This is a delayed post since I had other stuff to talk about last week :)

One week after Halloween, we had another very busy Friday. Encouraged by my friends, I have (happily) become involved in the Home and School organization for Logan’s elementary school (aka: PTA). On Friday, November 5th, they held their one and only fund-raiser for the school year – a fun run where all the kids run around outside or, as was the case this year, in the gym. They collect money before hand and all the money goes to the operating budget for Home and School (thank you oh wonderful people who do not make my kids sell wrapping paper etc etc). I volunteered during Logan’s scheduled time and served water to three groups of kindergarteners running around like crazy people.

Later that afternoon, I returned to the school (for the second day in a row) around 4pm to set up for the school’s Fall Festival which started at 6pm. This is a free event sponsored by Home and School (see paragraph above about raising money…some of it goes towards this event as well as a free Spring Event). Well…my darling neighborhood friends (crazy people that they are) somehow ended up planning last year’s Spring event and then this year’s Fall Event (ie: I’ll be doing the Spring Event with them later this year). We went with a Family Game Show night and 5 of us worked our rears off for at least 8 weeks getting everything ready. I was in charge of the Minute to Win It Section (if you haven’t see the show on TV, contestants have 1 minute to complete a given challenge to win money). I also took over poster duty and made at least 20 posters…which was fun, but time consuming :) The event was awesome – totally fun and everyone had a great time!

Pics from the fun run:

Logan streaking by like a maniac. He was red as a tomato after about 10 minutes! 

The Fun Run is sponsored by Famous Dave’s (a local, chain, BBQ restaurant). The kids got their picture with the Famous Dave’s pig after the event was over. Logan is in the back row, farthest to the left.

My other job, in addition to filling tiny water cups, was the cut and hand out freeze pops at the end of the run. brrrrr on the hands…but smiles all around from the kids! Just like after his classroom Halloween party the week before, Logan said to me, “Mommy…thank you for saying you would be here for this!” He was walking around telling the other kids, moms and teachers, “My mom is handing out the water!” 

And now for the Fall Event:

Minute to Win It Challenge: Stack Attack – the kids had 1 minute to stack the cups up like this then, using only one hand, slide the cups down one side, pick those up and put them on the top, slide down the next row and so on until the cups were in a pile again (kind of hard to explain…)

Challenge 2: stack three apples on top of each other and have them balance without falling for a count of 3 (on the show, I think they have to stack 5)

The Deal or No Deal Table. At every game, the kids earned stamps worth various amounts of money. They took their cards to a little “store” we set up to buy trinkets at the end of the night (like Chucky Cheese)

Our friend Connor doing the “defying gravity” game

Hallway decorations. Susan and I did the ceilings up and down the main hall on Thursday night. I was getting pretty brave with my ladder! That’s Logan pointing to the ceiling

Along with all the games (Family Feud, Minute to Win It, Deal or No Deal, Win Lose or Draw, The “Family Wed” game, Name that Tune, a ton of different Price is Right stuff, Bingo and a book walk), we also had karaoke (like American Idol) set up in the music room and a Dressing Room where the kids would get face painting, tattoos and painted nails.

Logan getting his face painted. A lot of the volunteers working the games and other things were recruited from the local middle schools and used this time to fulfill community service requirements for various classes.

It’s a shark jumping out of the water.

Bounce house in the gym

Culver’s came and sold hot dogs, chips and custard.

Some of the signs I made. All of the picture elements are made from sparkly paper that I found and cut out to make various things. My favorite is the shark :)