Finish Line Festival & tobyMac
We had the most wonderful time yesterday at Taylor's Finish Line Festival! It was a big event put on by Joe Gibbs' family in honor of his 5-year-old grandson Taylor finishing 3 years of chemotherapy and his leukemia officially being in remission with all proceeds going to the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and Levine Children’s Hospital. Go through the website for all of the details, but they put on a fantastic benefit festival!
As we arrived, we came into the giant bake sale by Cookies for Kids' Cancer. You talk about utopia: there were so many tables filled with fresh, delicious baked goods - we got M&M cookies, brownies, & molasses ginger cookies = heaven! - and it was "take as much as you want for whatever you feel like donating." How wonderful is that? (I think by human nature, people will always be happier about donating more when they don't *have* to. I hope so, anyway!) The kids also got to decorate their own cookies with icing & sprinkles, and then we got to watch 6 of the real NASCAR pit crews do a cookie-eating relay race, which was really funny. We walked a little further in, and they had more inflatable jumpies and kids' rides than we have ever seen in one place - all free, no extra tickets needed to ride = again, awesome. The Home Depot had a tent set up where the kids got their own personalized work aprons, and they got to build a #20 (Home Depot - Joey Logano) race car. One of his real pit crew was making one with his son beside us, and he signed both of the kids' cars. When we walked further, we actually ran into Joey Logano himself (Sissy's fave NASCAR driver) and he also signed the #20 cars they'd just built.
Will wanted to find his fave, Kyle Busch, and we *did* see him, but he was up on a platform running an r/c car race. Denny Hamiln came down, though, (he's our other fave!) and not only did he sign Will's hat, but he actually waited for us to take a posed pic with him! (It doesn't sound like a big deal, but to wait on 2 squirmy kids when he was waiting to ride off on a golf cart? I appreciated that!)
We were pretty excited that we got to see all 3 of our most favorite drivers in person. :-) We also got a lot of free sponsor stuff, which the kids are so proud of.
After spending all afternoon with baked goods, jumpies, rides, free stuff, & their NASCAR heros, we went into the stadium section and saw a breathtaking motocross exhibition before tobyMac. I don't give a flip about bikes, but the crazy tricks these guys were doing on motorcycles were really impressive! Then it was time for tobyMac. For those of y'all who aren't familiar, he's a hip hop/rap/funk artist who sings really positive, super fun music! He's a Christian artist with mainstream appeal; this was a secular festival, and he was still the headliner - AWESOME!!! He sang EVERY.SINGLE.SONG I wanted him to, even an older one that we used in my first recital teaching at The Studio in Georgia years ago, ("Irene"). I can't explain how awesome it felt to be there singing & dancing to music like "Made to Love", "Lose My Soul", "City on Our Knees", & "Get Back Up" together with my mom & kids. (My mom & I have ALWAYS loved going to concerts together. We used to go see stuff like Dave Matthews together when I was in college. :-)) Will & Annelise had a BLAST dancing & singing the words they recognized.
Will kept standing behind me on the bleacher and holding his arms around my neck - precious beyond words. Then my mom & I were also holding Sis as she balanced on the edge of the bleacher back in front of us - we have GOT to get her into gymnastics! We were floored at how well she danced (& jumped!) on that thin ledge, even with us holding her hands. :-) (Will also had a ball flirting with the young ladies (~13 or 14?) behind us! ;-) He wanted us to all go home together. Seriously. Heaven help me!!!)
As we arrived, we came into the giant bake sale by Cookies for Kids' Cancer. You talk about utopia: there were so many tables filled with fresh, delicious baked goods - we got M&M cookies, brownies, & molasses ginger cookies = heaven! - and it was "take as much as you want for whatever you feel like donating." How wonderful is that? (I think by human nature, people will always be happier about donating more when they don't *have* to. I hope so, anyway!) The kids also got to decorate their own cookies with icing & sprinkles, and then we got to watch 6 of the real NASCAR pit crews do a cookie-eating relay race, which was really funny. We walked a little further in, and they had more inflatable jumpies and kids' rides than we have ever seen in one place - all free, no extra tickets needed to ride = again, awesome. The Home Depot had a tent set up where the kids got their own personalized work aprons, and they got to build a #20 (Home Depot - Joey Logano) race car. One of his real pit crew was making one with his son beside us, and he signed both of the kids' cars. When we walked further, we actually ran into Joey Logano himself (Sissy's fave NASCAR driver) and he also signed the #20 cars they'd just built.
We were pretty excited that we got to see all 3 of our most favorite drivers in person. :-) We also got a lot of free sponsor stuff, which the kids are so proud of.
After spending all afternoon with baked goods, jumpies, rides, free stuff, & their NASCAR heros, we went into the stadium section and saw a breathtaking motocross exhibition before tobyMac. I don't give a flip about bikes, but the crazy tricks these guys were doing on motorcycles were really impressive! Then it was time for tobyMac. For those of y'all who aren't familiar, he's a hip hop/rap/funk artist who sings really positive, super fun music! He's a Christian artist with mainstream appeal; this was a secular festival, and he was still the headliner - AWESOME!!! He sang EVERY.SINGLE.SONG I wanted him to, even an older one that we used in my first recital teaching at The Studio in Georgia years ago, ("Irene"). I can't explain how awesome it felt to be there singing & dancing to music like "Made to Love", "Lose My Soul", "City on Our Knees", & "Get Back Up" together with my mom & kids. (My mom & I have ALWAYS loved going to concerts together. We used to go see stuff like Dave Matthews together when I was in college. :-)) Will & Annelise had a BLAST dancing & singing the words they recognized.
Will kept standing behind me on the bleacher and holding his arms around my neck - precious beyond words. Then my mom & I were also holding Sis as she balanced on the edge of the bleacher back in front of us - we have GOT to get her into gymnastics! We were floored at how well she danced (& jumped!) on that thin ledge, even with us holding her hands. :-) (Will also had a ball flirting with the young ladies (~13 or 14?) behind us! ;-) He wanted us to all go home together. Seriously. Heaven help me!!!)
sounds like a wonderful night and for such a great cause!!! loved the photos of the kids with their nascar heros - its nice the drivers took time to take pictures
ReplyDeleteThat was key: it was for such a great cause, we felt that it was even MORE worth it!
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