Yard Sales

I mentioned in Maggie's swimming post that we held a yard sale the last day of July. That was a Friday morning and we really had no idea how an early yard sale would go on a Friday. It happened that I recently saw something about August 8th being national yard sale day so I told my mom if Friday didn't turn out well, we could always hold it again the following Saturday. Well we did pretty good, but she was already sold on the idea of having another one, so we did.

Both sales combined, we made about $950. Now I'm not a huge fan of yard sales, but that have been a pretty effective fundraising option and I don't have to ask family and friends to come to more events and donate more money. With all our yard sales this year, people have been very willing to donate items, so it seems like a win-win-win. People get rid of their stuff, yard salers get great deals and we raise money for Maggie. :) Below are a few pics from our sales.

 Maggie was selling some baked goods. She would ask in her

sweet little voice, "what would you like?" One lady told us we knew

what we were doing- who could turn that down?!

 mom selling 'til the very end

 second sale

 someone at my dad's work gave this to him! He told a story

about taking a walk with Maggie in the wagon and how it was getting old

so they brought this to him :)

Fundraisers

We're still in fundraising mode, getting ready to take Maggie to Health in Motion again, for three sessions (12 weeks) if we can raise enough. I've been working and held a couple fundraisers since we returned last fall and am wrapping up in with a couple more in March before we leave in April.

My friend offered to do a Pampered Chef fundraiser so I invited friends and family, a few came to my house where we fixed a meal with PC kitchen utensils and then they buy stuff and a portion goes to Maggie! This was on Thursday, March 12th. We had a lot of fun and even had a little chef in the kitchen with us :).

Then yesterday (Sat 3/28) we held a yard sale fundraiser-- it's the last Saturday in March and I leave in a week. I ended up getting the flu last week, but thanks to  my good friend, Ginny, tons of donated items came in and everything got set up. I took a few pictures of the items to post on Craigslist and Facebook for advertising purposes but didn't get any at the actual sale. Ugh! We were barely done setting up when people started arriving, then I was just too busy and forgot to take pics. My friend Ginny came out to work for a couple hours, my parents came and my aunt Patti and uncle Don. With Daniel and I, there were plenty of eyes and hands for the sale and the kids. It was sunny, but cold! Still, we raised $1200 for Maggie, so it was awesome! Thanks so much to everyone who came out to help, shop and donate items for us to sell. We really appreciate you!!

Thankful Thursday: A St. Louis Trivia Night

When we first started down this fundraising path last year, I considered having one in St. Louis. While I consider myself a Tennessean because I've lived here longer than anywhere else, I lived in St. Louis until I was 12, so I still have a connection with it. Plus, the majority of my very large family lives there. I knew it would be more likely to get everyone to a fundraiser where they live rather than everyone coming here. However, the logistics of planning an out-of-state fundraiser seemed difficult to say the least.
I changed my mind this summer and several of my cousins, aunts and uncles pitched in with the planning. November 8th was the big night and it went great!! Trivia nights are pretty big in St. Louis, so it was a great venue. Lots of family and friends came out to support us, thank you!

The raffle baskets my aunt Rose and I packaged the night before:

Like I said, the night went great, we raised $4,007 for Maggie in Motion! You can read more about the breakdowns here if you like: http://maggieinmotion.lotekness.net

Another Trivia Night!

We have been quite blessed with our fundraiser(s) for Maggie's treatment in Canada. While still in Canada this last time (March-April), some people at my dad's work got together and organized a fundraiser for Maggie and it was quite a success!! Then at the end of April - same day as the Baby Reveal- my parents and their friends hosted a trivia night at their church!! Daniel and I helped a little with this, but not a whole lot, especially compared to the one we hosted in February where I did the majority of the work. I have to say, it was very nice to sit back and relax; I was able to take many more pictures this time.
I have detailed the evening's events here with plenty of photos. Thank you so much to all the people involved with these two fundraisers, they were both a huge success and meant the world to us that you were willing to put in that much time and effort for us!!!!

Maggie's Fundraiser

Part of the reason I haven't had time to blog about anything is because I've been planning/organizing/working on a trivia night fundraiser for Maggie. The night was last Saturday and went great! We raised so much money for our next trip to Health in Motion and just had a really fun time. In fact, several people had a good enough time that they asked when my next one was, or next time I do this...etc. Whew! I certainly can't think about all that work again just yet, but we are taking a big trip soon, so that kind of hinders things. Anyway, we may have another trivia night in the future since it went so great!! You can read more about it here:

http://maggieinmotion.lotekness.net/2014/02/26/trivia-night-success/

Mary Kay Party

Our good friend, Jenn, from Birmingham offered to host a Mary Kay sale for Maggie and donate 100% of the profit to Maggie's fundraiser! She volunteered to do both a web sale and drive up from good 'ol Magic City to host a party at my house! I feel so blessed to have such a good friend willing to go to those lengths for us. The Friday after Thanksgiving worked for her schedule, so Jenn sent the invites and I prepared the food! I took all of three pictures of the party, once meal time was over I guess I got caught up in trying on the products that I forgot to continue with the photo documentation. I didn't even take pics of the food setup! Not that it was a huge deal...I just always do. Ugh. Fail again.

Daniel stayed for the lipstick

Black Friday was Pink Friday at our house! Many thanks to my family for coming out to the party, whether or not you bought something, we appreciate you giving your time! My Aunt Karen and cousin Megan even came on their way out of town- headed back to St. Louis when the party ended. Thanks also to my Aunt Rose and some friends who couldn't be there but made online purchases. We appreciate your support! We really enjoyed ourselves and another BIG THANK YOU to our friend Jenn for so generously giving your time and commission (that's the profit) to our little Moosie girl! We love you all!!