Pizazz Photos

Courtney had Pizazz dance photos the other day.  It had been raining all week so they were a bit nervous that it wouldn't work out, but it dried up for Friday and Saturday when they would be taking pictures.  I think the photographer did a great job and Courtney looks beautiful, as always.

This is her "signature move" which is a toe touch.

 The Jr. All Starrz (Courtney is front in the center on the ground):

This is the 3rd-5th grade group.  Courtney is the front middle.

This is the entire team from Kindergarten through college.  Courtney is on the second row 5th from the right.

She has loved being a Jr. All Star and can't wait to do it again next year.

Outfield

Here is Ethan playing in the outfield!  He has been playing really well.  It's fun to go and watch him play although it has been cold and windy.

Tall Kid

It is official...Ethan is taller than I am.  Yup.  It's all over from here.

Courtney's Treat

Courtney went to the grocery store with me and while we were there she began begging for a treat.  I told her "absolutely not."  Then she grabbed a thing of sprouts and said, "Can I have this for my treat?"  Ok.  She ate half of the sprouts before we got home.  Win-win, in my opinion.

Baseball Boy

Isn't he cute in his baseball uniform?!

Ethan has been playing on the Dodgers team and has been doing really well.  We were a bit worried at first because his coach didn't hold too many practices before the games started but we have been really happy since the season began.  We watch the other coaches and they aren't as encouraging to their players as ours is and he rotates everyone so it's really a good experience.  Ethan is having a lot of fun.

Santa Clara Elementary Run for a Reason

It was time again for the fun run.  It was the 2nd Annual Santa Clara Elementary "Run for a Reason" Fun Run.  This year we were running to earn money to put iPad stations in the classrooms.  We weren't sure how many we would get so we had a contest between the teachers.  The classrooms with the most participants (percentage wise) would win an iPad station.  That way we didn't have to decide who would get one.

I woke Ethan up bright and early to help us get the race ready.  He still had hours he needed to complete for his merit badge so this would be the finals ones he would need.  Courtney got up too and so she tagged along with us.  We took Bryan's truck to the elementary school where we met up with the other moms who were on the committee.

One mom hopping on the tailgate of the truck with a huge 20 pound bag of flour and we were off.  She would hop out when there was a turn or something and use the flour to mark the road.  Courtney got bored so she hopped out to run along side the truck, but after a while that was too boring so she just ran the entire 5K and beat us back to the school.

Then the waiting began.  We had about 260-270 runners this year and it was fun to see them all begin to trickle in.  The Snow Canyon Rugby team came over to support us.  One of their players donned the Charlie Cougar costume and had the kids doing push ups and lunges to warm up.  It was great.

When it was time to start everyone lined up and the rubgy team lined the path.  The kids loved it and we had a lot of fun.  The 5K race began first so they could get out of the way and then the 1 mile race began.

After 10 minutes, everyone was gone!

Once the runners were gone, we had to move tables around and get set up for the after race snacks.  We had grocery stores who donated fruit, the orthodontist office donated their snow cone machine so we began making those, we had water bottles donated from an attorney's office in town, so there was a lot to get out and get ready.

Runners began coming back and it was fun to see them.  I handed out water bottles to the kids who crossed the finish line.  And we had a lot of happy kids!

Then it was time for the prize drawing.  We had a lot of prizes that were donated to us but the big prizes were Tuacahn tickets and Sky West tickets.  We drew those first but didn't reveal the winners.  We wanted everyone to have a chance to be in that drawing but we wanted them to stay until the end.  Courtney won some gift cards for kids meals at Cravings, my mom won a free pizza from Pizza Hut and my dad won a facial (which they gave me to).

In the end we made $5000 to donate to the school for iPad stations.  The PTA had money left over in their budget and were able to match the amount we raised.  So we were able to grant $10,000 to the school for iPad purchases.  That means that we are able to put iPad stations (4 iPads in a station) in all the 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms!  We were so excited!

We can't wait for next year!!

Popcorn Boy

Ethan needed community service hours for his Citizenship in the Community Merit Badge and I needed someone to pop a TON of popcorn for the fun run.  So it was a win-win situation, I think.  A local orthodontist donated the use of his popcorn machine along with all the supplies for our run.  At our meeting we decided it would be easiest if we had all the popcorn popped before the run so we wouldn't have to worry about popping it when people were finishing the race.  So I took the machine home so Ethan could pop the popcorn.  FOUR HOURS later he and Bryan had popped all we needed, put it into bags and put the bags in boxes so we could take it to the school the next day.  I'm sure Bryan and Ethan ate their fair share of the popcorn.  I am sure our neighbors were wondering what was going on at our house because it smelled so good!

Ethan wasn't a very happy camper when we finished, it was a lot of work, but he racked up some hours for his merit badge.

The secret is in the salt!