That Was Unexpected!

JR came home the other day and told me he was running for student council.

 

 

I was both shocked and totally pleased by this announcement. 

(The teachers and kids did a number on his self esteem in Durango, so to have him put himself out there like that is a huge step.)

 

 

A little while later he told me we needed to go to the store to buy candy for his campaign.

 

 

Now, I've seen plenty of school elections go down in my time, and one thing I know for certain:

You can bring as many cookies, cupcakes, candy, pencils, toys, posters, flyers as you want.  The kids will eat your cupcakes, tell you they'll vote for you, and then vote for whoever they want. 

 

But, I didn't want to crush his little political dreams, so we went to the store and he picked out Jolly Ranchers "cause everybody likes Jolly Ranchers".

 

 

He told me he read in the Duck Dynasty book that when Willy ran for class president his slogan was "Don't be silly, vote for Willy" and he won, so he needed a slogan too.

 

 

We came up with this.

If we're being honest, there's lots of adjectives I could use to describe JR.

'Jolly' doesn't even crack the top 20. 

 But hey, it works.

 

 

They elected one boy and one girl from each class.

JR has 26 kids in his class, and his teacher said he got 20 votes.

 

 

I couldn't believe it, I had spent the whole morning prepping him that it was "okay if he didn't get it. I was just proud he was trying."

 

 

Here he is when he got home that afternoon. He was super excited.

 

He had his first student council meeting yesterday after school where they talked about "lots of stuff".

Jason told him that's what you usually do in high powered meetings..."discuss lots of stuff".

In Everybody's Good Graces (Except Reed's)

You'd think this kid was trying to bribe everybody he knows with his "student of the week" poster.

 

Just take a closer look at this thing.

 

He came up with everything by himself...except I told him since he'd already said his favorite place was "Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw's house" maybe he could come up with some other favorite things to do than "go to Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw's house". 

 

So he said, "Okay, go to Grandpa Gary's house".  I then had to point out he already had Grandpa Gary taking him on a hunting trip to Africa for his one wish...and the teacher was probably thinking more about activities he liked to do.

But he couldn't come up with just 1 favorite thing to do.

 

He's also changed his career path from Power Ranger/Ninja Turtle to zookeeper.

And look, our own dog doesn't make the sheet but Mittens Kitten and Zoe do.

And, yes, Reed almost had a conniption fit over a multitude of things:

-Kyle's writing wasn't nice enough

-Kyle didn't color in the "All About" letters

-It wasn't his (Reed's) week to do a poster

-There were only four pictures of himself, and there needed to be more

 Sigh....

Flag Me Down

So football season has come to an end in the Ingy house.

I'm not sure how the boys (or I) felt about it.

 

 

We all know they certainly don't have the build (or genes) for football, and let's be honest, the only way they'll ever get to play on a team is if they march them out to be the kicker.

 

 

They didn't make one touchdown or tackle this year.

But they sure did have big smiles on their faces when they did get to hold the ball.

 

 

 

 

I'm calling that face Reed's "serious smile".

 

And they got to add to their trophy collection.

 

 

 

So, they didn't hate football, but they didn't love it.

I guess we'll just call it a good learning experience.

 

At least they won more games than Texas has!

Howl at the Moon in the Rain with a Pink Gorilla

It was raining and cold all day Friday.

I begged (and even bribed) the kids to skip the Howl at the Moon fun run for their school.

I promised them nobody would show up, their friends wouldn't be there, they wouldn't miss a thing.

 

 

They were having none of it, and apparently, all the other kids were having none of it too because everybody was there.  In the rain.

 

 

Jason thought he wouldn't have to run. 

Reed's kindergarten teacher lets all her students walk with her. 

But when she made the mistake of mentioning the kindergarten group came in last place last year, Reed bailed on her immediately and informed Jason he was running with him. 

 

 

Here they are at the start with our neighbors Audrey and Sam.

 

 Almost to the finish line of the 1 mile! These two finished in 13:38.

 

 

 

Kyle wanted to run the 5K with me and JR wanted to run with his friends.

JR took off with his friends and I never saw him again.

 

 

Kyle and I lined up with our neighbors Tom and Alex.

(And yes, I'm wearing ear muffs and about 14 layers. I don't care that it's only September. It was freezing!)

 

 

We also lined up with a pink gorilla. 

Cause...It's Colorado, and things just can't be totally normal.

 

 Kyle got lots of high fives and "Way to go, Little Dude" along the race route. 

This is him at mile 3.

 

 

Kyle finished with a time of 42:22.

He came in 8th in the 0-8 year old category, and had there been a 6 and under category he would have won!

 

 

(There was actually one 4 year old and one 6 year old and he beat them both.  

Everybody else in his age group was 7 or 8.)

As you can see, he was super excited to get a bag of popcorn as we crossed the finish line.

And yes, that's rain.

 

 

 

I finally found JR after the race. He finished with his friends in 38:34 (which is awesome for a group of boys who never run).

(Ninja moves tend to cover up your face for pictures.)

 

 

 

Thankfully the sun came back out yesterday and I've finally warmed up!

Fashion Fabulous Friday

 

I'm not sure if he's an owl or Elton John.

Givin' Me an Art Attack

Wednesday is art class morning, here's what Reed drew.

 

He's so proud of it he wouldn't even let me touch it.

 

He's informed me he wants it framed and hanging in the house.

 (I'm thinking pinned to the bulletin board in his room is more the direction I'm wanting to go.)

After about the fiftieth time of Reed making us compliment him, Kyle decided he'd draw a picture too.

 

 

And for the record: For Kyle, this is good. Like masterpiece good.

 

It's a picture of Mittens.

(Paw-Paw's kitten)

 

He drew a collar on Mittens (I think that's the yellow part), so I had to make a phone call home to tell my dad that Kyle wants him to go out and buy Mittens a collar...so he'll match the picture.

Twosies

Whose genius idea was it to let Kyle and Reed do football, soccer, and roller hockey all at the same time?

 

Oh yeah, that would be mine.

 

 

It seems this week all 3 have converged into a perfect storm of games:

 

2 football

2 soccer

2 hockey

6 games in a 5 day span.

I'm just trying to keep up with the "costume" changes.