Ingram the Conqueror: Thursday and Friday April 18th and 19th, The Fun Keeps Coming!

Our whole house overslept Thursday morning because of our super late night at the Grizzlies game! Madison and Lindsey managed to get to school on time while Ingram made it in time for Wheel Day at GBC. The girls loved their Wheel Day when they were Ingram's age and Ingram was so excited about his very first Wheel Day! He had so much fun with his friends and riding their bikes around the parking lot and then celebrated with Snow Cones in the grass. It was a beautiful morning for his bike riding but that soon changed as storms rolled into town after Ingram's swimming lessons and cancelled the girls' soccer games and also Ingram's T-Ball game. We were all relieved because with Daddy still traveling back home, it was going to be tricky being three places at one! We decided to have rainy day fun inside (after a quick trip to the Vera Bradley store courtesy of some sweet friends) and made cats, dogs, and fish out of little plastic pieces that you iron to melt. I had forgotten how fun those little things can be until the kids dragged them out of the cabinet. While they were working on them, Daddy snuck in the back door and then snuck into the den and scared them all; it was great and they were so glad he was back in town. My hopes of an early bedtime to catch them up on their sleep was spoiled, but trying to catch up with everything they were saying was a pretty good trade off.

It was cold Friday morning, but not to cold to stop the ECS Bike-A-Thon for St. Jude! We got to go into Mrs. Taylor's Kindergarten class and talk to all the kids about Ingram's cancer and St. Jude; more importantly, Ingram told them about two of his favorite things at St. Jude...Painting and Grilled Cheese sandwiches! All the kids went to their bikes next and Ingram was the leader of the whole first lap around the school; it was a big lap, but he managed to make it all the way around and was still smiling at the end of his lap, but was a little cold. We headed back into Mrs. Taylor's room, which was also Madison's room when she was in Kindergarten, and Ingram played with the Lego's and warmed up. We had more fun with the kids when they got finished riding but then had to leave so they could go back to learning. After our lunch, Ingram went with me to "kidnap" Madison from school so that I could take her on her "Double Digits" Birthday Trip; we were supposed to go last April when she turned 10, but it was the weekend after Ingram got diagnosed with cancer. She was totally surprised and was so excited that "her weekend" was finally going to happen! We also got to see Lindsey's class during the day and they had worn their "Ingram" shirts today for Ingram. We just love our school Dogwood!!

We dropped Ingram off with Daddy and they headed to St. Jude for a special afternoon. Barrett Jones from Alabama and Matt Barkley from Southern Cal were at St. Jude making a video for the NFL and Ingram and the other kids got to have fun painting and throwing the football with the guys. With everything that Ingram and Craig have said about the afternoon, the video should be pretty fun to watch on NFL Draft Day! While they were making the video, Lindsey was still at school and we were in Jackson eating ice cream with Aunt Amye, Carley, and Brett on our way to Nashville. Once they were finished at SJ, Daddy and Ingram left to pick up Lindsey and her friend Elizabeth and played the rest of the night at home while Elizabeth's brother had a baseball game. In Nashville, we weren't quite ready for bed yet and had lots of fun exploring the Opryland Hotel and even went on a boat ride in a river inside the hotel! With a great start to our trip, we were bound to have a great time away while Daddy took care of Ingram, Lindsey, and Beau.