The power of the paddle

I know a lot of my recent posts have been a little school-heavy. But, well, that's what my life is right now, and this blog is called Life makes me Laff, so ... that's what you get. And, here's another one:

Molly's school only does one fundraiser a year. They have a walk-a-thon and get pledges from people to support the kids' walking. And, from my point of view, that's awesome. That means no selling wrapping paper, coupon books or cookie dough. (Though, being a Daisy Scout, she will be selling Girl Scout Cookies. Get ready.) I'm ecstatic not to have to go around asking everyone to buy stuff, of which only a percentage actually goes to the school.

We asked some neighbors and family to pledge money a couple weeks ago, then Friday was the big walk. The walk took place during school, then in the evening they had a party at the school with a bake sale, concessions and an auction.

Oh, boy. Did we clean up good at the auction. Being first-timers to this whole shebang, we weren't really sure how much things would go for. So, Cory had an amount he was wanting to spend to get the one thing on the auction list that we really wanted: drum roll, please ...

A movie after school with Molly's teacher.

If you're thinking, "Wow, that's so cool. What a great way for Molly to get in even better with her teacher," well, then that's what I was thinking, too. We're so on the same wavelength! And, if you just thought, "Wow, Molly would probably love that," well, you're clearly not as big of a kiss-up to teachers as I am. But, the truth is, Molly would love it. We happened to run into her computer teacher out at dinner the other night, and Molly was beyond excited. She would be over the moon to actually go see a movie with her teacher.

So, that was the big plan. That was our goal. We got to school, got some hot dogs and staked a claim on a table in the auction room.

Eating hot dogs with Dad.

Molly with her classmate.

The big movie outing was the second item on the auction block. The auction started. We wait for the announcement. Our hearts start pounding, palms sweating. Would we get it? Could we get it? How high was it going to go? How much would we be willing to fight for it? You could cut the tension with a knife.

Alright, that might be a slight exaggeration. Truth be told, you could barely hear anything over the din of children and parents talking and screaming, and we weren't really nervous or sweaty, but it makes it much more dramatic to think of it the other way. So, just go with me.

The announcer called, "Movie after school with Mrs. Clutts." She opened the bidding at $10. Someone else raised her paddle. Aack, this was going to be a bidding war. "Do I hear $11?" Cory quickly raised his paddle. "I've got $11, do I have $12? $12? $12? Ok, it goes for $11 to paddle number 14."

Wait, what?

How in the world did it go that quickly? How was there not a fight to the death for the privilege of going to a movie with Molly's awesome teacher? I guess it doesn't matter. We got it. WE WON.

But, it was WAY less than we were planning on spending, and all the money does go to Molly's school, so Cory started going bidding crazy.

We ended up with "Making jewelry after school with a teacher" and "Making cookies after school with a teacher." THEN, we went into the silent auction.


While we waited for the end of the silent auction, we went outside. Molly started playing with all her little friends. They were so cute together. It's so funny to think of her having friends that we didn't facilitate. But, we did spend a lot of time with the parents of her friends, and they are all really nice, so that's always a good sign.

Molly and A. Turns out, A's mom was best friends in high school with my college roommate, AND we even met a few times in college. How randomly small worldly is that?!? 

Giggly Kindergarten girls.

Not sure what they're doing, but they sure thought it was fun.

My absolute favorite picture from the night. These girls are in three different classes, so I'm glad to see that there is a lot of cross-classroom interaction.

Then, came the hair painting time of the evening. Yup, Molly couldn't wait to get her hair painted.

She was SO excited about this. 

Look at that crazy hair. Pink and blue stripes.

Molly had raised enough money through her pledges for the walk-a-thon to get the privilege of dunking a teacher in the dunk tank. It was a standard dunk tank where a person throws a ball at a target and the seat drops and the teacher falls into the water. Molly was probably about the 15th kid to get to go up there. Most kids got two throws, then just ran up and hit the target, dropping the teacher into the bucket.

Up walks little-ol Molly Lafferty. So unassuming. So sweet. I'm sure Mrs. V was expecting the standard two missed shots and a hit before she fell. But, Molly, she proved us all wrong. That girl threw and epic pitch and knocked it on the first shot. Mrs. V fell straight into the water.

I was standing way back behind tons of kids, so it was hard to get a picture. This is Molly getting her ball.

And, the wind up ...

Molly with a soaked Mrs. V after her amazing one shot.

After the dunk tank, we found out what we had won at the silent auction. Remember when I said Cory went crazy. I had absolutely nothing to do with anything in the silent auction.

Cory and the girls and the haul.

We ended up with an art piece made by Molly's class with all her classmates' handprints on it. (She's decided it needs to go over her bed so she can look at it and think of all her friends.) We also got a gift certificate to admission to Powell Gardens, two dozen donuts, and a basket full of Hostess deliciousness.

Yup, Cory was amazingly happy with this.

All in all, it was a great night. It started a little rough with the girls being cranky, but as soon as Molly found her friends, she was happy the rest of the night. We walked home with a huge haul for less than we'd even planned on spending, and hopefully the school made some good money.

And, since some of you had asked for a picture of me with straight hair, I took one with the girls when I got home:

PS. Although I do know Molly's friends' names, I didn't want to put them on here just because I don't know their parents all that well. But, I wanted you guys to know that I actually do know them. :)