Football and Dance Shows
After dragging myself out of bed this morning at 7am, I wandered into the kids room, opened the curtains, and started shouting the usual roll-call. On any weekday 7am would be fine – normal, in fact – but this was a Saturday. It seemed insane.
After racing our way though Breakfast, and hunting here and there for football socks, shin pads, boots, a water bottle, and some snacks, we set out on foot for the local football club. The place was festooned with children, parents, coaches, and footballs whizzing in all directions like the opening scenes of Star Wars. While Miss 10 found her team mates, Miss 11 began helping on the sweets stall, and I became chief fetcher of cups of tea, and eater of bacon rolls.
From a “Sporty Mc Sporto” perspective, it was a good day – won two games, lost two games. We might have won another game if one of the referees hadn't been so woefully incompetent (he awarded a goal that didn't cross the line, and then a free kick for a play-acted foul – not good).
In many ways we were just glad that our youngest had made it through the tournament in one piece – she was dancing in a dance show later in the day, and the teacher (a wonderful friend) would NOT have been happy had she been sidelined for whatever reason.
So... football ended, but I didn't get to go home, because (if you remember from my rant last weekend), my other half had volunteered me for car-park duty. My fears about being sworn at by irate drivers were completely unjustified – in the end I was helping marshal parking on the local primary school field – standing in the road, controlling access into and out of the school driveway. My hour stint flew by, after which I was replaced by one of the football coaches.
After wanding home via the shops, and clearing the mountain of washing up from the night before (we ran out of washing up liquid), I helped get Miss 14 off her backside to visit the dance show – sorting her hair out for her, and helping choose clothes (oh, the drama of being a 14 year old girl).
My other half and the younger kids had been at the theatre all afternoon for the final rehearsal – I received a phone call at 4:40pm (first show was at 5pm, we were due to wander down for the 7pm show), asking if I could take some food, and a first aid kit to the theatre. It turned out one of the girls in the show had cut her foot open, and needed running repairs. Somehow nobody had remembered a first aid kit. Fifteen minutes later – after a high speed sortie into town on the mountain bike – I appeared at the stage door, emptying a backpack of pre-packed salad, travel first aid kit, plasters, wadding, antiseptic, and whatever else I stumbled across in the shop up the road from the theatre.
My other half said thankyou about twenty times as I pulled one thing after another out of my backpack.
An hour later I appeared again, on foot this time, with Miss 14 in tow. We found our seats, and settled in to enjoy the show. I'm struggling to come up with words to describe how good it was. There were all sorts of numbers, hundreds of children, lighting, special effects, music, and of course lots and lots of dancing.
Perhaps the highlights for me were seeing the smile on Miss 11's face while on-stage, and the progress Miss 10 has made. It's easy to forget that she has all sorts of developmental delays, and came to us at two and half years old hardly able to walk. Her gross motor control issues were the original reason for starting dance classes – and now you can't spot her among her peers; she's as good or better than anybody else. I'm always humbled by her effort, and enthusiasm.
Another quite unexpected highlight was getting to see the dance teacher take part in one of the numbers (a “chair dance”, with the older pupils). It's rare that we ever get to see her dance, but I always stop and watch when she does. She danced in big productions on the stage, and on television when she was younger – she's seriously good. In the few minutes she took part, even to my unskilled eyes, there was such a difference between her, and everybody else. I'm not sure if it was power, or grace, or elegance, timing... I have no idea. She was just awesome.
She also had a costume malfunction that caused me to avert my eyes, but we won't mention that EVER AGAIN lol.
When we got in late this evening the children were absolutely flying. Quite predictably though, given their massive day, they burned out like fireworks and fell asleep almost as soon as their heads hit the pillows.
A good day. A very good day.