversary, The MIM & A Glow in the Dark 5K!

Robert and I just celebrated our 8 year Anniversary! He took a couple days off of work, so we could do fun things!
We went on a romantic Thai food date, and the next morning we went to Laughter Yoga.
It's where you use laughter, along with breathing and playful stretches to rid your body of it's toxins and negative energy.
You do things like: pretend you're on a roller coaster, have an imaginary food fight, take out your debit card and point and laugh at it, clean out your brain with pretend "mental floss," etc, etc.
It's supposed to be one whole hour of laughing, but we got there late, and they ended early, so we only got like 10 minutes worth of laughing, which actually made me cry on the way home because it was my year to plan our Anniversary and I tried really hard to find a fun activity, until Robert said, "You can't cry about Laughter Yoga!" Then, that made me laugh, and we made up our own version of it in the car on the way home. I don't know if we were actually doing it right cause we were just pointing at biuldings and laughing, but it turned out to be fun.
Then we tried to recreate our wedding pictures with the flowers he bought me, but they didn't turn out quite as I'd envisioned them.
During his time off, he and the kids went swimming in the freezing pool every spare second they had.
The next day we went to The Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. It was really, really cool! There were over 3,000 instruments there, and types of music from all over the world!!!
Noelle decided to dress up as Alice in Wonderland that day, which made me happy because she I know she always wants to wear her dress-up clothes in public, and I tell her she can, but then she gets embarassed and ends up changing. This time I think my "You be whoever you want to be (as long as you're kind) and wear whatever you feel like wearing (as long as it's modest) and don't worry about what anybody ever thinks of you" pep-talk really worked cause she was Alice that day, and she was not shy about it.
Anyway, she loved seeing all of the violins.
Winston liked the audio tour.
Stanton was really excited about seeing a piano's guts. I have to say, I was fascinated by that part too.
The best part was the Experience Room, where you could play tons of different instruments, like the harp, the drums, the GONGGGGGGGGGG! Oh, the gong. 50 kids banging the gong! My ears will never be the same.
Noelle played the maracas for most of the time we were in there. Funny, cause they were exactly like the ones she has at home that she never plays with. Kids crack me up.
The next day Daddy got us more free Disney on Ice tickets. It was really fun, up until the end when I got trampled.
I ran Noelle down to the ice as the show was ending so that she could make eye contact with one of the princesses, but I fell down the stairs and got stepped on by a bunch of kids. I got a giant bruise on my bum, but Noelle said Belle and Mulan looked at her, so it was a good trade off. And we ended our Anniversary love-week by running a glow in the dark 5K. I signed up because there was a costume contest, and the winner won an I-Pad. Robert hardly ever wants stuff, but he really wanted an I-Pad, and I was positive that I could win it for him.
So I searched high and low for how to make the perfect glow in the dark costume, but I couldn't find much. So, in the end, I painted my body and my clothes with glow in the dark puff paint.
I tried to find actual body paint, but the only store that sold it was Spencers, and I ended up grabbing the wrong stuff cause i was in such a hurry to get out cause it's weird in there, and I had my sweet, obedient kids with me, keeping their heads down, closing their eyes and covering them with their hands. Noelle kept asking over and over, "What will I see if I open my eyes?" The only thing I could think to say was "scary clowns."
It was a low point in my decision-making as a parent, but luckily we got out of there without them seeing anything at all, but we still sang "I love to see the Temple" afterwards, more for my sake than theirs.
Anyway, I was not about to venture back into that store to return my faulty glow paint, so we stuck with the puff paint from michaels, which is not intended for use on skin, in eyes, or in mouth...all of which purposely or accidentally happened that night.
So I made myself glow. It turned out a lot tackier than I'd pictured it in my mind, but I still thought I had a good chance at winning. I was definitely the brightest one there (until Christmas lights guy and jelly fish grandma) and a few people even asked to get their pictures taken with me. I thought I had it in the bag!
We let Robert go ahead of us, with the more serious runners, and I pushed all 3 kids on the stroller for 3.1 miles. I ran half/walked half and finished 4th to last in my division and I finished ahead of 105 people overall. However, that means I finised behined like 1,000 people.
Oh well, I may have finished sooner, but we got distracted by the giant bear and dog in costume, handing out water bottles somewhere around the 2nd mile. Plus, I couldn't run too much faster cause if I didn't hold my head just right, my glow stick hat would have fallen apart.
Robert finished strong though with all 10 minute miles. Way to go hubby!

The time came for the contest, and a lot of my puff paint had sweated off or become clumpy due to perspiration. One lady even said my face looked gross. (That's the last time I strike up a conversation with a lady dressed as a fish bowl.)
I was starting to worry about my chances of winning Robert the I-Pad.
The D.J picked me for the top 10, and when I got on stage, he announced the 1st place winner would be based off of audience applause.
By that time, all my new jogging buddies had left cause the race had ended an hour ago, so the only people left were family and friends of the people in costume.
I brought Winston on stage in hopes of getting some extra cuteness claps, but he was crying cause he was scared of my face.
It turned out that the jelly fish lady had like 5 generations of grandkids with her, so she won.
Some guy in a ghostbusters outfit, without a single light on him, got 2nd place cause he had his fraternity there with him.
I ended up with like 5th place. I got two free hour massage gift cards, a U-Haul t-shirt a broken spirit and deflated dreams.

I was seriously disappointed. I am not competetive at all, and I don't even like I-Pads, but I really wanted to win it for Robert.
Noelle was outraged that I didn't win! She actually told me to go back up on stage and tell them I did win cause I was the best. (I actually thought Christmas lights guy was the best. That was my original idea for my costume.)
Robert was super sweet and tried to tell me that my love is better than an I-Pad anyday, but Stanton delievered the best pick-me-up speech.
he said, "Hey Mommy. It's good you didn't win because I-Pads make you not smart. We would just want to play angry birds or watch shows all the time, and then we would stop reading books and our brains would get smaller. That jelly fish is not gonna be smart."
And then I was cheered up. Mission accomplished family!
But then I got unhappy again later when I had to rip all of the puff paint off of my arm hairs and unclog the puff paint from the bath tub drain.
But then Robert took me on a romantic post race date to Sonic, which cheered me up again.
What a day!