Mallard Run, Decorating for Fall, and Wedding Excitement!

Dear Friends and Family,

The temperatures are finally dropping around here, bringing with it crisp evenings and the smell of outdoor fire pits. (I love that smell! It makes me think of s'mores!) Fall is finally here! Our big PTO Fall fundraiser has officially started too. It's called the Mayo Mallard Run. The kids are exercising and getting ready to do their 25 minutes of running laps around the school to raise money for a new playground extension. The PTO has organized a DJ to play fun music and special surprise laps like a bubble lap and a lap where the Mallard Mascot will run with the kids! It's sure to be a fun event.

Our school has been growing every year and the small group of slides and monkey bars aren't enough for the increasing student population. Former PTO boards have been saving in pieces for this much needed expansion, but our board said, "This is the year!" My incredible PTO Vice President, Seth Miller, and Claire's former first grade teacher, Mrs. April Crovo (also a parent of students at Mayo) worked together to do this fundraiser themselves! That means that we will get 100% of the profit!

Side Bar: The last time we did a fun run, we used a fundraising organization to do it and we raised $40,000!!! They took $21,000 for their services! YIKES!

To complete the new playground we need $32,000! Any help from friends and neighbors is completely welcome! The kids made a video, and they were selected to have it played for the whole school today!!! https://youtu.be/yBv-evvy7Us

We also get donation reports and the kids FREAK OUT when they see someone has donated to their run. So, even if you only have $5 to give each kid, they will LOVE it!  It's really easy to donate too, simply go to www.mayomallardrun.com click on the donate button. Give through PayPal with a debit or credit card and put a child's name in the notes section.  If you complete giving but you forgot to put names, just let me know about your donation, and I'll make sure the PTO gives them credit for the amount.

Thanks for enduring my sales pitch! As this year's PTO President, I feel compelled to tell everyone about this.

Another Presidential dream of mine was to have a fun, informative, and regularly updated, PTO bulletin board. It's the first thing you see when you enter the school and for years it's been the same board with only minor changes. My amazing friend, Maggie Whitlatch, helped me design and create our October board. I'm so happy with it!

This weekend we mainly did two fun things: 1. we decorated for Fall, and 2. we got ready for a big wedding this coming weekend! 

1. I always love to embrace the seasons, so Claire and I went shopping for pumpkins, gourds, and hay! We then came back and got busy making the porch ready for October.

Our fun front porch! On nice days/evenings, the kids and I enjoy sitting here and watching the cars go by!

We also made ghosts for the trees!

A garden spider even helped us get in the spirit to decorate for Halloween!

 2. As I mentioned before, we have a fun wedding this weekend! The kids, Chris, and I all get to be in my amazing sister-in-love, Megan and Joe's wedding party. The kids are thrilled to play their parts as a ring bearer and a flower girl. We are trying on our clothes and getting super excited about getting to see family. Joe is such an amazing guy. We are all thrilled to have him join the family!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

I'll close with some gorgeous cloud pictures from this weekend...such a cool sky!