Rock On!

Today was the volunteer appreciation breakfast at Wildman’s school.  I try to help out in Wildman’s classroom once a week when Cutie Pie is in preschool.  I’ve helped with art projects, making die-cut shapes, and reading with the children.  I absolutely love it!  Let me tell you, I was not prepared for how incredibly cool this appreciation event was!

The breakfast had a rock and roll theme and they went all out!  The principal and assistant principal dressed to the hilt in their best rock attire.  The assistant principal event demonstrated his impressive electric guitar skills.

Each volunteer received a hand-colored electric guitar cutout and a printed gift bag that said “Surfside Volunteers Rock”.  The teachers and staff all brought in breakfast items to share.  The chorus performed specially written songs for us.  The best part for me was when all 400+ students paraded through the cafeteria singing “Surfside Volunteers Rock” to the tune of “We Will Rock You”.  So cool!

I can’t believe how much attention to detail went into the event.  I think we all left there feeling pretty loved 🙂

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A Glimpse of Wednesday

It’s been raining here off and on all week.  Our pool was almost completely full on Tuesday night.

I went outside to feel to cooler air and take a few photos of the rain and the pool.  It made me thankful for our cozy,dry house.  I love rainy nights.

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Cutie Pie’s teacher has been doing a unit on the five senses with the children in her class.  On Wednesday they were covering the sense of smell.  I volunteered to do the Kool-Aid watercolor activity that I had done a while back with Cutie Pie.  She happily invited me to come in and said that it sounded way more fun than coloring with smelly markers like she had planned.

I took two children aside at a time to paint with dissolved Kool-Aid.  I drew fruit shapes to match each scent and had the children decide which color went with each fruit based on the smell of the “paint”.  The children seemed to really enjoy this activity and could not wait to smell each of the colorful cups of Kool-Aid.  The room smelled so good!

Cutie Pie was thrilled to have his mommy visit his classroom.  He kept running up to give me hugs!

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I carpool with a friend of mine.  Her middle child and Cutie Pie attend the same preschool so we take turns driving them to and from school.  Wednesday was my turn since my friend’s oldest child came down with a stomach bug.  I snapped the photo above of the two kiddos chilling out to a movie on the way home.  They look so darn cute, I can’t stand it!

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Wildman’s buddy came over to play after school on Wednesday too.  The boys managed to litter toys from one end of the house to the other in a matter of minutes.  Such is the nature of play dates, I suppose.  My inner neat freak was crying out the whole time but I refrained from cleaning until Wildman’s friend had been picked up 🙂

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There you have it.  A random grouping of events from mid-week.  Fascinating, I know!

One in a Million

As part of Disney’s Give a Day.  Get a Day. volunteer program, I participated in a local beach clean up on Saturday morning while J and the boys were at the t-ball game.  I consider our beaches pretty darn clean at least when compared to the beaches that we frequented when we lived on the TX Gulf coast.  You don’t see abandoned cars, diapers, liquor bottles, etc. polluting environment here.  But that does not mean that we don’t have litter bugs here in FL too.  Now that I’ve done the 2010 Trash Bash and seen how much junk was collected from our shoreline,  I’m looking forward to coming back year after year.

This lady and I were one of the first ones to head north on the beach armed with our black trash bags and latex gloves.  As a result, we found most of the bigger garbage.

The irony of finding a trashcan washed up on the beach was not lost on me.  However, I was not exactly strong enough to unearth the thing and drag it back to the pavilion…  Another strapping volunteer came to the rescue instead.

An army of volunteers headed south.  After I dropped off my northbound trash bag full of junk.  I grabbed another black bag and decided to see what the south had to offer.  I figured that since so many volunteers had already canvased the area that I would not find too much debris.

I was wrong…

This photo does not do justice to the size of the rope that I found lying near the dunes half a mile away from the pavilion.  It was HUGE.

And HEAVY!!!

It weighed at least 50 lbs.  I drug that thing through the sand and seaweed for half a mile taking breaks every couple of hundred feet.  Needless to say, I got a great workout!

The nice lady in the photo with me and my rope coordinated the event.  She’s super sweet and attends my Zumba classes too!

Like I said, I was surprised by the amount of litter that we picked up on Saturday morning.  It makes me want to carry a bag with me every time I go to the beach so I can pick up trash.  I’m definitely going to mark my calendar for this event next year!!!  I think J and the kids would love to do it too.

Now I’m looking forward to joining the other 999,999 registered volunteers in a free day at Disney!