Big Weekend

This past weekend we were going and going non-stop, from 6 AM Saturday morning until 10 PM last night. First thing Saturday, Amy and I had to be over in West Little Rock at Parkview High School, for the dress rehearsal for her dance recital. I got up at 6, got myself ready to go, and got her up at 7. Then I got her dressed, put her hair in rollers, and made up her face. I had given myself an hour to get her ready, but ended up only needing 45 minutes or so. She was a lot more cooperative than I expected her to be! I guess it was the idea of makeup. Anyway, we left at 8, met up with Alison and Reagan, and went over to the school. The rehearsal started at 9, with the first 30 minutes being dedicated to handing out certificates to all the girls and general getting organized. At around 9:30 they started going over the opening number, which was mostly performed by a few of the older girls, but included all the dancers in the school. Pretty much all they had to do was walk across the stage, but it was in the darkness of the wings where we had our first meltdown. I had misjudged Amy, and had handed her off to her teacher and gone to sit in the audience and watch. A few minutes after they went offstage, Alison came and found me and told me that both Amy and Reagan were freaking out because of how dark it was offstage. I went to Amy, calmed her down, and waited with her until her group did their part of the opening dance. I met her on the other side of the stage and she was fine after that. Her group, being some of the youngest dancers, practiced their dance first. I'm not sure if the girls were just really intimidated by being on the big stage or what, but hardly any of them did any dancing during their practice. Some of the other moms and I just hoped they could all get through it without anyone crying or running offstage, and fortunately, they all did okay. One of the girls stood still with her fingers in her mouth, a couple of them were actually trying to do the dance, and one or two were dancing wildly to the beat of their own song! Amy managed a few steps, but spent lots of time standing still and watching her teacher do the dance offstage. They ran through it twice, and then we were able to leave.

We came home, and got here in enough time to finish getting set up for Nathan's tee ball team party. I had cleaned up the house on Friday, so we just did some general picking up and straightening, and then some of our friends arrived to deliver the massive inflatable waterslide all the parents had rented for the boys. Phil and Adam got it set up while Kristi and I supervised and the kids played. They finished just in time for us to have a bite of lunch and head to the game at 1:00. The Dodgers played a GREAT game against the Storm and won their second game of the season 20 runs to 9. They had gotten their first win the Tuesday before that, which I had to miss because I was with Amy at her first swimming lesson. I was pretty disappointed to have missed their first win, but it was balanced out by being SO excited for the boys! And then I was able to see them win Saturday. I am so proud of them!!!

After the game, all the boys and their families came out to the house for the party. They boys had a blast on the waterslide, we grilled hot dogs and ate cake and ice cream, and the coach presented all the boys with their team trophies. We have been very happy with the Dodgers coaches this season. Our head coach is one of the boy's grandfather, and his son is the assistant. They have been nothing but encouraging and positive with all the boys, which are qualities that (unfortunately) seem to be lacking in several coaches in our league. I really have felt like the coaches truly care for all the kids and want them to do well, but they didn't stress winning and losing. They kept encouraging the team even though their record was not good, and I know that Nathan has really enjoyed playing. He has learned so much, and so many skills, and at this stage, that is what is important--not who wins and who loses. Thanks Coach Ray and Coach Adam!

They kids played until around 6 or so, then we got everything cleaned up, got kids cleaned up, ate more cake, and fell into bed at a little after nine.

Sunday morning, Phil got up with the kids and let me sleep until 8:45. He then got out in the yard and got the waterslide ready to pack up. Now, I'm not sure what time schedule I had been thinking about, but for some reason I thought we would have enough time after church to both get the slide loaded up and ready to return AND get Amy dolled up for her recital. We get out of church at noon, it's almost a twenty minute drive home, plus a stop at a drive-thru for lunch, and we needed to leave by 1:30 to get to the recital on time. That gave us an hour. Hmmm, if it takes 45 minutes to get Amy ready to go, that only leaves 15 minutes to get the slide rolled up and loaded in my car, and then returned to the rental place. Yeah...not gonna happen! Fortunately I realized this in enough time for us to roll and load the slide before we left for church, but just barely! And I had already taken a shower, so I got good and sweaty again in the backyard, my hair dried in the sun (which is NOT my preferred method), and then had only 15 minutes to finish getting ready for church, including trying to salvage my hairdo, slapping makeup on my sweaty face, and changing out of the outfit I had originally put on but got drenched while I was helping with the slide. Not how I like to start my day!

So we went to church, it was refreshing as always, and then we hit warp speed again after we got out. Oh, and I forgot to mention, on the way to church, I had glanced at the paperwork for the slide and it turned out we could only return it between 1:30 and 2, not up until 1:30 like I had originally thought. So, another plan adjustment: grab some lunch at Mickey-D's, go home and get Amy dolled up, leave the house 15 minutes earlier and drop off the slide before we went to the recital. Amy was just as cooperative as she had been on Saturday, so I was able to get her ready to go without any hitches or breakdowns. We left the house on time (!!!), and made it to the high school in plenty of time. Amy fell asleep in the car on the way there, which I thought was a good thing at the time, but ended up being a nightmare.

When we got to the school, I woke Amy up and got her out of the car, and had my first clue that things were not going to be easy. She didn't really want to wake up, and then she wanted me to carry her, which was impossible given the camera, "supply bag," purse, and costume I already had to carry. We made it inside, where it was chaos. We found a spot to put our stuff and ourselves. Then I had to try to occupy her for almost an hour. She had drooled a little and wiped some of her makeup on her shirt while she slept, so I fixed that, and then we waited. And while we waited, she proceeded to get grouchier and less compliant with what I was asking her to do. Then she started to take her outfit apart, untying ribbons, pulling at her hair, and getting into the makeup remover wipes and taking part of her face off. Just when I thought I was at my wit's end, another mom offered to share the M&M's she had brought to bribe her daughter with. God love some chocolate! She had a few pieces of candy and was a different girl after that. It's amazing the difference M&M's will make (right Mom?). Finally, the show started, they did their quick appearance in the first number (in a dance school t-shirt and jeans shorts), and came backstage to change into her real costume. We had to hurry, since her class was the third number; only a speech from the owner and one song to get changed, but we managed to have time for a few quick photos:

The girls performed MUCH better at the real show than thay had at the rehearsal. Almost everyone danced, no one cried, and even the girl who had stood with her fingers in her mouth did a few of the steps. Finally, her song was over, I changed her back into her t-shirt, and we went and sat in the audience for the rest of the show. Whew! Done with dance for this year. We are so proud of our little diva!

After the show, we all went out to a great Chinese buffet for dinner, and finally went back home, where the kids played games while I loaded photos on the computer, and then we watched the video of the recital so Amy could see herself. After that, it was seriously bedtime. I think we are all still tired today, but we still had school, and tonight we have Nate's second-to-last tee ball game. Tomorrow is the last day of school and the last tee ball game, and also a swimming lesson for Amy. Nate will start Summer Day Camp at the same daycare as Amy on Wednesday, and he will join her at swimming lessons on Thursday. And that will be so nice! Both kids in the same place during the day, and for their evening activity two nights a week. The countdown is also on for vacation, and we are racing with the oil spill to see who gets to the Destin beaches first. Unfortunately, I think the oil will win, but there is a LOT to do in Destin without going to the beach. And there is always the pool! The bright side is (not much of a bright side to a big environmental disaster like this) that maybe it won't be too crowded in Destin, or maybe we can finagle a discount on our accomodations. We plan on having a good time, regardless. And it will be great just to get away for a while and have some down time with the family.