Finley Fun

I got to go to Connellsville today to spend time with Finley and the gang. I was really happy to get to see them a bit before our walk tomorrow (which, by the way, we have raised over $10,000 as a team! It's amazing!) and let the kids hang out.

We met for breakfast, and Ethan had a BLAST. He sat there pretty well, but then again, he got to play with all of his cousins' cool toys and have the undivided attention of Aunt Jenny, Grammy, Uncle Mat, and Arlington. He also ate almost two pancakes, even though he had a whole waffle at home before we left.

Finley drew a portrait of me. And a bunch of J's.

We headed to the high school to meet the Student Council officers for a picture for their paper. These kids are AMAZING! They have really adopted Finley's cause and are so excited and committed to raising money to help Finley keep her sight.

The kids loved seeing

the computers in the library

It's easy, both as a teacher and as an OLD person now, to get discouraged with today's youth; they are needy, at times disrespectful, selfish, and have little to no attention span. It's nice to be around kids like the ones I met today who are totally caring and thoughtful. See - there's hope for the future after all ;-) Then again, when you see such a beautiful child with such a wonderful family, how can anyone not want to help the cause?

We spent the rest of the afternoon delivering Braille shirts (if you'd like one, check out FINLEY'S FIGHTERS) and hanging out at the house.

Checking out Thomas the Train online

It is always fun (and loud) to see Ethan playing with his cousins - they are all really good about understanding the fact that he's two and not great at sharing.

Craft time!

They all pitched in to show him getting his nails cut isn't scary. It didn't work, but it was sweet of them to try. By the way - we did get his nails cut tonight. He was upset, but I had to keep mentioning how Finley and Cainan weren't scared.

The bad kids at the piano.

Finley was supposed to be in a time-out...

They were also good enough to let him him wear their hair bows...

He wore this for about an hour.

He's been asking for it all evening...