Are you ready? I hope so. Because HERE WE GO. Another week is ending, which means another theme week is beginning.

And this week’s Theme of the Week is: George Washington #bobbledygeorge!

Monday is President’s Day, so many of you will have the day off of school, along with all the bankers and government workers. And President’s Day is supposed to partly be celebrating George Washington’s birthday, even though it doesn’t actually happen on George Washington’s birthday (his birthday is actually February 22, but they celebrate it on Monday because then everyone gets a three-day weekend).

All of you are probably familiar with George Washington. In fact, you probably see him almost every day. I know! He’s practically like your best friend! Because you see him on every dollar bill you spend:

And on every quarter you find in the couch:

And, if you happen to have been wounded in battle, maybe even on your Purple Heart:

George Washington is in so many places because he is considered one of the “Founding Fathers” of the United States of America. This doesn’t actually mean he’s related to everyone in the United States, like he was our dad or our dad’s dad, or our dad’s dad’s dad or anything. In fact, George Washington didn’t have any kids at all. Did you know the USA didn’t even exist 250 years ago? Nope. This might seem confusing, because the LAND where the United States is located was always here. It used to mostly be mountains and woods and tribes of Native Americans, not cities and roads and Waffle Houses. But around 250 years ago George Washington and a group of people decided they wanted to start a new country here, in this land, and they made up a bunch of rules and ideas about what they wanted this new country to be like and that’s why we call him the “Father of our Country.”

George Washington was apparently pretty great. Back then, all of the people who were planning this new country had different ideas about what they wanted the United States to be like. But the one thing that they could all agree on was that George Washington should be president. And so they made him the first president of the United States (can you tell which grey-hair is George?).

Everyone knows he was a great president. But here are some interesting facts about George Washington, the person.

1. He was a farmer.

His father was a farmer, so he inherited the farm. George also grew up with nine brothers and sisters.

2. He was a super rich farmer.

Based on all of the land that he owned and the money he made from it, researchers have said that George Washington had about FIVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS worth of stuff in today’s money. That made him the richest president EVER. He was so rich that he tried to turn down the $25,000 that was what they decided to pay the first president (a LOT of money in those days), because he didn’t need the money. In the end, Congress convinced him to take it so that future presidents who weren’t so rich wouldn’t feel like they had to do the job for free too. It’s no wonder he’s on all that money.

3. He was a super rich farmer who loved dogs.

He had dogs named Sweetlips, Scentwell, Vulcan, Drunkard, Taster, Tipler and Tipsy. He also had a donkey named Royal Gift and a horse named Nelson. He also had a nephew named Bushrod, who I only include here because Bushrod sounds like a pet’s name, not a person’s name.

4. He was a super rich farmer who loved dogs and wrote a lot of letters.

I mean, a LOT. More than TWENTY THOUSAND. And that’s not like twenty thousand letters of the alphabet, that’s twenty thousand letters sent through the mail full of news from the farm, from the battlefront, from the president’s office, etc. That guy sure had a lot to say.

5. He was a super rich farmer who loved dogs and wrote a lot of letters and kept a diary.

As if he wasn’t doing enough writing with all those letters all the time, he also wrote in a diary. One of his diaries was published long before he was president, which made him famous enough that it helped start his military career (which led to him becoming a general, which led to him becoming president). All of which is to say if you get published, it might help you become president someday. Which is to say, you should enter the Bobbledy Books writing prompts every week!

6. He was a super rich farmer who loved dogs and wrote a lot of letters and kept a diary and who didn’t go to college.

Turns out you don’t need to go to college to be able to write all the time, be super rich, and become president of the United States. Don’t tell your parents!

7. He also liked to dance, was over 6 feet tall, only had one tooth when he was president, loved cream of peanut soup*, didn’t wear a wig (this is only interesting because everyone else did – what?!), and never lived in the White House (it wasn’t even built yet).

*If you’re interested, there’s a recipe for Cream of Peanut soup HERE.

So now you know what an interesting character George Washington was.

And here’s a video that tells you even more interesting facts. It’s pretty fun:

So on Monday, President’s Day, think about George Washington and thank him for being great enough to have a holiday, a state, our capital, lots of cities, lots of universities and lots of streets named after him.

Let us know in the comments if you find out anything else interesting about George Washington. Or tell us what you would name one of George Washington’s dogs, since they all seemed to have totally ridiculous names. (I’d name one “Squirrelpants”). And don’t forget to use instagram #bobbledygeorge for any George Washingtons you see out in the world. Once you start looking, he’s EVERYWHERE.

Happy George Washington Week!

Come back Monday to read Matthew’s story about George Washington!