Emily's Optimist Award Night

A few weeks ago, Emily brought home a letter that she had been nominated for the Optimist Award through her school.  After congratulations and reading the letter, I of course went out to see what exactly the Optimist Creed said.

Okay, so yes, she definitely embodies many aspects of this creed. lol. 

The next week I shopped for a new dress, for her to wear at the ceremony. The first store I scoured was the 'discount' Goodwill, where clothes are sold by the pound, and nothing is sorted and there are just tables and tables of clothing mounds. The clothes are nice, but it's difficult to find something specific*.

My next stop was at a tiny thrift shop at the other end of town, and there on the children's rack, pulled away from the other clothing, hung a size 12 dress, shiny, beautiful, and only $2.  It was just meant to be for my Emily. = )

Fast forward to this week, and after a wildly busy day of substituting for the twins' teacher, then a virtual doctor visit for Juliet, it was time for Emily and I to head down to Charlotte to get her checked in.  Billy couldn't get away from work early enough to ride with us, so he joined me in the audience later.

The programs they passed out were very informative, giving a history of the optimists as well as a local chapter history.  They listed out all 154 nominees, their home school, and who put forth their nomination. 

After a short introduction by some local dignitaries, they started announcing each student and what their nominator had to say about their optimism. = )

Emily was nominated by Mr. Smith, her band director, and came across the stage in the second row of students.  The audience was packed for her crossing. = )  

It turns out, that it's somewhere around "M" that people in the audience start to excuse themselves.  By the time we got to the "W"s the audience was restless** and diminished, and when the final student crossed the stage, the applause was enthusiastic. 

They gave us an opportunity to photograph the collection of award winners!  Emily is 3-4 students from the left, hidden mostly behind the little girl in a long white dress.

She received 3 papers: one was from the city of Charlotte, one was from the state of Michigan (Angela Whitwer's office), and the final was a copy of the nomination that Mr. Smith submitted to the optimists, and one medallion from the optimist club. 

There was a reception afterwards where they served cake, ice cream, cookies and lemonade to the students and their guests^. Emily was full smiles the entire time, and even got to say hi to Mr. Smith before he left.

Quite a stash for the 'awards binder' that I keep.

We sure our proud of our optimistic Emily!!

later days

*it is for sure a store where you are told what you want, versus trying to track down something you want. lol.

** I pointed out to Billy where my maiden name would have fallen on the program. It's something he will get to "enjoy" the rest of our children's school years. ; )

^they capped the guests for each student at 4, so Alice stayed home with WGJ, and Emily got to enjoy Billy and my undivided attention.

Optimist Day at Burchfield Park

During one of our summer swims, Rachel clued me into this amazing event, scheduled for the end of August.  With a slightly cloudy sky, Alice opted to stay home, while the rest of us went to enjoy a beautiful day.

We hadn't even made it from the parking lot to the registration line when Alice called, panicked and changed her mind that she wanted to come after all. So, Billy left the 5 of us to go grab Alice, and we registered, and I totally did not take into account that all of the registration goodies were now going to be carried around by yours truly, since the car was now absent.  We were able to finagle Emily's hoodie into a kind of bag that I slung over my shoulder.

The next part of my story is a sad one, so I'm including no pictures, in hope in time that the sad memories will fade. 

We headed up to the fishing pool that they had installed, so that the kids could all catch a trout that they had seeded.  The line was fairly short, and my crew was up fast.  Emily was the first to catch.  They gave her a bucket, but her fish was such a fighter.  It escaped her hold, the bucket, her hold, landing hard on the pavement every time.  It was still trying to escape while on the hook during her picture.  We were both feeling this awful and brutal empathy with this fish who should have, by all means, escaped and live another day, slowly dying. By the time it was finally decapitated, Emily was in tears, and I was barely keeping it together, let along helping my 3 other children with their catches.  Luckily, as we headed down the hill, we were joined by Billy and Alice and all of our moods improved.  Well, mine did, as it always does when Billy is near, and I think Emily felt better too.

Next up was compound and traditional bow shooting!

As we continued our day, we found other fun.

At the hot dog lunch, we ran into so many people that we knew!

The kids really liked the Lego robotics table setup.  Nearby were some yard games, so that you could play while waiting for your turn to run the robot.

Once everyone had their chance with the robot, we headed over to the kayaks.  Alice, Emily & William all rowed alone, the twins had fun in a double.

At one point, William got to close to the boundary, and ended up floating across.  He had to be 'rescued' though he remained in his boat and had on his life vest and was in very little danger.

As the grand prize drawings came near, everyone started gravitating back to the starting area.  Grace waited very patiently for her turn to ride the bike, while the rest of my crew checked out the golf tent, dunking booth, or hung out with Daddy.

I am pleased to report that Grace met her goal of learning to ride a bike without training wheels this summer. I am so proud of her!

It was a lovely, well done, event.  We had great weather and enjoyed all the offerings that the optimist club put together.  I hope to return next year, but we'll probably skip the fishing.

later days

edit: publishing this post closer to the date of the event, for the sake of continuity.