Kathy's Cure Trike-A-Thon

The long time former-administrator at Owen and Harris's pre-school, Kathy O'Reilly, is one of the dearest, sweetest people you ever will meet. She battled and defeated breast cancer 5 years ago and then about a month after she retired in September of this year, she found out that she had a reoccurance and she is now battling bone and brain cancer.

She has done so much for our family with Owen and she had worked at the school for 23 years! She really has made that school successful and has devoted her life to it. Her daughter was one of Owen's one year old teachers and her grandson is there, as well. With all that said, can you tell I love this woman? She's amazing.

So many people love her that we are really concerned about her finances since she needs some help right now. So, we got together and did a Trike-a-Thon for her to show her how much all the kids love her and support her. It was so sweet and special. We were scheduled to hold it outside, but today's high was about 44, it rained all last night and it was ugg-lee. So, we moved it indoors to a local church gym. There were 3 different divisions: the fun run (for the youngest kids who can't ride- like Harris), the tricylcle division and the bicycle division (where there were several scooters, as well). We had 3 different tracks for these and it actually worked out pretty well, logistically considering that we (meaning some other people- I was a little late- don't want to take the credit here) threw the tracks together this morning and had to scratch the original outside plan.

Here's our trike rider with his registration:

Here's Owen with Ms. Kathy. He was more interested in riding than posing, but I was so glad to see her. And I'm glad she got to come. She was a trooper!

I know, I know. We found out today that Owen's tricycle is entirely too small. He doesn't ride it alot, so we hadn't noticed. His poor little knees were hitting the bars and are probably bruised, but he was still out there going to town. I think we might work on an upgrade for Christmas.

The kids got a tally mark on their backs each time they completed a lap. We got pledges and donations either per lap or just a flat donation. I just asked for all flat donations because I didn't want to deal with math... or go back to someone and tell them Owen completed 432 laps! Ha! I can't wait to find out how much we raised!

So, please keep Kathy in your prayers. Recent good news is that her chemo is working and she had a clean brain scan this week. Praise God! She is taking treatments at MD Anderson in Houston and having to be driven back and forth every other week (because airplanes have too many germs- more than that room full of kids, though? Doubtful!).

Hands On Truck Day

First of all, thanks to all of you for making me better about the Poison Control Center- so glad you've all called them, too!


Saturday was Hands On Truck Day at Sci-Quest. I am on the board at Ollie's pre-school and my position this year is community fundraising. So, we partnered with Sci-Quest to do this program. Since we are all about hands-on learning (and we have a bunch of families with small kids), then we made good partners! I talked about this earlier and it does take several months a little while to plan, but was totally worth it. It was a fundraiser for our school so we sold lunch, t-shirts had face painting, balloons, etc. It turned out to be a beautiful day and I am so thankful to God for that! Literally, I had been praying over October 18th for several months. If it had been raining the whole thing would have been cancelled! WOOHOO! It was beautiful (very windy and cold, but I'm not complaining)!! There were plenty of trucks there: firetrucks, concrete mixers, hum-vee, bucket trucks, SWAT van, school bus, moving van, street sweeper, 18 wheeler- about 30 trucks.

Ollie had a great time and was jumping up and down- the WHOLE time. He was so excited. It was hard to get a picture of him standing still!
Here's a picture that is kind of scary to think about if you flash forward a few years:

And little H-man hanging out:
Ollie driving the firetruck (a white one- there was a red one there, too):

And my favorite- a cute little dalmation puppy that the firemen brought. You gotta love that little hat!
So, all and all, a good time had by all. I heard a lot of compliments, so that made me feel good. I need to write some thank you notes and have a wrap up meeting, but then it will be DONE! Speaking of thank you notes, I am still working on those for Henry's birthday, too, so family- know that they are coming. I was just a little tied up with this event this week- no more 'scuses.

Hope you had a fun weekend!

Last Day of School

Why is it that the "last day of school" emotes 2 completely different feelings as a parent and as a child??

I can tell you that I'm very sad that Thursday was Owen's last regular day in his 2 year old preschool class. He'll go to a summer session (that will be just like his school year) starting on June 2, but Thursday was the "official" last day of the year, so they had a little program for the parents.

If you haven't heard me talk before about Owen's school, I LOVE IT! They are super attentive, eager to help work with you as a parent and the child and they truly love our kids. God has really blessed us with this environment and I'm so thankful every day.

So, at the program, they did a version of what they normally do at circle time each day. They sang Twinkle, Twinle Little Star, the ABC song and one other song that has the same tune (I can't remember it, so if you can then you get a cookie) with Ms. Cathy playing the tune on the xylophone (she said it was the only tune she knew- ha). Then they passed out sticks and did several songs with them. The first was The Bear Went Over the Mountain and the sticks made the mountain:

Then they did some rowing song and I'm not sure what it was, but it was cute and fun:

The little girl with green bows in her hair is Anna Grace. Owen loves Anna Grace. Any girl that he doesn't know and he needs to refer to her somehow is called Anna Grace- as in- all girls should be her. When we were leaving, Anna Grace's mom told me that she said, "That's Owen. He loves me." Yes, my dear, you are right. A girl can tell these things early on, apparently.
Here is Owen with his certificate- going for his Wilson look from that Tim Allen TV show- also can't think of the name- another cookie up for grabs here. Am I brain dead today?

And here is a cute picture of the O-man with his teacher Ms. Cathy. We love her so, so much and she will be leaving his classroom for the summer. Sob, sniffle, sob. Thankfully, the other teachers in there are equally wonderful, but we have a special place in our hearts for Ms. Cathy. I know this is overkill, but here are a few more shots I couldn't leave out. The shirt they're wearing has all their handprints on it and their names are on the back- a sweet gift from his teachers!