Father/Daughter Dance

Samantha and Todd went to their first Father/Daughter dance at Peabody. 

Samantha's hair is FINALLY getting long. We took a long time getting ready. Washing and blowing drying her hair. 

Hot rollers!

A fancy new dress we went shopping for together, a little lip gloss and some shimmer on her eye lids and she was ready for her date!

But first, her date had to "erase" the scuff marks off her cowboy boots with a brown sharpie. 

Boots good as new and ready for a zillion photos! 

Someone was feeling VERY left out. 

Don't feel bad for the left out kid as he got to go on a sushi date with me ;)

While we were doing this, they were….

Can you guess which song this was? 

Again, Thatcher was doing just fine. His wish for his upcoming birthday was new tennis shoes ( I love when my kids ask for practical gifts) so we headed downtown to find the perfect pair. 

See, happy camper!

Now back to the dance, where we have tons of tons of keepsake photos.

Char and Sam

I found this photo to be a little Modern Family-ish ;) 

Sam, Lolo and Char

Sage, Sam and I am not sure who the other girl is ;)

1st grade girls!

Samantha's top highlights from then night: requesting "Fireball" from the DJ, the "Chicken Dance" and dancing with Daddy to "My Girl" at the end of the night.

And I'll leave you with a little Chicken Dance:

Chord Etude

Here's Samantha's journey to learning her next performance song from her piano teacher, Gus.

Jog-a-Thon 2015

The Peabody Jog-a-Thon was last month and it is no small feat to put this event on, I know, as I am on the committee. Which means, a certain artist is commissioned to help ;) 

It's the schools second largest fundraiser and takes about six months of planning to put on. 

Peabody does not disappoint with the incentives to raise as much money as you can. 

Preparation for the jog-a-thon starts on the first day of school in PE as the kids are coached to run, run and run some more. They make up songs for them to sing like, "It's all about the pace, bout' the pace, no sprinting." Sang to the tune of "All About the Base."

At the Jog-a-Thon kick-off assembly the kids are entertained by the staff and students with skits and fun presentations including revealing what prizes are in store for them. 

Even Ole' comes to the assembly ;) 

The assembly gets kids so pumped up that immediately they start with fundraising. 

Samantha raised three times as much money as she did last year. She was determined to raise enough to qualify her to go to a pizza/bowling party at Zodo's. 

I was in charge of corporate/family sponsorships. I'll give this guy a shout out one more time ;)

Ready to run!

And they were off! 

Last year, kindergarteners ran for 30 minutes and this year, as a first grader, you run for 40 minutes. 

Our school started the use of time chips to track laps last year and word has gotten out as we've gotten the time chip company more business with several schools who are using them now. Gone are the days of tallying laps with a marker. Jog-a-thons are the real deal these days ;)

Some friendly competition with these two. Out of all 105 first graders, Ashley was #1 and Samantha was #2. Outrunning the boys I must add ;) 

Samantha ran 36 laps which is equal to 4 1/2 miles at an 8:53 pace. Not bad for a 7-year-old. 

This is Samantha running last year. She took first place and ran 26 laps in 30 minutes (3.25 miles at a 9:13 pace).

1st, 2nd and 3rd place. 

Samantha and Charlotte this year AND

Samantha and Charlotte last year (and Ella).

It will be interesting to see how things shake up next year!

Here's Samantha getting her award last week: