Team Spirit

We got spirit yes we do, we got spirit, how 'bout you?

Little cheesy, I know, but the whole month of September we were filled with team spirit and our spirit fingers never stopped moving!  Whether we were cheering on the Broncos, the Buffaloes or our now home school, the Bulldogs, every moment seemed to be filled with some event supporting our teams, community and school!  It was fun...

We kicked it all off with an Ice Cream Social at Birch! 

We got to meet all the teachers, some parents and some of Ashtyn's new kindergarten friends.  We were especially excited to meet Hunter, he's the apple of her eye right now! 

Eli fit right in as usual and LOVED hangin' with the older boys!  He even managed to play football with some of them.  I was surprised how nice they were to the little guy...

Next up was Broomfield Days! 

Now that we are proud residents of Broomfield we made sure to attend the festivities!  We went to the parade which reminded me so much of Louisville's Labor Day parade, which I attended every year since the day I was born and still look forward to every year...but now it's time to start some new traditions in our new community and it felt great!  I am always surprised with how great the community is in Broomfield.  Very supportive, laid back and just good people everywhere.  Now that Ashtyn is starting school and soon sports I can only hope we meet some new friends and become apart of such a great community!

We found a great spot on the parade route to watch the fire trucks, bands, and floats go by.  The kids got an enormous amount of candy - way more than at the Louisville Parade - along with balls, shirts, ice cream and more!

We cheered for all the schools, but cheered especially loud for Birch Elementary!  They had a really cute float and the Principal was yelling out cheers! 

The principal is AWESOME at Birch...we LOVE her!

We had a great day celebrating Broomfield with everyone else!  It will definitely become a new tradition for our family and hopefully we will be sitting among some new friends next year!

The next week at Birch was "Spirit Week" and Ashtyn participated each day.  On Monday it was "crazy hair day" and she's been dying to have "Blue" hair - don't ask me why - but it was a perfect time to make her wish come true.  I originally wanted to try the whole "chalking" method, but it was a little too complex to do before school, so we opted for the $1.00 colored hair spray from Walmart!

She looked pretty cute with her blue hair, but was so concerned the whole way to school that it really wasn't Crazy Hair Day and she would be the only one with blue hair!  But as soon as we got to the school yard it was clearly "Crazy Hair Day"...

Spirit week at Birch ended with the Annual Bulldog Jog! 

 It's a huge fundraising event for the school where each kids runs a mile and asks their friends and family to sponsor them to raise money for the school.  At first I was a little skeptical because I hate asking people for money, especially for a Public school, which is a touchy subject with most people anyways, so I didn't really see how this even was going to produce any type of extra funding for the school.  Well I was way wrong...The school puts a lot of effort into promoting the Bulldog jog by hosting pep rallies and offering rewards to the students who raise the most money.  They put a lot of focus on the kids raising the money themselves by doing extra chores around the house, having a lemonade stand, or selling handmade stuff - so it's actually all directed towards the kids raising the money instead of the parents having all the pressure.  Whatever they did to motivate those kids totally worked - they raised over $16,000!  The principal even had to shave her head - She vowed to her students if they raised $15,000 she would shave her head - well they superseded that!  They held a pep rally of the principal shaving her head and it made it on the local news and the newspaper!

Pretty awesome to be apart of!

Of course the day of the jog it was cold and rainy, but the kids were still so excited, the street was all decorated and lined with parents cheering on their kids - There was so much school spirit you couldn't help but get excited!

Each class level wore a different color - Kindergarten was orange - and they would all run together in one heat...Up this huge hill to Northmore Park and back down to the school...I wasn't sure if Ashtyn or any of the little kids for that matter were going to make it...

BUT they did so well, and looked so CUTE!  I was really impressed at how fast some of the boys were.  Ashtyn did great - didn't trip running down the big hill - Yeah!

Ashtyn is in the white jacket...

After finishing the race they each got some water in a special cup to take home!

Some of the boys took a drink of water, spit it out and then proceeded to pour the rest over their heads  - really? 

You can tell they were totally imitating the professionals, but it did make me laugh!

My sweet girl!  She did so, so great! 

Can't wait to run with her one day in a race...

We spent the rest of the morning cheering on the other classes, mingling with parents and meeting some of Ashtyn's friends,  It was cold and rainy, but still a great day!  Can't wait for next year, Ashtyn's already putting money in a special piggy bank for her "Bulldog Jog"!

Go Bulldogs!