We did it! We celebrated my sister by wearing a whole lot of pink and tutus! The walk was actually a great success for our very first year. When we woke up that morning it was storming. I said to Ali, you were a terrible bowler here, now is not the time to prove your new skills with the angels up there. Though she mostly listened (was always a selective listener), we still dealt with a few sporadic showers throughout the event. Thankfully we didn’t have any fair weather fans and a good 200+ people attended the walk! Awesome!! After the strenuous, exhausting, one mile loop around the campus, we were all ravenous. We grilled out, had some games, door prizes, face painting, balloon animals and really just had a great afternoon. Mostly, I held up my end of the “don’t lift a finger, let Laura do all the work” bargain. That was fantastic. I’m pretty sure I was busy showing off my pretty handsome little boy dressed in Nori’s pink clothes the whole time anyway.  I mean, I barely even had time to eat 4 flavor ices, a cake pop (thanks Carrie!) and a cupcake (thanks shannon!), much less work!

As far as I know, everything went smooth and as planned, minus the rain. Laura did an amazing job of pulling every little detail together. I don’t even know the half of what Laura had to do to make it happen (even with the countless emails with outline styled things she  accomplished for the day, probably leaves a bunch out). My family is for reals in debt to her, like forever, though she did keep the leftover buckets of cotton candy so I’m willing to call it even. And to alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the others who I saw running around behind the scenes, you know who you are, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. So can you help out again next year? Cause I really enjoyed showing up, walking and going home. Oh and also a shout out to Kerry for hooking us up with the place (and whatever else you did, I’m telling you guys, I was barely involved), it was great!

And I must also say that I was impressed with all the pink and tutus. Next year we plan to make it even bigger and will likely sell tutus there, so no “my dog ate my tutu” excuses will work. Even though I know she could see all of us celebrating her in “Ali fashion”, it still hurts to realize we were walking for her instead of with her. All the extra love and emotional support given to us was appreciated.

Thanks so much everyone. We hope to be highlighting a bunch more tutu heroes soon and you can pat yourselves on the back for being part of such a good deed. Thanks! Did I say thanks yet? I meant to. Thanks friends! xoxo. Peace, Melanie.

Enjoy the IPHONE photos below! I’m not pointing any fingers at anyone Adam Pace, but there was supposed to be a memory card WITH the camera we packed. So thanks to everyone who shared their images on Instagram and Facebook! Total fail on the part of the photographers in the family…ahemm…Adam Pace. Search #rockpinktutuwalk for more!

It’s happening this Saturday, y’all!! If you missed the pre-registration, it’s ok, register Saturday morning. We have a very cool little gift for everyone to rock that day, so don’t miss it! Remember to WEAR YOUR TUTU AND/OR PINK. I’m not saying I will make fun of you (that’s a lie, I will) if you claim to have nothing pink to wear. Be creative. Pink bandana? Accessories? Socks? Wife’s bikini? No excuses.

Things Laura told me to tell you about:

Registration begins at 10AM At the Xavier Yard. If you are unfamiliar with Campus, Park in the Cintas lot and walk towards Bellarmine Chapel…..you won’t be able to miss us. Here is a link to the campus map http://www.xavier.edu/about/map.cfm.
1. If you Pre-Registered: Please come to the registration table and find the sign that says “Pre-Registration”. You will pick up your goodie bag and raffle ticket (and tutu if you ordered/paid one ahead of time).
2. If you Register Day Of: Same as above, please come to the registration table and find the sign that says “Registration” to complete your form and submit your payment. You will also received your goodie bag and raffle ticket at this time.
3. If you have spoken to Laura about volunteering for the day of or dropping anything off, please also come to the registration table and find LAURA. (She’ll likely be the one who has an incredible amount of energy bouncing around, with blonde/pink hair, also wearing a name tag.)
4. Face painting and balloon animals will begin at 11:30am.
5. The raffle will be done at 12pm and you must be present to receive your prize.

I already warned my facebook friends that there will be a large purge come Sunday if at least 1/4 of my friends don’t show. The last thing you want is to be defriended by me and miss out on all the “over sharenting” I do. (Vaca is a valid excuse, I wish I could be on the beach with you.)

Also, I will be taking instagram pics all day. If you are there, then be sure to #rockpintutuwalk on your images so I can pull them to eventually share here on the blog.

Drinks, food and fun afterwards til 1:30pm. It’s going to be SOMUCHFUN. Be there.

Peace, Mel.

We’re doin’ it y’all. Our first Rock Pink Tutu Walk is officially planned. This will be our one big Rock Pink event done each year. Money left post expenses will be used to donate books and tutus for her legacy. It is just a couple days before Ali’s bday, so we figured what better time to celebrate her! If it is hard to read the fine print, click the image and it will open larger in a new window. Yes, I would REALLY like to see everyone in a tutu and/or pink. I’d hate to think you would do Ali wrong and be LAME. 😉 But no really, how stinkin cool is it going to be to see that many tutus in one place? I CAN’T WAIT FOR THAT! There will be fun to be had afterwards since we are only making you walk ONE mile. Ha! It’s our first year, we wanted to ease ourselves into it. (and we might have started planning about a year too late!) We will post more about it just before the event.

If you click this link, you can print the pre registration form. RockPinkTutuWalkRegistrationForm_Final

Don’t have a tutu? Have questions? Email Laura: rockpinktutuwalk@gmail.com Plus she found something realllly awesome to give out with each registration. Everyone must come!

Peace, Melanie.

PS. Special thanks to Laura and her incredible urge to help our family, be organized like a crazy lady, and plan a majority of this event. The Tracy/Pace/Nunery/Klems love you for all your hard work. I imagine Ali is giving you all sorts of hugs you may or may not feel. 🙂

Thanks everybody who came out and walked with us!  We had a great time holding up the rear of the walk! At one point I’m pretty sure the cop was 5ft from the soles of our shoes. HA! Big thanks to Purcell Marian for honoring Ali in this event, it’s wonderful to know she still holds a special place in you heart as well.

I guess we better get used to our family posing in front of these kind of signs…:*(

It sure was a tuturific event. Thanks for your continued support. Peace, Melanie.

We decided to extend Ali’s legacy to more than just University hospital where she was treated.  Since I am all too familiar with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, we figured why not let them play too! For those of you who don’t know, the girl standing in black in the image directly below is Rachel. She was previously one of my soccer players and is now practically my little sister. She’s 18 and just celebrated her ONE YEAR anniversary of being in remission from her stage 4b hodgekins lymphoma. (She’s amazing, but everyone already knows that!) Anywho, she was in and out of Children’s regularly for a good six months and Nori and I spent a lot of time visiting her during our “Tuesday’s with Rachel.” We thought it would be perfect to add some tutu love to the playroom up there and eventually give them to patients directly. So this weekend we focused on tutus for kids and then people made their own for Saturday’s walk at PMHS.

Then, of course, we had to try them on.I wanted to try ALL OF THEM on. (I’m actually like 5-6 shy here!)

Laura is developing superhero capes for the dudes in oncology units. I have a vision in my head of a photo I want to capture, I hope i can make it happen one day! She made a teeny one for Nico.He loved it! 🙂You’ll have to excuse the quality here. I was busy playing host/babytending/tutu making and I forgot to grab a shot of a completed tutu. D’oh. They are at Laura’s house, so I have some iPhone pics from her. We wanted the patients to know a bit about Ali so I wrote up this little ditty. “Ali believed you can never love too much, dress up too much, wear too much pink, or have too much fun! So dance, twirl & laugh in your tutu and don’t let yourself forget you are beautiful, inside AND out. We pray you win the fight! You got this, girl!!” Then Adam reworked the book label to make it say, “Leaving her legacy in tutus.”

Here is our first official Tutu Hero. Her name is Rachel, she’s gorgeous and from what I hear, she’s amazing and one hell of a fighter. She’s the perfect first recipient, and I’m so glad she let us share a picture of her rockin’ it out for Ali. Rachel was so moved and inspired by this gift, she wanted to help us craft for other patients! Um how sweet of her?! -Rachel, I know you wanted to hang out with us Saturday, and I’m so sorry it didn’t work out. I hope you are feeling better and know that you are ALWAYS welcome to join us in the future. I know you’re incredibly strong and I look forward to meeting you! Enjoy your tutu!

Thanks for stopping by! peace, Melanie.