It's the big weekend!

This is the weekend!  The homecoming game is tonight! We are playing Christ the King from Huntersville. 

There will be food trucks in the parking lot before the game, a band will be playing, and there will be a middle school mash-up.  (The area Catholic middle school kids are invited to come to the game for free and there will be a rock climbing wall, games, etc. for them to play so they can mingle and get to know one another and hopefully decide that they want to come to Bishop.)

And then, of course, the homecoming dance is tomorrow night.

Sarah's friend, Oscar, whom she has known since she started at Our Lady of Mercy in 2nd grade asked her a couple of weeks ago to go to the dance with him.  And that started all the crazy.  Almost immediately upon the start of school, the freshman class started talking about the dance and once there were some "couples" friends began forming groups to go to dinner together before the dance.

And then the group chats were set up so that everyone can keep up with the planning and what's going on with the group.  Sarah said there are THIRTY FIVE people in her group.  Y'all, I'm not going to lie - that makes my head spin. 4 weeks ago she didn't even know these people and now 35 of them are going to the dinner together before the dance.

Sarah has kept me abreast with what's going on in the group chat and I'm a wee bit nervous.  They have decided to meet at a botanical garden in Greensboro for pictures before dinner. (I'm certain that every other group will be there too taking pictures.) They chose a place for dinner but because of the size of the reservation (um, 35!) they ultimately decided to change to a different restaurant.  I'm hoping this one can actually handle a reservation that big.  The other place sounded like they were discouraging the group. 

There have been two girls in charge of this and I'm hoping and praying their moms have been helping them as well.  I don't know any of the people in Sarah's group (other than Oscar and another friend from OLM, Jorge) and thus don't know any of the moms so I'm just hoping that everything is going to go as planned. 

Sarah assures me that we just have to get her to the garden for pictures and then to the restaurant and that several other parents have agreed to drive (35!) kids to the dance.  (I will be making sure this is the case before I leave her at the restaurant.) AND - there's a sleepover after the dance with some of her new friends so I need to meet that mom and confirm that they will in fact be picking up the sleepover girls from the dance and taking them to the sleepover.  AND - that means Sunday morning we will need to pick Sarah up from this house in Greensboro before Mass and most likely go to mass in Greensboro since we won't make it back to Holy Family in time.  (This is when being Protestant and not going to church every Sunday would come in handy!)  😁

I'm sure you all have heard about promposals where a guy (at a minimum) makes a clever sign and brings it to school to ask a girl to the prom.  I've read about more extravagant promposals but thankfully those don't seem to be a thing here.

Apparently all the guys in Sarah's group asked the girls in person or some over a text and after the girls said yes gave them a sign.  According to Sarah one of her new friends volunteered to make all the signs for the guys.  They just needed to tell her what they wanted the sign to say and then she got to work. (What a nice girl!)

Oscar gave Sarah this sign and it's the cutest thing:

It says:  "Flowers are the second prettiest thing.  Can I take the first to HOCO?"

And he gave her a bouquet of red roses.  Aren't they cute couple?!  Sarah assures me that they are just friends but I don't know....

We've got a busy weekend planned.  I'm hoping for no rain and no problems with
pictures/dinner/dance/sleepover/mass.  And that Sarah has a great time!

Friday Night Dance Party!

Friday night was the 8th grade graduation dance which the 7th grade hosts.  As part of my duties as a 7th grade parent I was able to help decorate and get everything ready for the dance.  It was hard work but I think we pulled off a great dance! Peter had fun anyway!

However, because I was setting everything up for the dance and because Dan was travelling and didn't get home until 10:00 PM on Saturday, my parents had to fill in to help get Peter ready for the dance.

Peter has been sporting a nice little mustache for most of this school year.  However, a friend did him a favor and told him his payment was shaving off his mustache.  Peter gladly obliged so my dad helped him with that before the dance.

Of course, being a good blogger, I took before and after photos.  And of course, Peter being 13, made me promise not to post them.

However, I am going to post these pictures:

My dad helping Peter with his tie.

So handsome!

The 7th graders escorted in the 8th graders.  Peter was a little nervous about this task but I think he did a great job.  It didn't help matters that all the parents were there snapping pictures like crazed paparazzi!

Out theme for the dance was "glow" and here are just a few pictures of how we tried to transform the cafeteria:

Everything looked even cooler when the sun went down.

Peter said he had a great time.  I hope all the kids did - especially the 8th graders!  It was fun working with the other moms putting it all together!

A hockey game, a cuckoo clock, and a dance. All you need for a fun weekend!

We had quite the weekend!  It was rainy and dreary but we kept busy.

On Friday evening, I dropped Sarah off with her Girl Scout troop.  They were headed out to see the Carolina Thunder Birds play hockey.

Sarah said they had a great time and we are hoping to go as a family before the season ends. 

After we dropped Sarah off, Dan and Peter and I headed out to his high school to see the last home basketball game of the regular season.  It was a good game but unfortunately they lost.  One of their best players has been out with an injury the last couple of games and another good player has had the flu.  Hopefully they will all be back in time to play in the post season games. 

On Saturday, I did a few house cleaning chores and Dan and I drove to the other side of town to pick up his Dad's old German cuckoo clock from the repair shop. 

I had finally agreed to hanging up in the house - y'all - I can not stand the sound of a clock going off all the time.  But I was going to deal with it because this clock brings Dan joy. 

But as soon as we started to mount it on the wall, the Orange Menace came out of nowhere and began attacking the chains.  We decided at that moment not to hang it on the wall.  We are hoping that after a few months, he will calm down a bit and won't care about the clock chains dangling before him.  But for now, he sees them as something that must be attacked and we are afraid that he will pull the clock off the wall.

The big event of our weekend was the TWIRP dance at Peter's school.  TWIRP stands for The Lady Is Required To Pay.  Basically it's a Sadie Hawkins dance where the girl asks the guy and pays for the tickets and for dinner.

One of Peter's friends from middle school asked him and he said yes.  He went to the homecoming dance in the fall with a group of guy friends so going with a group of guys and girls was a new experience for him.

The girls planned the whole thing and after lots of adjustments to the plans and one of their mothers stepping in, it was decided that they were to meet at a local country club for pictures and then dinner. 

The mom arranged a banquet room (there were 18 in the group) and the dinner was predetermined after a lengthy group chat. The girls had paid for it ahead of time so there was no awkwardness with waiters and a bunch of 9th graders trying to figure out who was paying and how to pay.




When we got there, all the parents chatted while the kids broke off into two groups - a boy group and a girl group.  Peter knows all the kids in his class because his school is very small but he's really good friends with one of the other boys because they went to middle school together.  Peter was very happy this friend was in the group.

After all 18 kids arrived, we took all the requisite pictures and then the parents left.  The mom and dad who arranged every thing stayed because they were also helping to get all the kids to the dance after dinner.

The room they were eating in was gorgeous and dinner was served buffet style.  There were 3 large tables set up and there were waiters waiting on them.  Peter said the food was delicious. He even gave high praise to the green beans.  I wonder if there's anyway I can get that recipe!

I'm glad he was able to experience this dance with a friend.  It took all the pressure off of a dance with a date and it definitely got him out of his comfort zone.  He said he had a good time at the dance and I think even though he was a little nervous before it all started, it ended up being a good night for him.

The mom that planned the dinner even made a photo op sign.

After Mass on Sunday,  we met my family for lunch and then headed home for what I was hoping was going to be an evening of laying on the couch in my sweatpants.  But, alas, we luckily remembered that Sarah had Confirmation class so watched some Olympic coverage and then headed out for that.  While she was there, Dan and I shared an appetizer at a local restaurant and had a mini date night which was actually better than being in my sweatpants!

Have a great week!

Highlights from the dance.

Sarah and  Daddy had a wonderful time at the Father Daughter dance on Friday night.

When they arrived at the dance they picked up their corsage and boutonniere and then had their picture taken.

So sweet.

Then their night of dancing began!  They did the Chicken Dance, the Hokey Pokey, the Macarena, the YMCA and the Cha Cha Slide.  Below is photographic evidence that he actually did the Hokey Pokey.

You put your left elbow in.  You put your left elbow out.

At one point in the evening, they had everyone form two lines facing each other and had the dads come dancing down the center doing their best dance and then all the little girls voted on who was the best dancer. Dan did not win this award but according to him Sarah didn't even vote for him.  Her defense "well the other daddy was really, really good!".

Oh how I would have loved to have seen my sweet husband dancing down the center of these two lines.  Sarah - if you ever in your life doubt that your daddy loves you, I will have to remind you of that moment.

Here they are in the line watching the dads do their best dancing.  They are holding hands.  So sweet.

They also had lots of opportunities to "boogie" as Sarah likes to call it.

Here they are getting their groove on.

Sarah and her friend Mia danced a lot of dances together.

Sarah and her friend Mia.

More Sarah and Mia

And it wouldn't be a Father-Daughter dance without at least one slow dance. 

Sarah has already announced that they will definitely be going back again next year! That gives Dan a whole year to practice his moves so he can win the Best Daddy Dancer award!

The Graduation Dance!

Last night was the graduation dance!

The 7th grade hosts the dance and is in charge of decorations, food, etc.  I spent the morning at school getting everything ready.

Our theme was Mardi Gras and we decked the cafeteria out in green/yellow/purple and there were masks, beads and balloons!

I think it turned out great - especially considering we had no budget!  The other moms that helped me were awesome!

It is tradition that the 7th graders escort the 8th graders into the dance.  But because there were less 7th graders than 8th graders, some of them had to double up.

Here are all the 8th Graders before we went in to watch the video they made of pictures of themselves from PreK to 8th grade.  It was such a sweet video and I did not tear up once!

Here's Peter (and Daniel) being escorted in by Margaret.

And here's Sarah escorting Cian.

 

My kiddos before the dance:

 

And a couple of random shots of the cafeteria:

It sounds like the kids had a good time!

7 Quick Takes: Geese, dance, notes and more!

It's Friday and I realize that I haven't written anything since Tuesday.  Let's remedy that with 7 Quick Takes!

1.  This week, a gaggle of geese has been showing up every morning in our neighbor's back yard right about the time I get out of the shower.  This is a bad thing.  A very bad thing  Geese are mean old things and they leave poo where ever they go.  Lots and lots and lots of poo. And typically once they start visiting a certain place at a certain time, they make it one of their regular stops.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they don't make it over to our backyard because I know that Dan is going to request that I shoo them away every morning until they stop coming.  And like I said, I'm always right out of the shower when they arrive.  And nobody wants to see me chasing a bunch of geese in my bathrobe. Nobody.

2.  Several months ago Sarah begged me for dance lessons.  Actually, she has been begging me for dance lessons for several years now but I've always said no.  Dance lessons to me seems like a big money pit...lessons, shoes costumes, recitals.  Last year I told her I would pay for a summer session if she wanted to try it (hoping that she would hate it) and she was on board with that plan until she found out there would be no recital.  She was upset that she wouldn't get to be on stage and decided not to waste her time.  So, whew!  Dodged that bullet.

But a couple of months ago she was asking again but in between piano, homework, basketball and Girl Scouts, I told her there was no way.  (And I'm not letting her stop piano because I think that's a skill she might actually use one day - tap, not so much.) To get her off my back, I told her that maybe she could do something this summer.  As I was saying this, I was thinking, eh, she'll forget this in a couple of months and I'll be off the hook.

But, that girl knows me well so she made me sign this binding agreement and she hung it up:

3.  And because she knows me really well, she posted this on her Easter candy:

Are those HORNS???

4.  And because she knows me really, really well she posted this  her leftover milkshake...
(who in their right mind has any left over milkshake???)

5.  So, clearly, we have photographic evidence that not only do I not keep my word when I tell my kids I'll look into something for them, I also eat their candy and drink their leftover milkshakes.

Perhaps I should write a parenting how-to manual. 

6.  The pool opens this weekend and swim practice starts next week!  You know my favorite thing about swim practice?  I get to talk to my BFF (check out the cute pillows they just made) while the kids are practicing!  It reminds me of the times before she went back to work when we would spend hours together while our kids played.  Those were the good old days.  ...sigh...

7.  And Dan leaves for a business trip on Sunday afternoon. Yep. Sunday.  That means instead of spending Monday with us he will be in Ireland having meetings with a group of Chinese people.   Neither one of us are very excited about that prospect but that's just part of the job.

And with that, I'm off to scour the house to see if Sarah has left me any more notes!

Head over to Jen's place to read more Quick Takes.  (I just finished her book, Something Other Than God and I loved every minute of it.  Time for a sequel Jen!)

Daddy-Daughter Dance

Sarah has been looking forward to the Daddy-Daughter Dance at her school since last year's Daddy-Daughter Dance at her school.

So on Friday evening she got into her dress and her fancy dancing shoes and was ready to go.  She wanted her hair curly so we did the sock bun method to try to get some curl into it.  Unfortunately her hair is really long and quite fine and she only kept the sock in for a couple of hours instead of overnight ,so even though it looked nice and curly when we unrolled it, it was rather straight almost minutes later.  So I got out the curling iron and tried to fancy it up a bit.  Even with hair spray it still didn't hold. 

Curly or straight, I think she looks gorgeous either way!

Sarah posing in her dress.

Sarah and Daddy (please note the shoes!)

Doing the dance we like to call "The Daddy".

They had a great time and I think she's ready to do it again - as long as she gets a new dress and a new pair of shoes!

Tuesday!!

The nice thing about a long weekend (other than the fact that it's long!) is that today is already Tuesday! 

We had a full weekend.  Friday night was the 7th and 8th grade Winter Dance.  I helped the other 8th grade moms set up for the dance on Friday afternoon.  It was an easy set up because the theme was simple - Winter Wonderland. 

One of the moms comes from a family of florists so she brought these three beatuiful flocked fir trees that had lights on them.  We hung twinkle lights from the ceiling and we had silvery white spray painted branches in vases.  The vases were filled with silver, gold, and white Christmas balls and snowflakes were hanging from the branches.  And one of the walls was covered with paper snowflakes that another mother had made.  Each of these snowflakes was absolutely beautiful and each one was totally different than the other. 

And of course I failed to get pictures but the cafeteria looked really nice when we got done.  And I love working with this group of ladies.

Here are my kids before the dance:

They always want to do a goofy one for fun.  Look at Sarah's face!  HA!

After I dropped them off at the dance, I waited for Dan.  He had to work late but he finally got there and off to dinner we went.  I wanted to try a new restaurant.  We arrived there at 7:35 and there were only a few cars in the parking lot.  NOPE!  (I later did a little more research on the restaurant and learned that they only have one seating per night and it's by reservation only and the 5 course menu changes nightly.  So, if I really want to experience this restaurant, it will probably require a little more planning on my part!)

So we headed downtown to try another restaurant we had never been to. The wait was 30 minutes so we headed to the bar to get a drink.  It was a restaurant and WINE bar so they only thing they served at the bar was wine and cocktails.  NOPE!  (And I'm sure they had a few bottled beers, but I didn't see any and I really didn't want to be standing around a pretentious wine bar with a glass of beer looking like the redneck girl that I really am!)

So we headed to restaurant number three which was also packed but we waited and had a really good dinner.  And by the time it was all said and done, it was time to pick up the kids.

They had a great time.  Sarah danced with a boy (her friend Oscar) and Peter was happy to report that he danced with NO girls.

Saturday morning found us headed to a basketball game.  The boys won and every single boy on the team scored!  I love this team that Peter is on.  (Every time the second string scored, the first string boys cheered and hooted and high-fived.  It was so sweet to see.  Especially when one of the boys on the team who has never played basketball before this year scored a basket.  They were all genuinely happy for him!)

Saturday night we watched the Patriots play.  They won but it wasn't pretty.  I think all the hype about how badly they were going to beat the Texans got into their heads. But they won so - whew!

Sunday was Mass and lunch with my family and Dan had a Boy Scout Committee meeting and then it was Monday.  We slept late and then moved a bunch of stuff from the bonus room to the basement and actually took quite a few things to Goodwill.  There's still a lot of work to be done up there and down in the basement but - babysteps!

And with that, it's TUESDAY and time for me to head to the grocery store.  And laundry - there's always laundry!

Enjoy your short week!

I Love You to the Moon and Back!

The annual Father/Daughter Dance was held on Friday night.  The theme this year was "I Love You to the Moon and Back."

Sarah and I went shopping several weeks ago and found a dress she loved.  It's getting harder to find dresses that we can both agree on.  And typically it's because everything in her size is too childish for her taste.  She wants nothing to do with bows, or lace, or frills, or even flowers.

She did seem to be drawn to the long sequined gowns in the women's department.  I had to inform her that they didn't make those in a girl's size 12 and once she got over her disappointment she picked out about 10 dresses she deemed decent.

And the one she chose was the cheapest dress we looked at!  And she said she felt very professional wearing it.

That cracked me up because shedoes looks very professional wearing it. Like she's on her way to a business meeting and not a dance. But I think it's adorable on her and not a sequin in sight!

Because the dress was so inexpensive (it was the cheapest one she tried on AND it was on sale!), we headed to Charming Charlies where I told her she could get a necklace to match.  And what do you know?  The necklace she picked was on clearance and was so cheap that I even let her get some clearance bracelets as well.  She was just as excited about her $5 accessories as she was the new dress.

We curled her hair the night of the dance, got her in her dress and jewelry and off she went to the ball with her Daddy.

They had a great time and here are a few photos from the evening:

Don't you just love the moon?

Aren't they the sweetest things?

Insert white dress and tuxedo and I can envision them at Sarah's wedding....

Ready for her business meeting!

I'll title this one "Who tooted?" and leave it at that!

They had a great night at the dance and I got to spend the evening with this handsome fella: