Friday 10.06.06

There was much rejoicing at our school today. More than you usually see during the Friday morning assemblies at our school. The kids collected food for the food pantry for the whole month of September, and today was the day they made the announcement about how much we'd collected. I'd gotten a tip-off from a neighbor that I needed to be up there. . . that pies in faces would be happening! The kids are all about pies in the face! The first graders challeneged the whole school to see which grade would collect the most. That grade's teachers would be getting pies in their faces. And our principal vowed that if we collected more than the other 2 schools collecting in September, that he'd take a pie in the face! Even though they'd been collecting like crazy . . . and had seen their 3rd week total at 9,000+ lbs, I think everyone was still shocked to hear the total . . . 15,000 lbs! Can you imagine what that would look like? They told the kids that was the equivalent to 2 hippos or 1 T-rex! We collected a whole dinosaur! {vbg} The other 2 schools combined collected somewhere right around 5,000 lbs. I'm not sure if our kids are just that excited about collecting food, or if the other schools just didn't make much of an attempt. Either way, the kids knew Mr. K was getting a pie, and were proud of all they'd done. We had kids take allowance money and buy food, go around and collect food, and we even had one little guy (either K or 1st) who made arrangements with Kroger to sit outside their store and ask for can donations one night! Who can resist a 6 year old asking for food for the people who needed to utilize the food pantry?

The people from the food pantry were amazed. . .we'd given the biggest single donation ever given by any school, organization, group since the food pantry opened. They decided they needed to create a way to acknowledge group donors and have started 5,000, 10,000, 15,000 lb clubs. They brought a trophy (with an apple on top . . tehehe) and presented our school with it. The kids cheered that we were the first members of the 15,000 lb club. The food pantry people were so impressed, they called the mayor, and he came out and read a proclaimation (I wonder if any of the kids have any idea what "whereas" means! tehehe). And, what the kids liked best about his visit, the mayor vowed that if the kids collected even 1 lb more next year, he'd come and take a pie in the face while wearing a suit. I can just about guarantee that will be happening!

The 1st grade teachers all took a pie in the face . . .while shrouded in trashbags, showercaps and goggles. Tehehe. . .was funny to see them all standing there. Then Mr. K took a pie in the face, no protective gear at all. Not just any pie . . .but a blueberry pie to go along with the newly bestowed Blue Ribbon status. Then, of course, several teachers got in the action with that whipped cream in a can.


Seemed almost anti-climatic when Alaina and I went to the farm to do our weekly Mom and Me thing. We made scarecrows. Well, kinda made scarecrows. . . I let her decorate a milkjug for a scarecrow head. . . but we never did anything else with it. We were so busy getting ready for the big party, that we didn't even stay the whole time. We headed to Calloway's to find the perfect pumpkins and straw for pictures.