March Madness on cold medicine

In honor of all things March Madness, I thought I would spend a little time wrapping up our evening from last Friday. I know, on the surface these things do not correlate, but trust me, they do. See, last Friday night, Cory and I went with four other friends to the ALS fundraiser at the College Basketball Hall of Fame.

First things first, the ALS Association is a charity that we are happy to help support. Cory and I always like supporting charities to which we, or someone we know, have a special connection. (We like to support charities, even if I can't explain the concept to my child.) Our good friend Chris serves on the board of directors for the Keith Worthington Chapter of the ALS Association. So, when he asked if anyone was interested in attending this fundraising dinner, it was kind of a no-brainer.

We're getting up there in years, so we don't get to go to weddings all that much anymore. And, we're not really bar people. But, we do like to have a fun adult time every once in a while. So, when the opportunity came up for dinner, dancing and drinking with friends ... well, like I said: no-brainer.

We even got to get dressed up and ride in a limo down to the event.

It's amazing how much easier it is to take pictures when you don't have kids in them.

All the ladies, dressed up and ready to go.

Chris and Anne.

Megan and Brandon.

As fate would have it, I came down with a nasty head cold the day before the event. (In other, completely related news, check out this new study that shows that redheads are more prone to illness. In our entirely unscientific anecdotal family evidence, this is absolutely true.) But, we had already purchased the tickets, and we were going to ride in a limo. I couldn't NOT go. However, if you're wondering what Amy does on cold medicine and wine ... well, the rest of the pictures will tell you.

Cherries and chicken nuggets

So, I have this really amazing friend who is raising this really amazing daughter. For her 6th birthday, she decided instead of presents, she would ask everyone to donate money to for a local horse rescue organization. She raised over $200 for this organization. For her 6th birthday! In lieu of presents!

Here she is giving her raised money to the Healing Horses organization.

I know. Amazing, right?

Well, I was relaying this story to Cory a couple weeks ago. I told him that I thought it was incredible that she would give up presents to raise money for charity. I also told him that it made me feel like a schmuck. We need to get better at teaching the girls about charity, we're bad parents, we're raising selfish children, yadda, yadda, yadda.

At which point, Molly, who always seems to be able to hear private conversations Cory and I are having, yet cannot hear when I tell her for the 15th time to put her shoes on, asked what charity was.

Ok, I thought, great teachable moment. I'm going to be this awesome mom who explains charity in such a way that my 4-and-a-half-year-old child will be so inspired that she will dedicate her life to making the world a better place for those less fortunate. My explanation is going embolden and motive her so much that she will become the Mother Teresa of the preschool set.