What a success! (I say as I pat myself on the back)

This week we had our Hawk Walk awards assembly. It’s the final activity of the fundraiser that I was in charge of for the PTA. If you’d like to read more about our actual walkathon which was held last month, you can read about it HERE. Our theme has been, “We need to raise SUMO money.”
After that we had a lot of lap card counting and tabulating to figure out the top walkers in each grade, the classes who walked the most laps, judge the coloring contest, count money that came in and figure out which classes brought in the most percentage of their envelopes and also the $100 club, or the kids who brought in over one hundred dollars. All of these winners get prizes of some sort. I had planned on treating the class that walked the most laps to lunch from Chick-fil-A WITH the Cow! But we had a little problem with the laps. You see, there were two tracks, and they were both 1/5 mile long. But on one, the track took a slight jog in and out to make it long enough, and come to find out some of the kids just walked straight, which made that lap shorter by about 50 feet. Big deal, right? Oh, the complaints from the teachers! “That track was shorter, and so it’s not fair that my kids were walking on the other track.” Hmmmm, when I look at my schedule, Mrs. We-Have-to-win-at-everything, it shows that you were supposed to walk on that track. If you had only walked on your assigned track, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, would we? (No, of course I didn’t say that! That’s why it’s not in quotes, silly!) I just smiled and said we would take that into account. But then that made me really want that class to NOT win. As I counted the lap totals, I adjusted for the shorter lap, etc. Two classes were neck and neck. Really, it was too close to call it. One was ahead in laps, until I made the adjustment for the cheaters who didn’t walk the actual lap, then the other class was slightly ahead. I wanted to throw out both of those classes (because they ALWAYS win at everything. Overachievers) and say that someone else was the winner. But, even though I am in charge of the event and can really do whatever I want, that would probably be wrong. So, I called those two classes AND the next class that was only a fraction of a lap behind the winners. THREE CLASSES as winners. But then I had a problem. How could I crown three classes the winner, and would I have to change my prize of lunch from Chick-fil-A? ARgh. I called Vern, my super great contact at Chick-fil-A, and we worked something out. I paid as much as I could possibly afford, ($100), and he covered the rest of the cost (which was about $230). They have been SO generous with us!

So, I made certificates, divvied out prizes, stapled the free sandwich and free kids meal gift certificates for every student in the school, distributed all these into the teachers boxes, and was ready for the assembly the next day.

I went Tuesday night to pick up the sumo suits so that I wouldn’t have to rush and get them the morning of. I had asked if that would be ok, but I failed to call the day of and remind her that I was coming to get them. I got there after 7:00, and when I rang the bell, no one was there. This is a home based business, so I could understand that they had stepped out. I called both numbers I had listed, sent a text, did everything I could to contact her, and then came home. I was frustrated and disappointed and kind of mad that I had just wasted an hour (and the gas) driving out there and gotten no sumo suits. I was going to let my kids play around in them that night, too. Darn. As I got home and sent her an email, the horrible thought came to my mind….”What if she’s out of town and I can’t get the suits for tomorrow?!” Then the panic really started to kick in. It had been a really bad day, I was feeling fluish, and just wanted to go to bed, but I was worried about the suits. Thankfully, she called me back at about 8:45 and apologized over and over and over. I understand that these things happen, and I told her I would just come in the morning at about 8:30.

The next morning, I picked up the suits and floor mats without incident, went to the school to do my last certificates, and set things up. The principal even let me drive my car around to the back to set up. I felt like SUCH a rebel!

(Here’s a suit waiting to be worn)

The weather was perfect! I had worried that it might rain, but it was wonderful. Chilly but not too cold (although cold is good if you’re going to be throwing yourself around in a huge sumo suit). The sun was shining, and the kids were excited.

(especially this cute kid!)

We started the assembly, and I got to thank them all for their hard work and tell them how successful our event was. We actually raised more money than we EVER have doing this thing, so I feel pretty good about that. I announced the names of the fastest walkers and the $100 club, but I didn’t call them up. They get their certificate back in class and then we don’t have to deal with a bunch of confusion with kids coming up to get their prizes (yes, I’m brilliant!). I made a big deal about how we had THREE class winners, and there was much cheering when I announced those classes. Then I turned the time over to our principal, and they had a whole schtick worked up.

First came the silly string. There must always be silly string.

Then the office ladies came out as witches to pronounce a hex on the teacher who was wrestling the principal. It was so cute!

Such fun! Such drama! Then they wriggled into the suits and had the actual SUMO part.

I was laughing so hard! It was GREAT!!
We declared the teacher the winner and let them get out of their suits. I thanked the kids again, and sent them back to class. And it was over! Well, not quite over. I had to pack up the suits then get ready for our reward lunch, which was happening in about 45 minutes.

The lunch with the cow was also a big success! The kids got to come down early and eat chicken nuggets and brownies and lemonaide with the fun and friendly cow, and it was a lot of fun.

We were a bit stingy on the chicken nugget distribution, and therefore ended up with quite a bit left over. Looking back, we should have given all the kids one more nugget each, and it would have been about perfect, but we didn’t want to run out at the end. We made up plates for the office lady, the principal, the teacher who wrestled, and the custodians. We also had some. There was still enough for me to bring home and feed my family for dinner.

So now it is over! Me and the cow and the sumo suits, we throw a great party.

And I couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out! Hooray for me!