Reading Rocks!

We had the Reading Rocks celebration last night and had more kids than ever show up! It was the first year that literally EVERY child we expected to be there, was there! It was exciting, but also made for a bit more chaos than I am used to. The past 2 years the party has been the same (LOTS going on at once), but with less kids it was pretty simple. I came home and immediately made notes for next year, to make it better considering the growth!

The kids were thrilled with the backpacks and supplies this year...Shannon did an AMAZING job hunting down deals and buying everything. She offered to take care of this for me a few weeks ago and I jumped at her offer, considering it's one of the biggest jobs of prep for this. She did it all while I was out of town for 2 weeks and gave me reports along the way. I think she hit every Staples (for their 1 cent sale) and Walmart, in the area...along with many other stores. She made that donated money go farther than it has ever gone before!!!! The backpacks were awesome and the kids absolutely loved the selection we had!!

The uniform room was a but different this year, as many schools in our area changed their colors (which is ridiculous and makes it so hard on the families around here), again and we did our best to accommodate. We focused on 2 main schools and took "orders" for the other kids. I spent a long time last night making a spreadsheet of the continued shopping that needs to occur for the kids that didn't get their uniform last night.

The kids also got a bag of socks and undies...we all need those! It was a great night, an exhausting night, and I am relieved it is done for the year!!!!

On a sad note, my whole mood was altered a bit at the end (right before the group photo), when I realized someone had stolen my camera...the small one I use for video clips mostly. I made an announcement to the kids right before they left, saying that I figured one of them picked it up and just hasn't had a chance to give it to me (knowing full well, they had stolen it). Thankfully the child who I believe stole it, gave it back. I am thankful to have it back, but it wasn't even really about that, I was heartbroken to think one of the kids would do that, especially on a night when they were so blessed with stuff and love. It's a reality, it stinks, it makes me sad, please pray for the little boy.,, he is a boy who is around our church a lot.