Cherry Pie Day

Yesterday was Illinois homeschool Legislative Day, otherwise known as Cherry Pie Day. On Cherry Pie Day, homeschoolers from all over Illinois come to Springfield to give cherry pies to the members of our legislature and thank them for our freedom. It is really fun, and very powerful to the legislative members! Last year (I didn't get to go, but I heard it from several people who did go) there were 5,000 people from the teachers' union at the capitol yelling 'Raise our taxes! Raise our taxes!' and at the same time there were homeschoolers handing out cherry pies and saying 'thank you for leaving us alone'. :) No teachers' union there this time. :) It was awesome! :) I was the only one of our family who got to go... Mom was not up to driving a bunch of little ones to Springfield and back without Papa (who needed to work today), especially not with gas at $4 a gallon. :P So I got a ride with the Phillips', who were also taking Kalei and Shelby Swogger (great friends from Bright Lights and Lyceum). We had lots of fun! During the 2 hour drive to Springfield, Kalei and Shelby tormented me by singing songs from movies I haven't seen until we started playing cards. :) When we arrived at Springfield, we registered our pies (between the 3 families we represented, we brought 6 pies) and then stood around talking for awhile. After about half an hour(?) everyone gathered around the Lincoln statue outside and sang the national anthem, then after a prayer, delivered the cherry pies. Neither of the two representatives that we were assigned to were in, so we just gave them to their secretaries. :) After that, we toured the capitol for awhile, then drove to the reception and played Ninja. :)