Music In the Parks

Um...I may be a little overwhelmed recently. Too many kids to shuttle here and there and Tyler's computer has been broken for a while with no foreseeable fix date. I shudder to think what my blog book will look like for this half of the year. It will be a skinny little thing among its plump neighbors. I'm not even complaining really. I love all the fun things we are doing, but I do wish I could carve a little more time into my schedule. And maybe I wish I had kept up over the summer and during the end of the school year so I wouldn't feel so blasted behind. Thus, I am working on a post in May so I can get finished with that last month of school. Man, what a fun, crazy month that was.

Our music department at school participates in a program called Music in the Parks. The top groups of each music department go to perform and compete in their division. This means the top choir groups, the top orchestra group, and the top band groups. June was going because she was in Chamber in orchestra. Robyn was randomly going because she switched over to choir second semester and was in an all-girls group called Madrigals. (I think I posted about her concert already.) They went to competition along with the other top choir. (I don't have any kids in there so I don't know what they call it. Chamber Choir?) A week or so before Music in the Parks, I spoke with Mrs. Taylor and she was looking for more chaperones. It is an all-day event that starts with competitions and ends with a day at Lagoon. Since two of my kids were already going, it sounded like a great idea. But I went with the band, so I wasn't actually with either of my kids for most of the morning.

There was a lot of shuffling around during the morning. I counted kids as they got on and off the bus and even escorted some band kids over to another High School so they could sing with the choir. It was a busy morning. But band was the first group finished. We headed over to Lagoon before noon. Here is the bus. I was on the bus that had the Jazz band. There were fewer of them and that was fine with me. I would rather have some extra space than be piled on top of one another.

Upon arriving at Lagoon, I realized that I had no kids and I suddenly felt like the weird mom who no one wanted to hang out with. (I don't blame them. I wouldn't have wanted a mom that wasn't my mom hanging out with me at an amusement park when I was a teenager.) I sat and felt sorry for myself and then decided to go on Cannibal. I would rather go on it with my kids the first time but I was determined to make the most of my time at Lagoon. I got in line and moments later, Christina and Lily came rushing by. They had stashed their stuff in some bushes and they were coming back to claim it. They had just been on Cannibal. I flagged them down and they said they were headed somewhere else. I could stay in line and go on Cannibal or tag along with them. Too bad for them, I am a people person, so I totally opted to hang out with them. Yep, Christina and Lily got stuck with the mom. Luckily, Christina is one of June's best friends. I knew her pretty well, so it wasn't too bad for her, I hope. Lily was a crack up. I hadn't met her before, but she was so funny. She didn't like having her picture taken, so most of the shots of her, she has her fingers in front of her face in the peace sign. Haha.

We went on quite a few rides before we found anyone. Lily was great at stashing our stuff in bushes. This was before we figured out that some of the lockers are free. We did enjoy this sign though. DO NOT LEAVE ANY PERSONAL ITEMS HERE, with plenty around it.

After many texts back and forth to people, we found June. She was on the swings with friends. Can you see them in a line there? June, Brooke, Hannah, and Lauren. Looks like the orchestra made it to the park.

And it looks like they are having fun.

We actually found Robyn shortly thereafter. We ate lunch. (I had made lunches for the girls so we could use our food voucher on whatever we wanted.) Then it was off to do more rides. June had a lot of friends there at the park, but we got in a group of about six because that worked better for rides. Here we are going on the bat.

I splurged and got ice cream for everyone since it was a hot day. We were taking this selfie when Mrs. Taylor walked by.

So naturally, we had to get her in a picture too.

In the afternoon, there was an awards ceremony for all the schools. I don't really remember what awards we got. I think we got second place in a lot of categories. This is the symphonic band being serious as usual.

Then right back to playing again.

Ha ha Lily. I caught you when you weren't paying attention.

You too Hannah!

Wait...who caught me? That is my camera.

When you have waited in lines all day, you get a little loopy and silly and start doing strange things, like making the tail of your braid into a mustache.

The skyride is always a favorite.

We ended the evening with dinner. Well, I'm pretty sure we ended the evening with Cannibal, since that was the best ride, but here we are eating dinner.

It was such a fun day to spend with the kids. I have already been asked to help out again next year and both the kids will be going again, although Robyn will be in Jazz band instead of Choir. I won't have to be sad mom waiting for a friend. :)

At the end, two kids in my group didn't show up. I think they set their watch for the wrong time. Regardless, I was left looking around and wondering where they were. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes for them. That seems like a long time when you have lost someone else's kids.