Child's Play

After a slight blip in the match process, Stella Mae and I are officially up and running in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program of Middle Tennessee. Not to be arrogant or anything, but I think we're the best dang match in the entire program...possibly ever.

Mae and I spent all afternoon on Saturday at the city-wide BBBS picnic and had an absolute blast--especially considering that the three elements for a good time were present: 1) free food 2) hysterical head gear and 3) a karaoke/dance off competition. (I most definitely saved my sweet "I'm Thinking Arby's" headgear and plan to pull it out for special/relevant occassions. )
For four solid hours, I got to pretend I was a kid again. Stella Mae and I dominated in tug-of-war, ran sack races, got our faces painted and played numerous games of Twister:
Then she discovered the pile of hula hoops and challenged me to duel...which she most definitely won. (Odd considering the person with hips should have a distinct edge.)
My favorite part of the entire afternoon was the dance-off. They divided us up into "Bigs" vs. "Littles" and made us shake our groove thing until they called us out. I swear I hadn't laughed that hard in weeks. Especially once I saw the eventual grand-prize winner do her thing (and finally understand the benefit of having a digital camera that also takes videos). This little girl definitely watches her fair share of BET:



All joking aside, the picnic was great fun....and it was so rewarding to see little kids with rough home lives let loose and play for a change.

In fact, the only sad part was that the event was dominated by females simply because BBBS has over 200 little boys on the waiting list for mentors in the Nashville area alone. So if you're a male who likes kids and wants to do a little something to give back, I implore you to sign up.

I promise you'll get just as much out of it as they will.