Ya Win Some, Ya Lose Some

For the past two weeks, our royal castle (aka 2,000 sq. ft. ranch style home) has been hustling and bustling preparing for Karson's debut as a Royal Court Princess Nominee for Plano Elementary. After being elected by her peer's to represent Ms. Tinsley's class, she accepted the title proudly! She came home and got to work but not before mentioning that they had to elect three different BOYS to be prince for her class. Apparently royal courts aren't for the boys! In fact, when I vaguely mentioned it to Isaac, he gruffly said, "aaack, I don't even know what you're talking about and I wouldn't do it anyway."

This has been our first experience with the royal court, and from what I've heard, it's only been done one other time--the first year Plano opened. The court is set up to raise money for STLP (student technology) and to assist kids financially for the state competition in Lexington in the spring. Each child selected was supposed to send in two photos (a baby and a current photo) for a slideshow--which I'm sure was put together by STLP.

All class representatives created a box. The students voted by placing money in the boxes each day. There was only a thirty minute window for voting. Then the money was collected, counted and locked up. Each penny raised was 1 vote. Coming up with money was no problem for Karson. We are fortunate having such a strong support system of family and friends. The money rolled in--plus lots of her school friends were voting for her. Karson got more and more excited as the weeks passed. I don't know if it was Karson's confidence that sold me or what, but I sure felt like she had a VERY good shot of winning.

The court was broken down as follows and winners were to be announced at Fall Festival: Duke and Duchess (Grades K-2), Prince and Princess (Grades 3-4), andKing and Queen (Grades 5-6) for our school.

Our neighbor Mia was selected as a duchess representative for Kindergarten.

My biggest stressor before Fall Festival was what on earth to dress her in? Karson doesn't have a large closet full of selections, I'm a minimalist, ya know! She only has a handful of dresses, and to me, none of them seemed appropriate for a Fall Festival event. I bought a cute little number at Crazy 8 and after trying it on Karson decided that I didn't like it that much. I have THE WORST case of buyers remorse and am always taking stuff back. I chose something more practical from Gymboree and thought she looked beautiful.

With my fingers crossed and my stomach in knots, the announcements were made. My sweet Karson DID NOT win. I was proud of her and how she kept her composure because I know it must've been hard not hearing her name called. The court closed all the fall festival activities, and we made a b-line for the exit of the gym. Karson burst into tears immediately after we were outside. Both of the boys reacted like...what in the world is she crying about? They had no idea what had happened and then spent the next couple of minutes comforting their sister. It was a sad and beautiful moment =).

**A couple of bright notes: (1) the court raised $2500 for STLP and (2) the true honor for Karson was being elected by her peers. The rest of the contest had to do with how much money was donated, and we will never know those results.

In other fall festival news, the kids enjoyed their time there. We visited all the classrooms, played all the games, collected all the junk, uh, I mean prizes, ate enough candy to make Dr. Elliott angry, and fellow shipped with friends. At one point, Miles won a 2-liter Coke which I had to carry around all night. After a while, I popped it open and started drinking out of it. Why not, right?

Miles never quite got the football kick down. I felt sorry for the poor guy chasing the ball everywhere.

I didn't take as many pictures this year. I had a lot on my mind with court and getting Karson changed and for this reason...

Seriously, my children (minus K) DO NOT like having their picture made. They don't realize it would take 2 seconds to smile and get it over with, but instead they choose to whine for 10 minutes, and I NEVER get a good shot. Any opinions of preventing this??? I'll take 'em.