School Fundraiser Parties

Biennially, the elementary school has a fundraiser to raise money for the school.  The fundraiser this year was even more important because the school is currently being rebuilt.  Some of the money raised from the Gala would pay for the new playground equipment, computers and other supplies for the new school. 

Besides silent auction items, there are parties for the parents and separately for the kids that the families could bid on to help raise even more money.  We learned from our first year how important...and fun....it is to attend both of these parties.  So, this year, we were ready to bid on several parties for Collin...and some for us.  At the end of the Gala, we found out we did successfully "win" spots for several kid and adult parties.  It's going to be a fun year.

The parties are throughout the year.  There were a few that were scheduled before the end of the current school year. One we knew Collin would want to be a part of because most of his buddies would be there AND talk about it in school was the 1st Grade Boys:  All Star Games.  The boys played all sorts of games outside including kickball which was a favorite.  At the end, the boys got a cool athletic school shirt that I know Collin will be wearing regularly.



The boys actually sitting calmly for a picture.  Collin is in the middle on the swing.

Another "party" was the kids could have breakfast with the Principal and Asst Principal at a local restaurant before school.  We knew this would be good for Collin to attend but thought he would be worried about why he was meeting with the Principals...and he was.  Dad dropped him off that morning.  On the way, Collin had questions about why he was going and who else would be there.  When he arrived, not too many kids had shown up yet. He was still really nervous about what was going to happen.  More kids showed up, including several boys he knew, so he was just fine...especially when the pancakes arrived.

Collin still now sure what's going on when he was taking this picture with his Principals

Collin is in the back on the right...all smiles!

For an entire day of school, kids could wear their PJs.  I should have known that "shy, don't want to do anything not everyone else is doing" Collin would not want to wear his PJs to school.  Oh well, good cause and it only cost us $5 so I did not push him.

Fake Birthday

Ms Davis gave the summer birthday students and option of celebrating their birthdays before school is out.  On the one hand, this is a nice idea for those summer birthday "babies" like Collin because they can celebrate in school with their friends. On the other hand, having all of the summer birthdays the last few weeks of school when the kids are getting rowdy and ready for school to be out is a little nuts.  At this school, we can bring cup cakes, cookies or other sweets to celebrate birthdays unlike other near schools.  So, adding sugar to kids the last few weeks of school is a little nuts....but Collin wanted to celebrate his fake birthday, as he referred to it.

Dad and Collin picked out a cookie cake.  I picked it up when it was ready and met Dad and school at the designated time.  The kids where just coming back from lunch so they were already full of energy.  They walked into the classroom and saw us there with the cookie cake. Let the cheers begin!  Collin walked in wearing a birthday crown so the kids knew the cookie cake was for his birthday.  They got organized and sang Happy Birthday to Collin as he stood in front of the class somewhat smiling.  He then got to pass out slices of the cookie to all of his classmates.  I could tell that he was being selective with certain pieces saving the ones with lots of icing for his buddies in the room.  Brody did get a piece entirely covered with icing. Collin saved one similar to that for him.  The kids ate their cookies as we cleaned up getting ready to leave.  Collin wanted us to stay but it was time to go so the teacher could settle the class down.  Have fun with that Ms Davis!

Standing in front listening to Happy Birthday being sung to him

Awesome looking birthday cookie with Super Cookie on it

Dreams and Presidents

Not sure how it came up but Collin told me last night before going to bed that he dreams all the time.  I aked him what he dreams about.  "I dream about wars.  Sometimes, George Washington is in it. He always wins".  He has been learning about history in school and about Presidents. I am sure this is where the part about George Washington cmae from.  Not sure about the war part.  I will have to keep asking him about this to see what I can find out. 

Too Much Milk

When I was trying on a new shirt I bought but did not try on at the store, Collin came into my bathroom just as I had finished putting the shirt on and was looking in the mirror at it.  The look on my face probably did say that I did not like the shirt.  He said, "The shirt is really tight.  You have too much milk in your boobies for it".  Trying so hard not to laugh, I said, "You are right.  This shirt is too small for me".  There was no way I was about to explain that I did not have ANY milk in those boobies. 

Time for the ER

After reading a few books and getting ready for bed, Collin put his right leg in the air to put over me.  He loves to do this like a hug to get closer to me.  When he did this, I thought I saw a red mark on the bottom of his foot...like a red Popsicle stain.  I asked to look at the bottom of his foot and noticed that he had a large splinter embedded in his foot.  The area around the splinter was red and slightly swollen.  What worried me was I saw the red part moving up the side of his foot.  I had learned when I was little about the "red streak" when Mimi pricked her finger on a rose bush in the front yard of our house.  She did not immediately go to the doctor but did end up there when a red streak was prominently from her pricked finger moving up her hand and arm.  Turns out, this was badly infected and could have killed her.  I calmly called Mimi to describe what I was seeing, sent her pictures of his foot and asked if this was a red streak forming.  She agreed it was and I should go to the ER.  I calmly told Collin he needed to get dressed so we could have the doctor help get the splinter out and possibly get some medicine.  He immediately wanted to know if he was getting a shot.  I told him I did not think he would but that he would likely have liquid medicine.  "Sure, it might taste funny but it will help you get better."

The splinter is at the bottom of this picture

There was no one waiting in the ER waiting room, so we where seen by the doctor quickly.  He said I was smart to bring Collin.  He said that if I had waited until the morning, the infection could have made it to his groin and he would likely needed to be checked into the hospital.  He took Collin's vitals and then started writing his notes.  Collin asked if he was going to do "the knee thing".  The doctor smiled, and walked over to check Collin's knee reflexes.  This made all of us laugh when both knees kicked when the doctor used the tool to check Collin's reflexes.  He then wrote a prescription for 7 day antibiotics.  We waited over 20 minutes to fill the prescription which was almost as long as we were at the ER.  While waiting, Collin tole me "I want to be a doctor of humans.  If I get fired, then I can be a doctor of dogs....not a doctor of all animals because I don't like cats".

We were home a little after 10pm.  After taking his first dose of medicine, he was tired and fell asleep quickly.

By morning, the swelling and redness was gone.  He did not have a fever and was full of energy.  Yeah!!!

Spring Baseball Comes to an End

The Seminoles had a great season.  They made it to the Silver bracket Championship and lost a close game during the third round.  The boys were really disappointed in the lost.  I do think it could have gone differently if we had different umpires but it is what it is.  The boys really improved and it was great to see how much they learned during the season and how good they played together as a team.  At the beginning of the seasons, Collin was batting at the lower half of the batting order.  Because of his consistent hitting, the Coach moved him up the batting order to 6th and then eventually the first batter for the Championship games. On the filed, he stayed in the outfield because he generally caught the ball and was very accurate with his throws.  He could make it to 2nd base no matter if he was in Right or Left field. 

Because of how much fun he had playing ball and making friends with the 2nd graders on the team, he has asked to play Summer baseball AND try out for a tournament team.  That would mean lots of baseball games during the week for the Summer league and most of the weekend for the tournament team.  I love baseball and really love watching him play so I am up for that. 

Here are some great action shots during this season:

Focused running to 1st base

Another hit

.....and another

One of his new friends

1st Grade boys and.....Dad, the crazy guy

Cool Dudes

Coach telling the boys where they are supposed to be on the field

Cheering their team mate after he hit a home run

Such a cool runner!

One of my favorite pictures of the season

Run.....Run!

Because I am running more and since the Jingle Bell Run we did during the Christmas holiday, Collin has been really interested in running and getting his own medals.  So far, he has ran in two different races.  I ran with him in the first one.  Well, I started out running with him and he just took off!  He runs at least a 7 minute mile or faster.  During this race, he did get a stomach cramp and had to walk a third of the 1K run.  It also started raining really hard on us.  He did not mind that at all.  He did start running again when he knew the finish line, and Dad, were around the corner.  At the end, he was all smiles running under the finish line banner and getting his medal.

Before the race.  I just ran a 10K and was ready to run with Collin.

My running buddy

After the race



The next race was a 1K that raised money for his school district.  This time, he ran with a friend from his 1st Grade class and his little brother.  These boys had no idea that they would start running with Collin but not finish with him.  The race started, and Collin was off.  I ran over to the finish line so I could see my guy as he ran to the finish line.  I was not surprised to see him in front of the pack.  he was one of the younger kids in the group.  Proud momma when he finished and came over to get a victory hug.  His first question was when was his next race.  Just like his mommy!

And they are off!

Look at that smile.  He loves running!

The boys are happy to be finished and to show off their ribbons

Vacation and a Half Marathon

Instead of triathlon's, I am focused on more running this year.  My goal is to run in at least 4 half marathons.  I ran one in February and my second was on April 19th.  Instead of running in town, I signed up for a race out of town so we could have a mini-vacation before the race. 

We picked Collin up from school and headed out of town.  That night, we walked along the beach, checked out some of the shops in old downtown, and ate dinner.  Back at the hotel, Collin and Daddy explored the hotel while I rested. 

The next day, we went to Moody Gardens and saw all of the sights the place offered.  Our favorite was the Rainforest Pyramid.  Collin loved looking at the different animals and I liked the different flowers and plants.  Daddy was just happy to be with us.  At one point, a monkey got VERY friendly with us.  We stood watching the monkey run up and down the path trying to get us to play with him....or so we thought.  Was he was really doing was trying to get another monkey to come out of hiding.  He eventually did and ran right over my feet which scared the poop out of me.  I screamed a little and Collin thought that was hilarious.

Pointing to a really cool red bird

The playful monkey before he started to run around in front of us

Pointing to an ant farm

My favorite little guy.  Love him so much!

Daddy being really funny

Snake!  Collin is smiling because he knows how much I DON'T like snakes

Throughout the hotel, there were different animal habitats.  Collin had to see the one with the alligators about 6 times before we went to our room for the night.  After looking at all of the exhibits and watching an shark 3D movie, the boys went swimming while I sat by the pool and read a book.

That night, the hotel was hosting Prom Night.  We had fun, or at least I did, sitting by the front door watching the students come in and commenting on what they were wearing.  Collin learned about what prom was and why the kids were all dressed up.  About an hour later, we were up in our room watching a fantastic lightening storm when the lights in the entire hotel went out. We sat at the window watching the prom attendees exit the back of the building in the storm.  By the time the storm was over, all of the pool chairs were in the pool.  Collin had no idea how powerful the wind could be and have several questions about how the wind was able to pick up the chairs.  We were all surprised to see the chairs back where they should be an hour later.  The hotel staff was prompt with cleaning up the property.

The next morning, a friend picked me up to head to the half marathon while the boys slept in.  Because of all of the rain, it was a muggy, HOT morning which made the run challenging.  I did feel really good until Mile 10.  I pushed it to Mile 11.5 and then had to walk.  I really did not want to because I was not sure if I would be able to run  again when I got close to Finish Line.  I did start running again a mile away.  That finish line looked GREAT.  I was so happy to be finished.  My time was 2 hours 22 minutes which was not bad.  I had hoped to be closer to 2 hours but I was happy with this time considering the weather.  I was also SO happy to see my boys at the end of the race.  They missed me crossing the finish line by 2 minutes.  I did not care...at least they were there to give me a hug....and hold me up when I started to feel weak and thought I might faint.  Collin was eating a donut and shared his donut holes with me.  This helped so much.....and I did not faint. 

 

Just a few ladies at the Diva half

Collin to the rescue after the race with hugs.....and donut holes!

We left the race, went back to the hotel to get cleaned up and then headed home.  What a great weekend!

Soccer = #2? What?

As he did last year, as soon as baseball season started, Collin was not as interested in soccer anymore.  He did finish out the skills session he was signed up for but did not ask to sign up again.  That worked out great anyway because one of practice days during the week, he had baseball practice and would miss one soccer session a week anyway if we signed him up again.

I did end up getting some really good shots of him in action: