On the pool side of things, it's amazing that no one got hurt there too. We had kids from ages 4 all the way up to 14 in the pool and everyone was swimming, jumping, and flipping all over the place. We heated the pool to a warm 90 degrees (whopping electric bill to come), but it was worth it to see all the kids swimming around with steam coming off of their heads. They even used the pool to warm up after playing on the bouncer and running around in the rain.
We met some of our new Team Ingram runners and got to talk about fundraising stuff with them. Speaking of Team Ingram, we also unveiled our new Team Ingram video that the kids made with Dean Studios! I have to say it was great, but then again I'm a little biased of the three cuties that starred in it. Don't worry, we will release it very soon (hopefully within a few days) on You Tube and Vimeo and even attach it to the blob and on the www.kidsconqueringcancer.com website. Since everyone was out of the pool already, we sang Happy Birthday to Ingram while he was standing on the kitchen counter so that everyone could see him. That crazy kid remembered standing up there last year for his birthday song and climbed up again on his own to watch everyone sing to him.
The house (and yard and pool and driveway) was filled with friends from school, from church, from the neighborhood, and from Team Ingram; Mr. Shadyac and his wife also stopped by and Ingram was sooo excited to see them! Ingram kept one of his invitations with him and gave it to him Friday morning at the breakfast we spoke at with him and Mr. Shadyac told him he would try to stop by for a bit. Ingram is still talking about "Mr. Shadyac came to my birthday party" all day long. We had a special Green cookie cake, all sorts of cupcakes, Ingram's favorite pretzels and cheetohs, and the best popcorn possible!! G-Daddy helped start up the giant popcorn machine and then quickly took over popcorn duty before he had to leave for the airport.
Instead of presents for himself, Ingram wanted everyone to bring art supplies for the kids of St. Jude because that's one of his favorite things that we do while we're there. I think that each time we were inpatient, Ingram came home with a special art project and we still have them all, not to mention all the smaller arts and crafts that he and the girls did on regular appointment days. Our living room was overflowing with art supplies; friends brought stacks of canvases, bottles of paint, piles of paintbrushes, glue sticks, crayons, coloring pencils, markers, coloring books, and art project boxes!! Seriously, we have the best friends and the kids at SJ are going to have soooo much fun thanks to them!
When we were getting ready for this year's party, I couldn't help but think about last year's party. There were a lot of similarities between this year and last year like it raining, lots of the same people, the birthday song, and of course feeling the love of everyone. But there was one major difference: Ingram. Last year during his party, Ingram didn't much energy and he moved around very slowly; the day before his party on September 29th, 2012 our whole family checked out of being inpatient at St. Jude after completing his last round of chemotherapy. Even the whole morning before his party, we were in the Medicine Room getting his last Peg shot (chemo count recovery shot) and some other things before we headed back to the house. During his party last year, Ingram sat on the kitchen table (opening presents) for most of his party except for a little bit of time when he jumped in the bouncer and hit the pinata! We're so thankful to be celebrating another birthday with Ingram this year, and can't imagine the feelings of the parent's not getting to celebrate with their children on their birthday because they lost their battle with cancer. Ingram said that he felt so special having so many friends at his birthday party. Honestly, we feel special just to be Ingram's parents and to have such great friends and family that have helped us so much along the way. But we are more than grateful that God has given us another year with Ingram.
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| Here We Go! |
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| Hoping To Inspire Folks From Last Years' Race Signs! |
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| Displaying Our New T-Shirt Design, Some Facts, And The Cutest Little Hero We Know! |
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| What Better Way To Start His Birthday Fun After Church Than Chasing His Girls?? |
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| The Girls Discussing If They Can Make It Over The Top In One Leap! Not To Worry...We Made Sure They Didn't Do It Once Everyone Else Was There! |
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| Just Keep Swimming! Just Keep Swimming! |
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| Rain Or Pool? It Didn't Seem To Matter! |
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| The Picture Doesn't Do It Justice... There Were Way More Kids Than This In The Pool At Once!! |
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| Yep Still Raining But At Least We Got Out Our Soccer Tent! |
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| Racing To The Top! |
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| Even The Little Guys Had A Place To Play And Not Get Run Over By The Big Kids! |
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| Watching This Years Team Ingram Video For The First Time! |
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| Part Of The Folks Watching The New Video! |
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| Singing To The Birthday Boy After He Assumed His Spot On The Counter! He Loved Blowing Out His Number 5 Candle!! |
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| Ramsey And Annabelle Took Over The Steps Of the Pool While All The Big Kids Were In The Driveway Playing On The Obstacle Course! |
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| Daniel, Gabby, Ingram, Madison, Elizabeth, Isabelle, Emily, Lindsey, And Grey Innocent Fun...Until You See Lindsey And Madison Trying To Make Grey Fall! |
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| Ingram And His Lola! This Is The Third Year For Them To Be In The Same Class At Preschool And Going To Each Other's Birthday Parties! Check Out The Post On Sunday September 30, 2012 For Another Cute Party Picture Of This Duo! |
Happy birthday, Ingram!
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