Things Just Keep Looking Up for the Dog Walker!

I guess I spoke a little too soon about the Dog Walker's toe. Turns out that he has a little infection now. I called the doc this morning and he ordered antibiotics and it looks much better already.

Senator Hatch's office called us again today. The "least" they can do is get us a tour of the White House! We are so excited about that! When I tried to make those reservations myself, I was told they were booked months in advance and we were way too late. They also requested information for a security check...does that sound promising? Maybe I'm over-analyzing things, but it did to me.

The Dog Walker also got another phone call today. This one was from Utah Dave. Now I know everyone in Utah knows about Utah Dave, but just for the benefit of all the rest of you, I will explain. Remember when the kids were in the Countryfest parade? Well, after they finished the parade route, they loaded their bikes into the Drama Queen's truck and they joined us on the curb. It didn't take long before the Utah Dave truck came along, blaring some awesome rock 'n roll.

Utah Dave is a realtor here in the south end of the valley and every summer he has a dance contest during the parades and then he and his staff choose the finalists. Those finalists get all their friends to vote on Facebook and the winner gets $1000. The Dog Walker just couldn't resist that. He loves strutting his stuff and he has no fear of the camera. Watch the clip from South Jordan and maybe you can see him. (It will be much easier to get you a real link on Monday.)

They were calling to inform us that the Dog Walker was chosen as a finalist for the South Jordan parade! He is thrilled to be a little famous again. So the videos will be posted on Monday and I will give you all a link so you can vote for him. He could sure use the money for school this fall. He got a scholarship to cover his tuition, but he still needs money for books and fees. That $1000 would be perfect!

You guys are awesome!

Thanks.

Bike Helmets and Safety Slogans

Dog Walker and Curly

Despite the fact that we are in the middle of a huge ugly construction mess at our house, good things are happening! Back in March when my kids were off track, our city and a neighboring city sponsored a contest. They were looking for a catchy slogan that would encourage people to wear helmets when riding bikes, scooters, skates and skateboards. We have always insisted that our kids wear their helmets, so this was one I really wanted them to enter.

I remembered the contest late in the evening on the night before it was due. Then I almost decided that this was one of those times we should just pass. But the kids were off track so I figured it wouldn't hurt to let them stay up a little longer. Despite the late hour (or maybe because of it!) they came up with some pretty clever stuff.

Sport and Scout

I dropped the pictures and slogans off the morning they were due and promptly moved on to other things. Then last week I got a call...

Scout and Sport were both semi-finalists and they wanted to make sure we could come to the Bike Safety Fair on April 21. Of course we would be there! A letter from the school also promised them each a new bike helmet from the police department for their semi-final win.

So yesterday, after we ran our first baseball clinic for the little kids...me in my corner with Scout's team and my sweetie in his corner with Curly's team, we showed up at the fair. Scout and Sport immediately got their new helmets and then headed for the bike course.

It was only a few minutes later that they called everyone to the stage area for the presentation. They even had Fox News there! Scout's name was the first one called and she received an awesome backpack full of fun goodies. There were seventeen semi-finalists and after 15 had been called, Sport's name had still not been read.

Sport's Awesome Slogan!

He was looking pretty uncomfortable until the announcer informed us that there were two names that had not been read. Those two names had come up with the winning slogan! Then he called Sport's name and the name of a girl from a different elementary school. Their slogans were one word off. Sport's version, "Don't Be Insane, Cover Your Brain!" is the official version. The girl's version used the word "protect" instead of "cover."

Baby Doll sure wanted to ride a bike...

Both kids get the benefit of all the first prizes...a pizza party for their classes, exposure from the advertising campaign, including a news story on Fox (although I was going to link it and I can't find it on the internet), and last but not least, a new bike helmet for every member of their immediate family. I don't think they had any idea just how much that was going to cost them...

You know, fitting a bike helmet can be so confusing, especially for so many different sizes of heads! Here is an excellent guide to help you figure out how to "cover your brain."  https://www.foldingbikezone.com/how-to-choose-a-bike-helmet/

Beauty Pageants

Have you ever been in a beauty pageant? I know, that doesn't really seem to be my style, does it? Well, one year I was invited to be a State Finalist (whatever that means) in the Miss United Teenager pageant.I was excited and flattered and it took me a while, but I finally convinced my parents that I really wanted to give it a try. It was 1982 and I was a junior in high school

I never thought of myself as being a beauty. I struggled with weight issues all my life, but this pageant didn't have a swimsuit competition and it did have a writing segment. Silly me, I thought I might have a chance.

It was held at the University of Utah. Grandma brought me up to campus and I remember getting lost. We eventually found the check-in area and I settled into a dorm. The competition took two or three days and I really don't remember it all that well.

I know that the red and white outfit in the first picture was required and we all practiced and then performed a big number together in those clothes. They sent us patterns and I made the skirt. White strappy shoes were also required. We were allowed to choose our own evening gown and this peach-colored one was actually the dress my mom made for my junior prom.

I felt pretty good about things going in, but by the time I met the other girls I realized I was way out of my element. Having our pictures snapped every 2 seconds was disturbing to me and I didn't love wearing a dress all the time. I felt like most of the time I was pasting on my smile and not being myself.

Not surprisingly, I was eliminated in the first round, but that didn't stop me from tossing my hat into the ring one more time. I'll tell you about that tomorrow.

Reflections

One of my all-time favorite pics! Why didn't this one win?

It’s definitely fall. There’s a chill in the air, football is in full swing, and I even noticed leaves starting to drop from the trees. There’s something else I noticed, Reflections paperwork coming home from the schools.

Reflections is a contest sponsored by the PTA in the United States so that kids can be rewarded for being creative. My kids love it! When the Drama Queen was a senior in high school (2006), she rallied all the kids and they all agreed that they wanted to enter this contest in every category. There are 8 categories, stuff like Literature, Choreography, Visual Arts…times 6 kids in the public school system equals 48 entries! Oh, they had entered before, just not in such huge numbers, and even though the themes are released almost a year in advance, we never get around to starting anything until the paperwork comes home. We aren't really loving the theme this year...Diversity Means. That could be anything!

So for the last five years, August is flags, and September and October are Reflections. Only this year, with the scout thing and the Dog Walker’s newfound fame (I got my first nasty phone call, btw), September is almost over and we haven’t even started yet.

Our family has managed to place pretty well in every category, but our most consistent wins come in Theater. The Drama Queen and the Dog Walker both won first place at state competition. Princess, Teach, and Sport have also been runners-up at state. I try to provide the kids with the opportunity to prepare their entries, but they do the rest. Remember I told you that we have family home evening on Monday nights? Well, for two months we work mostly on Reflections. Like next week is Visuals Arts night. I’ve already purchased the canvas and the mats and we will break out the oil paints and let all the kids have a hand at painting. I always make sure that everyone gets a turn even if they are too young or too old to enter the contest, although in my family, almost everyone is in the public school system.

The one category we usually don’t do well in is Photography. I just don’t understand what makes a picture great, I guess. I’m tossing in a few of their photos here and there and maybe you can tell me. Dance Choreography is very popular at my house as you can imagine with all of these dancers here. You would be surprised how often the Dog Walker wins in this category. He used to make up dances for just himself, but when he was in middle school he took a social dance class and now he loves dancing with some cute little girl and throwing her around.

My favorite part is that at least once a year we get photos and videos with the kids. That first year, Crafty was in kindergarten and she was so tiny and cute. She made up a dance to House at Pooh Corner. She won on the school level, but that is all. Not that I care…I still have a cute video of her dancing that would never have been made if it weren’t for Reflections. So even though my life is crazy, I’m printing out the grid…6 kids x 8 categories = 48 entries. I’m pretty good at math, too bad they don’t have a category for that!

Or this one...amazing contrast here and the plane is up!

Iron Chef

Only two weeks to go to Labor Day, so we couldn’t let a Sunday pass by without trying to complete another item on our Summer List. One of our favorite activities from last summer was our first Iron Chef competition. We split our family into two teams, boys against the girls. Last year the boys won by preparing the judge’s (Grandpa) favorite fruit salad as an appetizer. This year the girls were determined to win.

Our list of common ingredients included chicken, zucchini (what else am I going to do with it?), and chocolate chips. Then each team got to choose a secret ingredient that was revealed to the other team this morning. The girls chose oatmeal and the boys chose Swiss Chard… really?!

The cook-off started at 4:30 with all three courses to be served at 6:30. We take a little more time than the TV show since we only have one kitchen. My sweetie is a much better cook than me, so we make the boys cook outside where they have the option to grill, Dutch Oven, or use the hotplate on the grill. They can also use the oven if needed (we try to be nice about these things, although after the chard thing they didn’t really deserve it).

Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!

One of the best things about this competition is that we try to make something new and maybe a bit unusual. Grandpa is always a good sport and he eats everything. His all-time favorite food is homemade bread. Last year we made rolls as part of both meals. This year I forgot to make that stipulation, and the first thing my sweetie did was mix up a big batch of Dutch Oven rolls. The other rule is that everything has to be made from scratch with ingredients we have on hand or in the garden.

We were pretty sure we had a winner this year. The Drama Queen printed some recipes for Teriyaki Chicken and Tempura Vegetables. I know my dad loves Japanese food since he has a Japanese daughter-in-law. We also figured that a good bar cookie would top that off just perfectly.

We had planned a salad for an appetizer, but the guys got to the lettuce first, so Bossy pulled off a miracle by making Swiss Chard veggie sushi. She used thin sliced cucumber, carrots, and zucchini and rolled it into chard leaves with a little rice to hold it all together. It was surprisingly good (although the boys beat it out with their fruited salad. They used lettuce and chard, but then they added fresh strawberries and apricots (I still have a ton of them if you are interested!) carrots and nuts. They even made a homemade vinaigrette!

Ok, maybe they deserved that one. But our Teriyaki Chicken with rice and Tempura Veggies beat out their Zucchini Boats with Chicken and Pasta hands down. Not even their homemade rolls could save them. My sweetie agreed that our food was tastier!

So it was all up to the final dessert. The boys had a good one. Sport and the Dog Walker made Rice Krispie squares with chocolate chips stirred in. The little kids had already given it the thumbs-up! But in the end, my Coconut Pecan Chocolate Chip Oatmeal cookie bars were declared the winner.

We had a great time sharing our food, talking and laughing and just being together. Last year the girls (losers) were required to do the cleanup. This year we just earned bragging rights…I’m still not sure how that happened…next year I’m going to write down ALL the rules before we start! Thanks for being the judge, Grandpa!

Summer List...

About four or five years ago, I had finally had it with all the time the kids were wasting during summer vacation. The older ones would sleep in until noon, waste two hours doing a ten-minute job, and then beg to hang out with friends or go back to their bedrooms to hibernate. Every morning I would labor over a huge list of tasks for me, then celebrate (and beat myself up) when I was able to cross off less than half every night before bed. 

My sweetie said I was list-obsessed and he’s right! One thing led to another and in our efforts to satisfy my list-o-mania and get the kids motivated at the same time, we developed the Summer List. We write the list on Memorial Day and then try to complete all tasks by Labor Day. We start with the youngest child and go around the room five times with each person adding something to the List. If you are counting, that gives us roughly 60 things to do during the three months of summer. (Except that my kids are on year-round so we really only have about 6 weeks of summer.) 

 

This year we got started a week late because half the family was across the state moving the Drama Queen home. So last night we cooked outside, snarfed down my sweetie’s best BBQ ribs, and then sat in a circle to compile 2011’s Summer List. Curly was so excited he was jumping up and down! "Camping!" was his first response. Obviously he enjoyed his first Fathers and Sons Campout even though it was cold and they were rained on all night. 

Scout quickly added "Swimming" to the List. She had clearly been thinking about it for a while. Sport added build a treehouse, Crafty wanted to have a picnic at a new park we have never visited before. The Prima Donna thought doing some Family History (i.e. scrapbooking) would be fun. Princess decided we need to watch all the Disney Princess movies (go figure…) and the Dog Walker wanted to finish his last ten Merit Badges. I voted for Iron Chef 2 (I guess I’ll have to tell you about the first one some time). My sweetie thought refinishing the hardwood floor would be a good idea…I know, but nothing can be vetoed if it hits the Summer List. The kids all know if it is too outrageous or costs too much, it just won’t get crossed off. Time to go around the circle again! 

Curly was still jumping up and down. "Camping!" he yelled. Finally we convinced him to choose something else…backyard camping…which is one of our favorite activities, complete with a sunrise breakfast prepared by my sweetie. Last year as a nod to our Danish ancestry we made Æbleskiver. Other things were added, movies and concerts in the park, wii tournament, zuzu pet show, paper airplane contest, backgammon and piano lessons, a Harry Potter Marathon…fix something in the yard (any guesses on who put that one on?). 

One of our favorite Summer List activities is a Book Club and we chose the book Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. We also added lots of summer reading programs for the little kids. The hardest items on the list this year include a trip to Lagoon (a local amusement park) and all the stuff my sweetie put on the list. It’s a good thing we have my sweetie to help us with the Summer List. Otherwise we might just waste our whole summer.

**Editor's Note:  My family didn't get to add anything to the list yet so it is my turn.  I want to have another movie in the backyard.  And plant a bunch of trees, right across the back fence blocking the neighbors that stare like we are an exhibit at the zoo...  Don't forget to enter our Give Away.

Government Contracts and Radio Contacts

When I was pregnant with number three, I went to work as a technical writer for a small defense contractor. It was a good job with good benefits and security. My sweetie went to work full time for the company he was working for so we finally were pulling in a decent income. Unfortunately, we had gotten ourselves under a pile of debt with school and cars and other stupid purchases that we shouldn’t have made. That meant we were both going to have to work for a good long time. I was 24 years old. Life was good but hard. 

When ends didn’t meet, I took on a part time teaching job. When they still didn’t meet, we started selling Tupperware on the side. Life became entirely too crazy then! I was gone nearly every night of the week except Sundays. I hardly ever saw my kids or my husband. I had some friends from work who were very supportive. One of those friends was a girl named Nancy. I guess I shouldn’t call her a girl, she was five years older than me, but she didn’t act like it. She was a single mom with a son just a few years older than Bossy. Even though she had a rather sad life, you would never have known it. She was always happy and helpful. She was the Document Control Librarian so we got to spend a lot of time together. She never thought a task was beneath her. 

She made countless copies for me and burned thousands of holes so that we could duplicate our vast library of government documents. We both liked the same radio station and kept it running constantly in our offices. One day they announced a birthday contest. If the day pulled out happened to be your birthday and you called in you could win $500.00! Nancy was just sure that one of our birthdays would be called out so we made a pact. If either one of us heard the other person’s birthday, we would quick call the station and then holler out to the other person and put them on the line. 

So I was working along one day when suddenly Nancy’s birthday was announced. I picked up the phone, hollered her name, and was surprised when the call rang through. My fingers started shaking, this was it! "Nancy!" I yelled. Her office was just around the corner from mine, but her dark head never appeared at the door. The DJ answered with the station’s call letters. "My birthday is January 30^th!" I blurted, then covered the receiver with my hand. "Nancy!" I called again urgently. She never came. I guess the DJ didn’t believe me or maybe it was standard protocol, but he asked me what year I was born, when I graduated high school…a whole list of questions that I couldn’t answer. When he finally determined that I was not giving him the truth, he hung up.

 I jumped out of my chair and burst into Nancy’s office. "Didn’t you hear me?" I stormed. "You could have just won the $500.00!" She was so calm. "Let’s call them back and explain everything," she suggested. I paced back and forth while she made the call. When she finally replaced the phone in the receiver, she had a smile on her face. "Did they say you could get the money?" I demanded. "No," she replied, "but they were nice, oh, and they are not going to call the police." That was Nancy. Nancy passed away from colon cancer on St. Patrick’s Day. I heard she was happy and smiling right to the end. She was 51 years old. Rest in Peace my friend.

Follow link to donate to Teach's Team

Rains Came Down and the Floods Came Up

Some nights I stay up late just writing this blog for you. It drives my sweetie crazy because when I don’t get enough sleep I get ornery. But if I don’t spend time forcing a particular story from my brain, I don’t get any sleep anyway because it rattles around in there until I spit it out. So Friday night was one of those nights. The Autism stuff is such a huge part of our lives that its story was itching to be told. I finally forced myself off the computer and up to my nice soft bed around 2:30 a.m.


The baby fussed a few times and demanded her middle of the night snack…she’s getting really chubby, by the way…but by 9:00 a.m. I was still snoozing soundly when the door slammed open. Ten-year-old Crafty was responsible, "Mom! Get up and bring some towels! We have a flood in the bathroom!" She grabbed an empty laundry basket and headed back down the stairs. In my dazed and confused nightmare, I reached for my bifocals and knocked them to the floor. It took me a minute or two to locate them and clear my head. We do not live in a floodplain!

I pulled on my clothes from last night, grabbed a pile of towels and headed down the stairs. I nearly crashed into the Dog Walker as he brought the shop vac in from the garage. "Dad’s downstairs," he said before I asked. "It’s raining in the storage room." Crafty was busy trying to soak up the water on the bathroom floor with towels that were already more than saturated. "Toss that wet rug in the basket," I suggested. "I’ll go start the washer." That was dumb! Laundry baskets have holes and I totally underestimated the amount of water one rug could hold. When I picked up the basket, water ran all down the front of my shirt and shorts. Did I mention that it was the toilet flooding? Yeah. Not clean water…

After I got the washer running I grabbed a few more towels from the laundry mountain and made my way back to the flooded area. We spread them out on the carpet all around the bathroom door. Then we did a new kind of potty dance by stomping all over them to help pick up the excess water. My sweetie, Teach, and the Dog Walker were dragging heavy Christmas boxes out of the storage room. Cardboard was soaked and so was the carpet in the downstairs family room. We only finished that area this past summer so my sweetie was more than a little stressed.

brandfreak.com

"Get the fans!" he hollered. The kids set them all up in various spots on the wet carpet. We danced some more. As it turned out, the little fans weren’t enough to do the job. My sweetie headed to Home Depot and rented a couple of their industrial strength fans to blow away the rest of the water. They were loud and noisy, even for my house, but they seemed to do the trick. I rounded up the kids and headed them all to the van to get them out of the house. I didn't want to take any chances by leaving them stranded in a floodplain!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Time for details on the new contest! We thought it would be fun to give away some cute kids stuff for Easter. We have one box for boys and one for girls. If you are the winner, you get to choose. Prizes retail for about $25.00 and include things like Barbies and Hot Wheels sets. It will definitely arrive in time to assist the Easter Bunny. Now, there are three ways to get your name entered into this random drawing. First, everyone on the followers’ list will automatically get one entry. Then, if you leave a new comment on any post you will receive a second entry (limit one entry from commenting). And, if you link your blog to mine (leave a comment directing me to your blog so I can visit), I will enter you again! The contest begins at this very moment and ends on March 25, 2011 at midnight MST. Remember to leave me your contact information so I can find you if you win. Good luck!

Friday Freebies: Coupon Night

 
I am still so new to this blogging thing that I have to call Bossy every time I need to understand the rules.  She would love it if I would spend hours every day promoting various blogs and reading examples from others.  I prefer the writing part and I truly don't have time to spend more than a few minutes a day while Baby Doll is nursing, Curly is climbing on my back and kicking my chair, and Scout is pestering me for just one more book. 
 
That said, I have read some of the blogs she forwards to me and one of my favorites is "The Meanest Mom."  I want to be more like her when I grow up.  Today Bossy forwarded me a contest on her blog I couldn't say no to. The Meanest Mom, Walgreens, and BlogHer are teaming up and one lucky reader of her blog will win a $100 gift card to Walgreens. 

Since there are about 100 Walgreens in a 2-mile radius of my home, I've had plenty of opportunity to shop there.  I love their rebate program where you can go in and buy some weird thing you've never tried before and then get all of your money back.  Check out her contest here.  Be sure to tell her twelvemakesadozen sent you.  

Don't forget to enter in my giveaway.  I have enjoyed reading your emails and comments.  Don't forget to enable your email on your blogger account or leave an email in your comment so I can contact you if you win!  Submissions close TODAY Friday, Feb. 25th the winner will be contacted on the 27th.   Onto the Freebie Friday:

We love to eat out! To us, it means no dishes and no clean-up. The only problem is that it’s expensive! Although I haven’t come up with a cost-free method of eating out every night and twice a day on weekends, I have figured out a way we can eat out about once a month with very little cost. It’s called Coupon Night, and my kids think it’s great (mostly because we usually get at least two desserts). In most of our public schools, teachers give out lots of coupons. Our kids have received coupons for kids’ meals, chicken sandwiches, frozen yogurt, ice cream cones, cookies, movies, water-parks, and plenty of other things. We also cut out coupons from the local newspapers for free candy bars, buy 1 get 1 free dinners at fast food places, and other things that we can share. Then we find a night on our busy calendar when most of us are home, and we map out our strategy. 

It is important to plan our stops so that we actually have a meal before we get any desserts. We also want to make sure that everyone gets a share of our collective booty. Sometimes we have to supplement our coupons with a few dollars, but we try to keep our cash outlay at less than $10.00 for the night not counting gas. I have a large manila envelope on my desk where we stash all of these coupons until the chosen day. First, we gas up the van and get our free car wash. We’ve got to look good, even if we are being cheap! We might start at Fat Jacks pizza where three of our kids had earned free small pizzas. After getting their pizzas we head to Chick Fil A where we pick up four free chicken sandwiches and then stop in at Sonic and grab some buy 1 get 1 free hamburgers. We share and munch on our way to Smith’s. 

At Smith’s, we usually stop at the bakery and get free cookies. Then we grab a cart for a few more goodies. I have a couple of buy 1, get 1 free coupons for two-liter bottles of soda pop, so we pick up several kinds for later. On our way out of Smith’s, we head over to Menchis and everyone gets a frozen yogurt (free, with coupons, of course). We stop by the RedBox on our way home and pick up a couple of free movies. After we arrive at our house, we pour everyone a free soda, pop in one of our free movies, and sit back to relax and digest with no dishes, no clean-up, and no financial guilt.

Speaking of free food check this out: http://www.chick-fil-a.com/FreeFryDay.html 

Eat Mor Chikin

I know you were all looking forward to the rest of my dog story, but it will have to wait for a couple of days. I want to tell you about something fun that happened to us yesterday. My kids like to enter contests (you know, like my doctor story contest that ends tomorrow), particularly writing or art contests. So our local Chick Fil A sponsored a writing contest. It was open to grades K – 6 and the rules were pretty loose, you just had to write a story about the Chick Fil A cow. The prize was 52 free kid’s meals! And since we love Chick Fil A, that sounded like a pretty fun prize. 

So Crafty and Sport got right on that (ok, not really, it took some poking and prodding from their mom), but eventually they came up with some amazing stories. I ran them out to the Chick Fil A a couple of hours before the deadline. Then last Saturday we received an e-mail informing us that Crafty’s entry had been chosen as a Finalist. So we were invited to come to Chick Fil A for an awards ceremony and two of us could have a free dinner. We arrived at the restaurant about 10 minutes early and placed our order. I brought a bunch of us along to cheer her on so I had to buy dinner for everyone else. (Thank goodness for coupons! There were ten of us and I paid just over $16.00 and that even included drinks.) I was glad we were there early because by the time we got our order the place was packed. 

Anyway, after everyone was seated, the kids were called up five at a time in four different categories. Then they were invited to read their entries. Did I every mention that Crafty is shy and quiet? It became evident rather quickly that she was expected to read her entry out loud to this room full of people. She fidgeted in her seat. "Mom, you can read the story for me," she suggested. Some of the Kindergartners had their parents do their readings. "No," I said firmly. "You are perfectly capable of reading your story all by yourself." She shifted uncomfortably. "Dad?" He shook his head. "How about Princess?" I asked with a grin. Now the only person more shy and quiet in a crowd than Crafty is Princess who shook her head vigorously at the very thought of standing up in front of all of those people by herself. She is my girl who at 14 still cries when I make her go to a door to sell Girl Scout cookies. Finally the third/fourth grade category finalists were announced. 

Nervous Girl by ~themedusa

We sent Crafty to the front of the room by herself. She was fourth in line so she had to stand there while three other kids read their entries. When it was her turn at the microphone the lady in charge handed her entry to her and smiled at her expectantly. In fact, the whole room was waiting rather impatiently for her to begin. We had already sat through 13 stories and we were all ready for them to announce the winners so we could go home. Even the Chick Fil A cow mascot had gotten bored and walked out. 

 Crafty put her hand over the mike. "I don’t want to read it," she whispered. The room breathed a sigh of relief. One less story to listen to.  The lady took the mike back. She smiled her benevolent smile and glanced around the room. Obviously she wasn’t feeling our collective relief. "OK if I read it?" she asked Crafty sweetly. Crafty turned a little red around the ears and nodded her head slowly. She had one line in there about stapling the bad guys mouths shut. Hmmmm….. 

It took another half-hour for all the kids to read their entries. Sadly, Crafty wasn’t the grand prize winner, but she did get some fun prizes…a chapstick, bumper sticker, magnets, a pen, and a tiny stuffed cow. Oh yeah, and 2 free kids meals. Looks like we’ll be going back soon! (Eat mor chikin!)

Register with Chick Fil A for access to contests.