First Date, First Dance

About a week ago, Matthew informed us that he was going to Homecoming. We were somewhat surprised as he has never really gone on a date before, but he had a date, a group, and a plan and the only thing he needed was some advice about where to get a corsage. 

Homecoming was last night and the group he went with was entirely composed of band kids. That was kind of a necessity, and here is why. On Friday afternoon, they took their Homecoming pictures and then headed over to the high school to fulfill their pep band responsibilities for the Homecoming football game. Saturday morning found all of them at a marching band rehearsal until noon, after which they went on their day date to Top Golf. The remainder of the afternoon and part of the evening was taken up by a marching band competition which was, luckily, at a nearby high school. Otherwise, all the crazy back and forth travels would not have been possible. After their performance time, they zipped home to change into their fancy clothes and then headed to the dance for a while. When they were done going deaf at the dance, they stopped by their respective houses to change back to casual clothes and then drove back to the competition to be there for the awards portion of the event. (As a sidenote, they took first place in their division as well as the caption in visuals!) The evening was capped off by ping pong and card games at one of the kid’s houses. Matthew’s date had an 11:30 curfew and he got her home right on time. He didn’t get home himself until midnight though because apparently his date’s mom talks forever. 

I know my schedule was just as wacky when I was in high school, but at my current age, it makes me tired just thinking about it! But Matthew has the typical ability of a 16-year-old to function on very little sleep, so he was able to get where he needed to be when he needed to be there and had a great time!

The Shoes Make the Outfit

While Nathan was at the Sweetheart’s dance two weeks ago, an invitation to Sweethearts at his old high school was dropped off. It was, for an invitation to a dance, a last-minute invite from a friend of his who had asked four other people and still did not have a date. Nathan, being the kind human being that he is, graciously accepted the invitation and yesterday was the dance. The theme was the 1920’s and that worked great because Nathan’s preferred dress shoes are very retro. His date was wearing a matching pair, which was super fun.

Unlike many of his dance (and day to day) experiences at his own school, it was a low stress event. He had a good time.

Blind Dates and Deaf Conversations

Last night was the Sweetheart’s Dance at the High School. After all the creative asking and answering of last week, I suspected it would be a fun group. Since Nathan is the only one who lives in close proximity to the high school, the plan was to gather up all the kids and spend the day date and dinner portion of the event at our house. The two kids that live in West Jordan drove down to our place and then Nathan drove all of them to Cedar Hills to pick up the other three. He said the drive back to our house a bit awkward which doesn’t surprise me. Blind dates are like that. The afternoon was spent playing board games and at some point, it was discovered that the two Cedar Hills kids that my nephew Jacob recruited for this adventure are both taking ASL (American Sign Language). Nathan is also taking ASL and absolutely loves it. With a common interest discovered, things relaxed a bunch.

Dinner was homemade pizza and that was an activity in and of itself. There were pizza faces, braided breadsticks, and lots of laugher. The official photos were fast and few because it was cold outside, and then there were more games played until it was time to go to the actual dance. As expected, the dance was loud and chaotic, but the reward for successfully navigating the main event was chocolate fondue.

I think Nathan had a good time. It was a low key, relaxing event that was lacking much of the drama that has been prevalent in his social circle of late. He told me that he ran into a couple of other madrigal men at the dance and they liked the whole planned blind group date thing that they are considering following suit for a later dance.

Going Bug-Eyed

For the next school dance, Nathan has opted to avoid a myriad of social drama. Originally, he planned just to skip the dance, but a change in plans came along in the form of a cousins’-organized blind date. He and Ella, who both go the same school, and Jacob, who goes to a different school, are planning on going to Sweethearts at Nathan and Ella’s school. Jacob arranged with two friends to come as dates for Nathan and Ella and those two provided a date for Jacob. Even though the plans were already in place and agreed upon by all parties, all the kids wanted to do the official asking to the dance in the traditional, fun way. Nathan went with an eyeball themed ask, using as many puns using the words “I” and “eye” as he could come up with. So of course there needed to be a plethora of googly eyes. Not only were there tons (my sister Rachael was still finding eyeballs on her driveway days later) but he found some crazy big googly eyes at Hobby Lobby and just couldn’t resist. I can’t say that I blame him. The things are freaking hilarious. AND they glow in the dark. Best googly eyes ever!

His date joined the fun and answered as she was asked…using a bunch of eyeballs. It sounds like these kids are going to have a good time!

Whoever Invented Glitter Should Be Shot

In my opinion, “glitter” should qualify as a four-letter word. I mean, glitter is like the plague of the craft world. Once it infiltrates your home, you can never get rid of it. It creeps into every space, systematically spreading until it has covered every nook and cranny. And once it gets in, you can never get it out. Vacuums, lint brushes, brooms, nothing works! What’s worse, any attempts to clean it up just result in a wider area of contamination. And don’t even get me started on all those glittery dresses you can buy at Costco at Christmas and Easter that leave all the pews (and then suits, dresses, skirts, etc.) in the chapel glitter covered. Seriously, the stuff is pure evil in spite of its innocent glistening appearance.

Why this glitter tirade, you may ask? Because it’s dance recital time which means tons of glittery tutus. Malia’s tutu never even comes out of the bag it was shipped in until we’re standing backstage on recital night. As a result, it always looks just a little crunched up, but I feel like that’s a perfectly acceptable trade-off for not letting glitter into my house. And Malia doesn’t mind so I figure it’s all good. 😊

Malia is still doing both tap and ballet and although there are days when she doesn’t want to go to dance lessons, she says she still enjoys it. A few months ago, she asked me how old you need to be to get pointe shoes, so maybe anticipation for our excursion to the Nutcracker on Saturday has given her just a little motivation. Anyway, she enjoyed her performance. And it only took me ten or fifteen minutes to get all the glitter off my hands and shoes…

A Break in the Performance Schedule

In the midst of a busy Madrigal Christmas season, Nathan went to Winter Waltz last night. His group was a bunch of madrigals and they had a performance yesterday morning, so the day date portion was an afternoon spent making gingerbread houses. In terms of total time dedicated to the day date, Nathan felt like it was much more reasonable. He’s not a huge fan of the dance requiring an entire day. It didn’t occur to the girls that winter days are short and darkness falls super early, so it ended up being too dark for them to do their pictures at the planned location. Instead, they zipped over to Hobby Lobby and took advantage of a season display for their pics. Despite being crazy tired due to their performance schedule, Nathan had an enjoyable time.

Second Sadie’s of the Season

One of the perks of going to a new school this year is that Nathan has friends, and lady acquaintances, in two high schools. That means double the school dances. Nathan’s second Sadie’s for this month was on Saturday and while it was at his previous school (which we are all glad he is no longer attending), it actually ended up being much more fun due to an extreme lack of drama. And besides, what’s not fun about getting to dress up as Sully from Monster’s Inc.? 😊

Staking Her Claim

All of last school year, Nathan was repeatedly queried about whether he was going to this or that school dance. The fact that he was not going because he was not sixteen yet was his response, his safety net. I’ve warned him in the past that once he turned sixteen, he was no longer going to have an easy out. In response to similar questions regarding last Saturday’s homecoming dance, he asked Sariah, one of his best friends. That was a safe and socially acceptable choice, but in the minds of all the teenage girls, his going to the dance was an indicator that he is now on the market.

Yesterday afternoon, Nathan told me that the Madrigal women were already talking about who they were going to ask to Sadie Hawkins, the next school dance and a traditional girls’ choice event. He was flabbergasted about how early they were making plans, but I explained to him that girls just think that way. They plan much farther in advance than boys and they have to talk about all of it so that everyone knows who is claiming which boy in order to avoid huge amounts of teenage girl trauma and drama if someone’s preferred date is asked by someone else. He didn’t really get it, but he’s a teenage boy, and the minds of teenage (and honestly, any age) boys and girls just work differently.

At just after 7:00 a.m. this morning, Nathan sent me the following text:

Yup. Yesterday was the female powwow about who gets to ask whom and today the plan went into action. Nathan is even more flabbergasted and I’m just laughing over my Cheerios. The dance is in six weeks and the girl in question is, in fact, one of those Madrigal women that was making plans and staking claims yesterday.

I fully expect Nathan to get asked to pretty much every girls’ choice dance of his high school career. He is a talented, smart, kind young man, one who also happens to be tall and pretty easy to look at. I’m his mom so I know I’m biased, but he is kind of a cutie. Try as he might, he’s never going to understand how those girls think, but at least I can steer him down a safe path in order to avoid as much “wrath of teenage girl” as possible.

The First Dance

Homecoming at the high school was on Saturday. Due to a tiny bit of peer pressure, Nathan decided to go and asked one of his good friends to accompany him as his date. Luckily for all of us, his friend happens to be a girl. 😜 He’s not a huge fan of the all-day school dance event, so it was fortuitous that a good number of his group had conflicts throughout the day. They did have a picnic lunch with a subsequent Nerf gun battle, but other than that, Nathan left at 6:00 pm and arrived home at 11:30. That’s a very respectable length of time for a school dance. He did have fun, minus the fact that he had a headache by the time he came home, so hopefully this inaugural sock hop will warm him up to the idea of future dances. Because I suspect that he will end up going to nearly all of them. Based on some of his experiences last year, the girls have just been waiting for him to turn sixteen…

The Last Dance

Last night was Daniel’s last high school dance. While there is a senior dinner dance later this month, it is on the same night as his final wind symphony concert so he will not be able to go. He isn’t bummed by that though. He just took his favorite gal to prom instead. She’s also in wind symphony so it worked well for both of them.

The day date was mostly a bust since Kierra had a baptism, but the main event in the evening was fun for him. The boys cooked dinner, which I think is fantastic, with Daniel providing the main dish. I’m so proud that my boys have actually paid attention to what I’ve taught them in the kitchen. I don’t think any of them would starve if they had to fend for themselves for a while. In fact, the dish Daniel prepared (Italian Herb Roasted Chicken) is one he has cooked for past dances and it must have been well received since it was on the menu again. 😊 After dinner they went to the dance and then had dessert and watched a movie afterward.

One of the fun things about Daniel’s high school dances has been his fancy ties. Not only does he coordinate with his date’s dress (which is pretty normal), he also ties them in fancy ways, frequently using two ties to create an apparel work of art. This time was no exception. Kierra gave him the pink tie and he added a black and silver one to up the wow factor. It was an eye-catching combination.

I think I’m feeling more nostalgic about the last dance of his high school experience than Daniel is. It seems to me that this is another ending for him. I mean, I know colleges hold dances too, but I never went to a formal dance while I was in college. I don’t know what is normal for his university of choice and I most certainly don’t know what he will do if a formal is an option, but in my mind, this is one of the first “last times” for him. I’m so glad he has taken advantage of his time and has gone to as many dances as he has. I only went to a handful while I was in high school, one of the disadvantages of the being the girl all the boys were friends with, but he has gone to most of the ones held during both his junior and senior years. Of course, having a steady sweetheart helps with that, but still. I don’t think he’ll leave high school with many regrets about things he didn’t do.

Motivated to Dance

It’s recital season again. Malia is still enjoying her dance lessons. The tap still seems to come a bit easier to her, but she has watched several movies about ballet dancers and is super excited about seeing “The Nutcracker” ballet later this year, so her interest in ballet has ramped up. She asked me when she can start wearing pointe shoes so she knows she’s still years away from that, but I’ve also told her that everything she is learning now will help her be ready to go on toe if her interest continues. She still forgets to smile when she is onstage because she gets nervous, but she has made a lot of progress this year. It has been fun to see!

Fancy Footwork

It is recital time again for Malia. She is still enjoying dance lessons and while I still think that tap comes easier to her, she enjoys tap and ballet and is doing well in both. However, she always looks so serious during recital time. All the concentration comes out on her face and she forgets to smile! But that’s ok. She is having a good time. And one of the highlights for dance this year? Her ballet costume has flip sequins, which are all the rage with the younger set right now.

Tip Tapping Away

We’re headed into that busy time of year when all the kids have concerts, recitals, awards ceremonies, etc. This evening was one of the first events of the season-Malia’s dance recital. She has enjoyed dance lessons (although she complains about not being able to play with friends on dance days) and we can see improvement. She says she likes both tap and ballet, but the tap seems to come much easier. She struggles a bit with the ballet. Nevertheless, she has a good time and we got to see a fun show this evening.

Turnabout is Fair Play

Daniel did the asking for Prom last month. This month it was ladies’ choice for Sadie Hawkins. It was a sports theme for this event and being the group of kids that they are, their sport was marching band. It was a more casual dance, but Daniel and company still had a great time!

Holiday Hijinx

December is always a busy month. Between the concerts, recitals, Christmas preparations, parties, shopping, crafts, etc. our schedule can get a bit hectic. In addition to that, Matthew and Malia are off track for most of December. I know it would make some parents crazy to have the offspring at home the month before Christmas, but I love it. They love it. We do lots of fun stuff. Here are a few of this year’s highlights.

I started off the Christmas season by being the bringer of the treats for Malia’s class Christmas party on Dec. 1. We made some nut free melted snowman cookies. It was super fun.

For one of the activities in our yearly activity advent, I took Matthew and Malia to paint ceramics at Color Me Mine. When I made the reservation, the girl told me to plan an hour tops for kids of their ages. At the 2 ½ hour mark, I had to tell the kiddos that we needed to hurry and finish so we could get home in time to cook dinner. To say that they enjoyed themselves would be an understatement. They loved it. They both have an eye for detail that I did not realize and took time to paint things in just a certain way. Malia had hers all done when she discovered that they had glitter paint, so she had to repaint several parts to include glitter. And I was jealous that they got to paint and I had to supervise. 😉

Picking up their glazed and fired pieces a few days later was very exciting for them as well. They had to unwrap them before we left the studio. They couldn’t wait until we got home.

We also made cinnamon salt dough ornaments. Matthew and Malia had a great time rolling and cutting the ornaments. My favorite part was the fact that the house smelled fantastic for days!

Matthew crafted a nativity from Lego. Malia was helping, but she got bored pretty quickly and wandered away to do something else.

I got to go to the MoTab Christmas concert with two of my sisters. This is the first time I’ve ever been and it was super fun! On our way we walked past the Macy’s Christmas window displays which are made entirely out of candy. They do them every year ( a tradition they carried over when they bought out ZCMI) and I’ve seen them before but they are always eye catching and amazing.

Malia had a dance recital. She takes tap and ballet and although she says she likes both, she seems to catch on to the tap steps easier. Ballet doesn’t come as easily. It will be interesting to see if her interest in ballet (and dance in general) continues or if it dwindles. She says she likes dance but sometimes we get a negative reaction to the weekly dance lessons. I guess we’ll see how things go. I’m not the kind of mom who will force her daughter to stay in dance lessons just because I enjoyed it so much.

Daniel and Nathan don’t care all that much about most of our advent activities, but they were super stoked (yes, I’m a child of the ‘80s) about the strawberry Santas.  In fact, all the kiddos liked it so much that we bought more berries and did it twice.

As always, Christmas Eve meant dinner with my parents and siblings and the yearly reenactment of the nativity story. I feel like we’ve been very blessed that all or our kids have cousins their age with whom they have become good friends. It has taken Matthew the longest to find that cousin since there are none just his age, but in the past year his cousin Drew (who is a year older) has become his cousin buddy. They both love sports and as they have gotten to know each other better they have become comrads. Matthew looks forward to their time together. They opted to be shepherds this year. Malia and Kate both choose to be angels. Nathan, Jacob and Ella were this year’s wise acres…I mean wise men. And Daniel was a fabulous sport and was willing to be Joseph when none of the younger kids (or older ones) wanted the job.

Daniel had a band Christmas concert. Nathan had a choir Christmas concert, but he didn’t actually sing. By then he had been sick for nearly a month, the doctor had given him a note to stay home from school for the next week and the parents had agreed with said note so Nathan went just long enough to play the piano for the number he was accompanying. He wasn’t happy to be out of school the entire last week before Christmas, but he had been pushing himself, not taking time to rest and recover, which led to his extended illness. We put our metaphorical feet down and made him stop so he could get better. He’s on the way to better now and should be back to normal before too much longer.

So yeah, busy month. Mostly fun stuff though, minus one sick Nathan and two colds for me. I love that my little ones are home with me all month and while rumors and speculation abound right now, I’m hoping our elementary will stay in year-round school so we can continue to have our whirlwind month of fun.