Ricky

This past weekend, Ricky competed in a regional meet for Special Olympics track and field.  Although the weather was ONCE AGAIN cold and rainy, we all managed to have a great time!  The thing that struck me about Special Olympics when we first began participating is that it is for ALL ages starting at age 8.  You see some pretty old athletes competing which is great for them.  Ricky always seems to get placed in competitions with much older and bigger athletes as they use their qualifying times to place them.  He is quite a little runner and has a great arm for the softball throw so he is paired up with much older people to compete against...see the size of his competition! Ricky is in lane one all the way to the right. It was raining and he wouldn't take his Buzz Lightyear rain jacket off!

He took 5th place out of 8 in this race...the 50 meter dash!

He also competed in the 100 meter dash where he took 3rd place!  In the softball throw, he did amazing too!  We left before they determined the winners in that competition so we will find out tonight at practice.

They had the local fire department there to allow the athletes to tour the fire engines...Ricky LOVES fireman and wants to be one when he grows up so this was a treat for him!

We also had FOUR extra children with us this weekend!  I am often asked to take foster children on a respite basis so we had 3 adorable...but very busy...children from one family over the weekend.  Then our little princess, Miss S, who we cared for over the first 6 months of her life, came for an overnight visit too!  We love and adore her and are so happy that she is back with her mommy and daddy and doing really well!  We are blessed that they allow us to stay in her life and get to see her at least once a month!  It's fun for us to see her grow up and it gives her parents a little break too.

The sun has been out for TWO days now and today promises to be beautiful too!  What a difference the sun makes in one's disposition after weeks of cold and rainy weather!  Enjoy today...