family fun night

okay.  so i realize that i am getting old.  and that i am fairly conservative/old-fashioned.  but when the school said that it was "family fun night", that they had "been planning fun activities" and "working hard", i was expecting something along the lines of games, prizes, snacks - you know "family fun".  i remember things like this at might elementary school growing up.

i few days ago i took another look at one of the fliers and saw a note towards the bottom about bringing cookies and who to contact.  i sent them an email asking if they still needed some and where i should take them when we got there.  yes, they still needed some and i should put them on the tables that would be set up near the entrance.

so i baked cookies (i just used the last bag of sugar cookie mix and stick of butter i still had and threw in some chocolate chips so i wouldn't have to ice them.  not my best, but they tasted fine.), matt got home, we ate a quick dinner, cleaned ourselves up and headed over to the middle school gym where the "family fun night" was happening.

we were greeted at the door by wild, screaming children running past us (not too surprising for a kids' event).  i quickly found the three tables they had set up for cookies.  two were completely empty and one had a half-gone tray of cookies, a zip lock bag four kids were trying to pick crumbs out of and some individual bags of chips.  the parking lot was full, we were late and obviously, very few people contributed cookies.  i felt a little bad about my half-hearted contribution, but at least i had brought something.  and it didn't matter any way because before i was even away from the table, they cookies were gone.

we could already hear (loud) noise and music from the gym so it was easy to find.  i was surprised by what we saw though.

the flash of my camera and it being a still shot does not capture the room.  think middle school formal (dark, strobe lights and booming music) but with unsupervised children who have each eaten a bag of sugar running at full speed in every direction. it was CHAOS!  our kids were even a little afraid to go in.  it was next to impossible to hear each other so we made the big boys hold on to the stroller and madelyn held my hand.  we worked our way to a calmer part of the room and let madelyn go say hello to some friends.  i think matt and i were equally in shock.

madelyn with two of her classmates - sarah and kylan.

it appeared that they must have set up a few inflatable games because kids we beating each other with inflatable bowling pins, basketball hoop and balls.  i really should have taken some video because words cannot capture it.

madelyn came back to get mason.  you can see from her protective arm around him how unsure they both were about the wild behavior all around them.  they walked cautiously around the gym and then came back to tell us that they had found a game in another corner that they wanted to try and play.

 so madelyn took maddux by the hand too and we headed over.

they had found a small bean bag toss game that appeared to be still standing because someone's grandma had been playing with her grandson who was currently in the bathroom.  she was nice enough to let our kids (and a few others) give it a try while she waited for him to come back.

mason did really great and threw the bags in with amazing accuracy.  maddux had to get right next to it to get them in (the holes were pretty small compared to the bags) but he was just as excited to have gotten them in.

and then we left.  i think we were there all of 20 minutes.  i can't say that this is going to be on our calendar next year.  it was not "family fun", i don't even think it was k-2 fun.  the older siblings seemed to be the only ones enjoying themselves - add they were destroying the place!  in the parents' defense, it was so loud in there, they could not have told their kids to stop even if you wanted to.

i wish our pto didn't meet at 4pm.  i would love to get involved and help them out!  especially because i don't think it is fair to criticize and complain if you aren't willing to do anything to make it different. i went to the first meeting with the kids (even though kids are not invited) because i really do want to be involved.  but the meeting went 1-1/2 hours before i had to leave (so that i could go home and make dinner for my now starving children - and they were SO good the whole time) and they weren't really all that interested in having anyone not already on the board volunteer (i am learning all the time how 'small' this community is).  although they did let me write a letter for them to put in the newsletter explaining all of the box tops, etc. collections for the year, which i did.

i guess i have to lower my standards.  which if you know me at all, you know that i won't.  love.