Ingram the Conqueror: Monday to Sunday October 14th to 20th, Staying Busy!

The girls had to go back to school on Monday, but Daddy and Ingram were still off for Columbus Day and decided to have a little fun by themselves! They started off at Sky Zone (SJ peeps...shhhhh...don't tell our doctors) and then wound up eating lunch and going shopping for some new clothes since he's just about outgrown every pair of pants and shorts. They were gone all day long and had a blast hanging out together!

Tuesday Ingram went back to school, but we all woke up so late that I didn't have time to make lunches. I ended up taking everyone's to them later and wound up at Ingram's school during picture time which was pretty special. (For more on that, feel free to check out the blog post "2013 Team Ingram Video"). Tuesday night it was raining and a little chilly, but both of the girls had soccer and Ingram was along for the ride as well. Lindsey had a game and Madison had practice. Ingram thought it was funny to keep moving his umbrella so that he could catch rain in his mouth for some reason. Apparently rainwater tasted better than bottled water and was more fun to drink with Daddy while they were walking around trying to find Starbursts!

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty calm, but wet all the same. School and soccer is pretty much the name of the game around here and everyone was pitching in and getting stuff done. We started homework in the car and even ate dinner in the car before Madison's game. Of course, Ingram got to play with Ames and Henry at the fields while Peanut finished up her homework from the sidelines of Madison's field. We were so glad when Thursday night was over and everyone was nice and warm in their beds!

Things really picked up on Friday and we didn't slow down at all until Sunday night at bedtime! First, we got to go to Dogwood to watch Lindsey play in the 4th Grade Newcomb Ball Tournament. It's pretty comical to watch them learning to play volleyball this way, but they seemed to really love it. Lindsey even brought out Ingram's Georgetown Hoya blue hair to intimidate her opponents by having "amazing hair" (that's from her Lion project this week); she learned a lion's mane is also used for making themselves look bigger so that was her motive also. Next we stopped in at Dean Studio and surprised Mr. Andy and Mrs. Annette with a visit! Ingram even got to test out some new equipment for them and tried to teach Dylan how to play music. Since they have the big screen there, Ingram asked to watch "his" video on the big screen but had lots of trouble picking out his seat. He went to the top row, the bottom row, back to the top, and finally sat on the bottom row but still couldn't stay still. Friday afternoon, the girls had an interview with Memphis Parent magazine for their online blog and they had a fun time with them. Ingram greeted our SJ gals and our MP gal with a bucket of candy because everyone needs candy by the time you get around to Friday afternoon! Our kids were definitely in wild mode because it was Friday, but I'm pretty sure the candy sent them into overdrive because they were pretty much jumping all over the place and showing their true (crazy) colors on a beautiful Friday afternoon!

Both Friday night and Saturday night, we did a last minute fundraiser at "Haunted Houston" at Madison's school. We set up a table and told people about St. Jude, Children's Cancer, and of course Ingram and the girls. We were so shocked with these middle school kids kept coming and asking about everything and dropping their change and dollars in the collection bucket. We raised over $75 for St. Jude, but more importantly, we had a great time talking to students, their parents, and school faculty about our experience at St. Jude. While we were there, Ingram ran around like he knew exactly where he was going the whole time; they had inflatables, crafts, face painting, food, and a haunted maze. He did everything over and over except for the Haunted Maze; he begged and begged to go in, but we decided to say no to that one! Anytime he saw someone wearing a Halloween costume, he'd go chasing them around with his buddy Harrison and they poked them with their Halloween swords. These two were not shy at all, but every now and then the big kids would turn around and send them running back to us.

Ingram also had a soccer game Saturday morning and wore his Georgetown Hoya hair to his soccer game since Lindsey had gotten it out for her Newcomb Ball game at school. He wore it during his practice, but when it came to game time, he was all business! Beau even got to make a special trip to the soccer fields and once Ingram saw him, he started to run off the field to play with Beau, but we stopped him and he finished his game. Daddy and Madison tried to teach Ingram to ride his bike without training wheels again, but it wasn't a success. Actually, it was pretty funny to watch Daddy at age 39 try to ride a Cars bike made for a 5 year old!

Saturday night the kids (and I'm including the big kid mentioned just above) had lots of energy after Haunted Houston was over and were begging to go have some more fun. It did take a lot of convincing, but we headed out at 9:30pm for some "BOO" fun with some friends (one of which will remain nameless because they got us on Friday night!) and made some mischief memories with the kids. Every family should roll another family at some point in their lives and tonight was our night!

Sunday was supposed to be a calm afternoon after church, but we just couldn't let go of our weekend. It's hard to end a great weekend and to get ready for a new week that we already know is going to be difficult. But with Ingram having his 3 month MRI and Port Removal surgery on Tuesday, 6 soccer games and 4 practices in the coming 5 days (plus normal homework, cooking, and cleaning), we finally called it a night.