So It Begins

 
I saw a flyer for a school talent show in PSP’s back pack one day.  It listed the dates of the talent show and try-outs.  I calmly and with-no-big-expectations-here asked her, So are you going to try out for the talent show?  Her response?  A quick no.

OK.  Done and done.

Then a couple weeks later PSP casually mentions on the way home from school that her and two of her friends are going to try out for the talent show.

You are?  
Yeah.  
What are you going to do?  
A dance.  
Oh.  Do you have a routine?  
Yeah we’ve been practicing some moves.  
Uh, do you need to get together and practice outside of school?  
No.  
Okaaay….

I decided to just let it go.  The tryouts were in a couple days, and if they didn’t really have anything together then they wouldn’t really try out and that would be it.  Right?  Yes I’m not sure the whole ignore it and it will go away approach is the best way to go, but it the moment it was the easy solution.

As fate would have it, 2 days later as I was dropping PSP off at school two moms were standing there talking about their daughters wanting to try out for the talent show.  Then one of them points in our direction and says, Yeah and wasn’t PSP the third girl?  I know these moms, but I didn’t connect that they were those girls moms and what are the chances we’d all be at the door at the same time anyway?  What?  Suddenly I find myself offering up our house as a practice space that afternoon since you know, tryouts were the next day.  And of course if I’m having 2 of my daughters friends and their moms over, I have to have some sort of food.  So I bake a coffee cake.

That afternoon everyone comes over.  The girls are super excited, basically just running around having an after school play date.  Finally, we get them to come over and show us their “moves.”  They have 3 moves.  Us moms kinda look at each other.  Can you dance?  Do you have dance experience?  Suddenly scenes from About a Boy are flashing through my mind as I realize my daughter might be proverbially about to sing Killing Me Softly in front of her entire school talent show and someone has to step in and be the proverbial Hugh Grant in this situation.  Being a former high school cheerleader and Pom (dance team) I step up.  I help the girls choreograph a simple dance.  We practice, practice, practice until they get it down.

To recap I hosted a get together, made some food and choreographed a dance routine for my 6 year olds school talent show with about 8 hours notice.

Am I trying to tell you how awesome I am and to please give me a pat on the back?
Yes.  Absolutely.  I aced that one.    

And so it begins…. a small peek into my future of having children in school.  Last minute runs to the store for poster paper, science projects due the next day, a castle built out of sugar cubes (a real life example from my school days), last minute signatures for a field trip… the list goes on and on.   There is a big part of me that wants to set up parameters and systems for our home so this doesn’t happen.  But no matter what, it’s going to happen.  White flag, I surrender… it’s just going to happen.  

And so it begins….

PS. They made it into the talent show.
(She shoots, she scores!)

While these mud pictures didn’t have anything to do with the post, they were sort of a lovely visual metaphor for letting go and surrendering to the madness, no?