We won, we won!

Last night was the annual carnival at Falcon Heights Elementary. It's always quite an experience. I figure it ends up to be a pretty significant investment for our family each year: each kid (I have 3 there!) comes home with 10 raffle tickets to sell . . . and you know who buys them, don't cha? Me! Like I'm really gonna go around selling them to others? Then there are donations to 3 classroom raffle baskets (a totally different thing from the raffle tickets raffle, so don't be confused). Then there are the tickets we buy to enter the basket raffle, not to mention the tickets that we use during the evening for 7 family members . . . actually, I don't think Anna did anything at the carnival that required a ticket, so make that 6! You know, 3 tickets for face painting, 1 ticket for "pick a pencil", 2 tickets for the soccer kick, 5 tickets for a piece of pizza, 3 for a slushie, 2 for cotton candy . . . and the list goes on. I think I've written 7 checks to "FHPTA" in the past week!

All this year after year after year and we never win anything . . . until last night! I had taken the 2 little kids home. [Joe was beyond meltdown by the time we left.] Kirb worked the 7:30 to 8:30 shift at the "Prize Wheel" and as soon as it was done they headed to the library media center for the big drawings. There is one raffle basket for each classroom (I think we have 16 homeroom teachers). They are themed (things like "Lego", "Snuggle Up & Read", "Endless Errands", "Family Movie Night" and stuff like that) and you buy tickets and drop them in the bucket for the prize you want to win. We always buy each kid 1 ticket that they can put in whatever basket they want and if they want more than 1 they have to buy them with their own money. Jacob put his 1 ticket from us and the 10 he bought with his own money all in the Lego bucket (nothin' like putting all your eggs in one basket!). This is what he does EVERY year. It's a good refresher on the pitfalls of gambling when he is truly disappointed each and every year when he doesn't win. Lydia just stuck with her 1 ticket and I think Rebekah bought a couple extra with her own money. [The raffle tickets -- which we were supposed to sell to others -- are for donated prizes from outside our school like a new bike donated by the local bike shop, a free limo ride, Twins tickets . . . you know stuff like that]. So they do what seems like a million drawings at 8:30 and the anticipation is thick! So they are raffling off the baskets. Mr. Charest [the principal] is announcing the winner of Mr. Hausman's 5th/6th grade "Camping" basket . . . and the winner is LYDIA STOLL! My family cheers loudly and is very excited. Families around us are excited for us. It's so fun! [Note: Lydia based her decision to put her one and only ticket in the camping basket because of the fact that it included some Hershey bars and marshmallows (you know, for the s'mores you'll make while camping). That's the only reason she wanted it. Silly girl!!] Now 2 or 3 baskets later they announce the winner of Mrs. Heille's 4th grade basket (Jacob's class) "Quick, Fast & Easy", it's filled with gift cards to make family dinner "quick & easy" so: McDonald's, Wendy's, Subway, Target, Boston Market . . . and the list goes on. Tons of gift cards! And the basket goes to THE STOLL FAMILY! (I always buy a few extra tickets and write "The Stoll Family" on them). Kirb and the kids are in shock. We never win and now we won two! Plus, I took the van home, so Kirb, the 3 big kids and two HUGE baskets have to fit in the Nissan (which has a trunk filled with stuff to be dropped off at Goodwill . . . which was put in there in roughly 2004!) A dad we know leans over to Kirb and says "You didn't cheer quite as loud that time." Anyway, now we'll always remember the 2009 Falcon Carnival and all the fun prizes it brought to our house! The year we won big! How fun! We really never eat out much . . . it's tough with Jacob's allergies and we can't really afford to eat out with 7 people anyway. What a blessing this will be. We'll still be using up gift cards well into 2010, I would imagaine . . . how fun! Plus, Kirb had planned to take Jacob on a "growing up" father & son camping trip this summer, so they'll be all decked out now for it!


Hooray! Don't tell the kiddos, but after they went to bed [since we hadn't really eaten dinner] we ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut . . . that's one gift card down, about 25 to go! Actually, you can tell them if you want, we don't try to deceive them . . . too often, anyway. I was just kiddin' about the "don't tell the kids" part . . . they saw the evidence in the kitchen this morning since who really wants to take the pizza box out to the trash at 10:30 pm . . . in the winter . . . in Minnesota (even though yesterday was nearly balmy!!)

UPDATE: I have to apologize and print a retraction because I was inaccurate in my information on the distribution of Jacob's tickets. He has informed me that he did NOT put all 11 of his eggs tickets in the Lego basket, instead he put 5 in the Lego basket, 2 in the movie night basket, 3 in the Minnesota sports basket and 1 in the "Quick, Fast & Easy" basket . . . which we won, and turns out it was Jacob's ticket that was the actual winner and not the one that I put in . . . I guess I'm not a winner after all!