HE WON ! ! !

I can't figure out how to get rid of the darn underlining...I just love technology.

This afternoon Gabriel came home with this on his back. The kindergarten he goes to doesn't use backpacks because the rooms don't have the room. His school had a big "get free stuff" kick off this morning. They collect box tops, campbell's soup labels, ink cartridges, cell phones and other electronics, throughout the year and turn them in for money for the school. Well, this little boy is being raised by a mother who is a pack-rat in recovery...sort of, and has grandparents that trained his momma in the fine art of pack-ratism. This morning he had a baggie full of box tops, several capbell's labels (there is only one kind of soup without soy so we don't usually have much of that stuff around) 5 ink cartridges and 6 old cell phones. The kid that brought in the most stuff won this backpack filled with goodies. I thought he did pretty good, but didn't really think he'd win. I WAS WRONG! Pack-ratting pays off I guess. :-D

Contents of the Backpack:
Recycle Folder
Planet Earth coloring and activity book
Animal Planet coloring and activity book
Crayons for the books
Notebook
Choose to Reuse tactile book
Wall-e (the movie which he's watching for the first time right now)
Glow Bracelets (what kid doesn't love those ?)
A real watch he could hardly wait to put on
Giant bag of Red Vines (soy free)
Box of Skittles (soy free)
Wall-e ring pops (soy free)
Nature valley granola bars (with soy, he said he'll share those with Garrett)
Box of Goldfish (with soy, also shared with Garrett)
3 Bags of Popcorn (not sure if there's soy, so he requested to eat them right before bed so he can sleep the soy off if there is any)
2 little pots with flower seeds
2 little pots with herb seeds
Certificate from the school for a FREE Yearbook
Certificate for a Free School Shirt
Certificate for FREE wristband and the District Fall Festival

I know he was pretty excited about it all and said, "I'm going to write a note that says Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for my cool stuff." He's a funny boy. The principal and one of the ladies that works in the front office presented it to him. He just loves them and always yells hi. The first time he gets sent to the office in trouble, he'll just be crushed to realize that the same cool guy he always says hi to also sees you when you're in trouble. For now though, we'll all just enjoy the delight of a 5 year old that earned something "awesome". Right now he's wearing the backpack filled with his babies and cup, stretched out on the couch watching Wall-e, checking the time every 5 minutes. He looked up and reported, "it's 3:42 or 5. He's transposing 2 and 5 a lot lately and still likes to write his name from right to left.

Yeah Gabriel!