Sold! . . . to the Highest Bidder

Each year the PTO (not PTA here for some reason) at the elementary school hosts a silent auction as a fundraiser. We have attended since our first year in White Salmon, and now that I have a student, I've helped for the last two auctions.

It is a HUGE undertaking involving months of preparation that begins with contacting donors who are willing to give merchandise, gift certificates, tickets, and services to be auctioned off. I helped make phone calls to local businesses and we also went through the house and donated some things that were in great shape but that we no longer wanted. Damon also made 2 apple pies to be auctioned off.

My big auction job is to be in charge of gift certificate display. That means that for each donation for which we don't have actual merchandise, a sheet is printed off listing what the gift certificate is for. My task is to make these items a bit jazzier than their black and white print-outs by mounting them on colorful paper and adding logos, clipart, or brochure photos. The idea is to make the items more eye-catching to bidders, therefore getting more people bidding on an item, which leads to competition and higher prices.

The job is a pretty big one because probably at least half of the donations are gift certificates and none of the sheets can be printed out until a day or two before the auction. Last year I did all the cropping and mounting by myself the night before the auction and didn't go to bed until 3am (or later?). Then I was at the school from 8:30 to 3:30 getting it all hung up along with all of the other set-up people. This year I was determined to be a bit smarter and enlisted a couple of friends to join my little cropping party. Even with two other people working for 3 1/2 hours, I was till up until 2am the night before the auction! But, I was much more organized during set-up and got it finished earlier and with less stress.

The final set-up product is definitely worth the effort. Everyone tends to come into the gym pretty wide-eyed as they see the decorations of children's art hanging from wires strung across the room, the colorful banners indicating what items can be found, and the tables and walls full of the actual donations.

The auction has traditionally also been double billed as an ice cream social and has been a fun night for families and community members to gather and eat hot dogs, play on the school playground, get faces painted, jump in the bouncy house, and get balloon animals. However, it was also very crazy to try to keep an eye on children, wait in line for the balloon man, and try to bid on items. After all, the real reason for the event was to raise money to be used for enriching school programs.

So, this year, the fabulous auction coordinator (pictured above) decided to try something new. She planned children's parties where parents could send their kids while they were bidding. For the mere cost of $5 a piece, our girls each went to a well-planned party in one of the school classrooms where they were supervised by adults and teenagers; got pizza, milk, and ice cream; and had loads of fun!

Maggie, of course, attended the princess party. She came dressed in her royal finery, but then got to decorate a wand, crown, and fairy wings before having her face painted. (That's a star, if you can't tell.)

Captain Adah attended the pirate party....aarrgh! It was quite a difference dropping off Adah at a room full of rowdy boys and (a couple) girls who were climbing all over the place sword fighting and then going down the hall to drop off Maggie where the girls were all sitting quietly glueing jewels and sequins onto crowns. I laughed out loud at the contrast.

When the bidding closed and we were waiting for the cashiers to open, all the princesses and pirates paraded through the gym. We went home with dried apples from a local orchard and multiple gift certificates. Damon's two pies sold for a total of $35.

The PTO went home with over $16,000!!!

Rain, Wind, Sand, & Shorebirds

For the last few days of Spring Break, we went to Lincoln City on the Oregon coast. We arrived during one of the only sunny patches of the weekend and headed straight for the beach for some sand-play.

The kids found a little "stream" with some extra wet sand for help with sand castles.

Damon went straight for wind-play:

We always love flying kites at the beach. Damon's kite is a stunt kite, which I invevitably crash. I nearly took out an entire family this time! Damon does much better. The kids were too busy in the sand to get out their kites...plus it was SOOOO windy and cold that we only lasted about 30 minutes before everyone was ready to head back to the car.

We got in the van just in time. It started raining as we buckled up and poured the whole way to our hotel. Here's Maggie in our suite. We had an awesome ocean view (see it through the window behind her?), a gas fireplace, a kitchen, a living room, and a bedroom. The girls got the hide-a-bed, Gunnar got cushions on the floor, and we got our own room!

The view from our hotel really was spectacular. The hotel sat right on a rocky bluff and we had a corner room. Out of one window we could see seagulls approaching and then they would whoosh right in front of us at the other set of windows. We saw magnificent clouds at sunset and everyone loved observing the different levels of the tide at different times of day. There were large rocks on the beach below us that made good landmarks for really seeing how far up the water was (or wasn't).

We had loads more fun the second day of our trip, but unfortunately forgot the camera in the hotel room! We visited tidepools at Yaquina Head Natural Area where we saw sea anemones, starfish, and sea urchins. The last time we were there we also found crabs and a seal pup on the beach.

After lunch we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. The Aquarium is a bit pricey, but worth a visit every once in awhile. The girls' favorites were the "somersaulting" sea otter and a silly shore bird that was puffing up its feathers. I liked the little moon jellyfish. I think Gunnar enjoyed watching the sea lions and seals swim by and seeing them get fed. We all enjoyed the sharks. You walk through a glass tunnel where the sharks and rays are swimming all around you. It's really neat.

The next day, on the drive home, we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory where we watched them packaging cheese, sampled several varieties, bought cheese curd, and had ice cream cones.

It was a fun little trip, despite less-than-desirable weather. We made the most of it and enjoyed being all together.

Grandma & Grandpa Share Their Favorite Things

During the first half of the girls' spring break we had a visit from Damon's parents. The kids were sure excited and loved spending time with their grandparents. We enjoyed our Saturday night date and Grandma doing the cooking every night! (Thanks again.)

Whenever Grandpa is around, there are always newspapers. We are not a big newspaper family, so when Adah was younger she really identified newspapers with her grandfather. After a visit a couple years ago, I was explaining to Adah why Grandma and Grandpa had to leave:

me: They need to get home because Grandpa has to go to work.
Adah: Why can't he just go to work with Daddy?
me: Grandpa has a different job in a different office by his house.
Adah: Oh. (pause to think) Does Grandpa work with newspapers?

Since Adah began reading, she and Grandpa love to read the comics together. Now that Grandpa is (sort of) retired, he can devote even more time to his newspapers and to saving the comics for his grandchildren. For the girls' last birthdays he made them each art books with color copies of comic strips and other pictures for them practice their drawing. On this visit, he brought them stacks of comic strip puzzles, optical illusions, and how-to drawing instructions. Adah & Maggie were delighted.

Gunnar was also delighted to be included with a new coloring book of his own.

Grandma's love, other than cooking, is gardening. She worked with us in the yard Saturday morning and then shopped with Damon and me at some nurseries to buy us flowers for our window boxes (also gifts from her) and hanging baskets.

After a couple days of rain, we finally had enough of a break in the weather to go out on the patio with the kids to plant our flowers in the boxes and baskets. (Doesn't the shed look so great all painted and with the window box full of flowers? We chose to put the window boxes on the shed instead of the house so that we could enjoy them. It's such a happy view out of our sliding glass door.)

Adah got lots of instruction from Grandma and planted two of the baskets all on her own. They are now hanging on the front porch.

Thanks again for a great visit, Grandma and Grandpa!!