Whew! Busy day yesterday.... I'm glad it's over.
The kids signed up to work a shift during the tip-a-cop fundraiser for Special Olympics. They were working the 12-2 shift, so we went early and ate at Red Robin before they started working.
It was a great fundraiser, and raised a great deal of money... (could you turn down a cop in an apron and a developmentally delayed child (wearing their medals, of course) standing next to your table asking for a small donation for a good cause? I couldn't!)
The kids were each paired with one of the cops who were working, and they just walked around talking to people about Special Olympics, refilling water glasses, and trying to keep out of the way of the real servers.
A few pictures...
Here are all the cops who worked that shift, with the manager of Red Robin, showing a caricature someone made of the fundraiser.
A close-up of the caricature, it was pretty cool. The writing on the mat is best wishes to Special Olympics, the Special Olympics motto ( “Let me win but if I can not win let me be brave in the attempt” ) and other inspirational messages.
The kids had a great time and ended up working almost 3 hours!
We came home for a quick quiet time, then it was off to church and the St. Joseph Coffee House dinner and get-together afterwards. The kids always enjoy the St Joseph meeting, but they were both so tired by then that we left early... we were all ready for bed!
We're home most of today, thank goodness... although the kids have swimming tonight, and soccer tomorrow night.
I love Special Olympics but it's sure taking a lot of time right now!
... it's just been a very busy week!
The busy-ness started last Sunday when my sister surprised me by coming out for my birthday. She got here just in time for my birthday dinner on Sunday... It was a wonderful surprise, and it was so good to see her. She stayed for several days and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of her visit...
My real birthday was Wednesday and it was a quiet day (since we celebrated on Sunday) but I did get calls from both my siblings, which made the day very special... Phone calls are hard for me (because M gets so unpredictable when I'm on the phone) so I don't get to talk to my sibs nearly often enough. It was wonderful to talk to both L and S in one day!! (and have J here to talk to in person!!)
The kids and I spent Thursday and Friday mostly just getting caught up with school (since we took the first part of the week off). Friday evening we went to our homeschool group's 'NOT Back to School Party" for a little while, then headed north for a wedding reception at the Butterfly Pavilion. The reception itself was wonderful but it was especially nice to get to wander through the butterfly pavilion... R recently found some monarch caterpillars which we brought inside (along with plenty of milkweed to feed them!) and I was excited to show her all the pavilion's cool exhibits on the butterfly life cycle...
This morning the kids bowled with Special Olympics (and R finally got beat after winning 4 games in a row!) and this afternoon we went to church for Mass and a get-together afterwards for people with special needs and their families. It was a nice evening... both kids did well in church (a miracle! ...all the people really trigger R's anxiety AND M's restlessness and unpredictability) and we sang my all time favorite song for the closing hymn... then we headed downstairs for pizza and bingo. M started wearing out pretty quickly, but we did manage to meet some new people and play a couple of games of bingo before he just insisted on leaving.
So.... that's my week. It was a busy one, but so very nice.
