Coon Skin Hat

We got an e-mail from Owen's school last Monday telling us that a family with children at his school had a fire in their home.  They lost many of their things and have to relocate while their house is being repaired.  The kids were invited to wear a hat on Tuesday with a donation for the family.  How great is that?!  When I asked Owen which hat he was going to wear I started giving him some choices... "your Phillies hat, or your Orioles hat" and he stopped me right away and told me he was going to wear his coon skin hat.  I think he looks so stinkin' cute in it, but I knew all the other kids would be wearing baseball hats and I didn't want him to feel wierd.  So I had him put a baseball hat in his bag just in case he changed his mind.  I didn't say anything about what I thought all the other kids would be wearing because I don't want him making choices based on what other kids are doing (although I'm sure he will eventually).  He wore the hat and I wish I had a picture.  I was surprised since a few weeks earlier he wore the most boring striped socks for "crazy sock day" and refused to let me roll up his jeans. 

When he got home from school I asked him how it went with hat day.  He said he wore it all day.  He also told me that some of the kids made fun of it and said it looked like a girl hat.  (Insert mama bear claws).  I asked him how it made him feel when the other kids laughed at him, expecting a really sad little boy with possible tears.  And he thought for a second and just shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't really care.  He said he wore it anyway because he really likes it.  I gave him a big high five and told him I was so proud of him for doing what he wanted and not letting the opinions of other kids change his mind.  Plus, if those kids knew anything, they'd know it's a hunter hat and I bet very few girls would ever wear a hat like that.

Tuesday afternoon Mike and I had Owen's parent/teacher conference.  I quickly voted before and let me say it was not an easy decision for me.  I have some very liberal opinions about certain topics and very conservative opinions about other things.  In the end I had to pick what was most important to my family (my job) and vote based on that.  But it wasn't easy and I know very little about politics so that made it even harder!  Regardless, I feel lucky to live in a country where we are able to vote.

 Owen's conference went really well.  It was nice of his teacher to conference with us a day early so Mike could be there.  We are very proud of Owen and so happy that he loves school!

Last night we hung out at home.  I was exhausted, but mustered up enough energy to wrestle with Owen.  Daddy wasn't home and while I had no desire to wrestle, the look of sheer joy on his face when I said I would made it all worth it.  I truly believe that wrestling is a boys way of bonding.  A few minutes in, he said "I think you are better at wrestling than daddy!".  No lie.

Tonight we were invited over for dinner at Uncle Boo and Aunt Judy's house.  It was so nice of them and we had a delicious dinner.  The boys loved playing with their marble shoot.

TGIF!