Drawings and an Event

Madeleine made some drawings today.  They're not creepy at all.

I don't know about you, but I have sweet, blissful dreams about ghoul-eyed armless people saying "OK" to their star-eyed scarecrow-armed friends.  Don't you?

I also lovingly daydream about zombie shadow people chanting "DDD" while four-legged Dementors fly overhead.


Aaaaanyway, on a different topic, today I attended an after-school event at Julia's school for the Metco Family Friends program.  Rather than go into the details of what this event was all about, I will instead tell you what the event turned out to be for me: The Many Ways in Which My Kids Melted Down at a Public Gathering.

The event started off just fine.  Pizza lunch and some arts and crafts, both items right up my kids' alleys.  Things didn't start to deteriorate until Relay Race time.

WOMAN LEADING RACES: Okay, let me have all the kindergarteners line up here.  And the first graders here. And the second graders here.

As she ran through all the grades, I thought to myself, "Uh-oh, Madeleine's going to be upset because she's not in any of the listed grades." 

Sure enough, as I looked down to the crowd of kids, I saw Madeleine walking away from the group, her eyes brimming with tears.  Before I could even get to her, she was full-out sobbing and wailing.  No matter how many times I tried to encourage her to join the kindergarten line, she just. couldn't. recover.

That is, until the races were about to start.  As I was on the phone with the mom of another girl at the event, trying to arrange a carpool, Madeleine ran to me in full-out sobbing, wailing mode, this time because she DID want to join the relay races.

So I walked her over to Julia's team, where we were met with understanding looks from the other mothers and a hearty attempt to include Madeleine in the relay.  And all was fine once again.

Until.

When the person before Julia took her relay turn, she happened to drop an item from a basket full of beach toys she was supposed to be transferring to the other end of the gym.  Julia dutifully picked up the toy, and upon my suggestion, began running it over to her team-mate.  Cue the clueless, much older boy running amok in the gym: next thing I knew, Julia and the fourth-grade boy collided and Julia went face-planting across the floor.  As soon as she stood up, she ran around behind me to hide her face, clutch me, and sob into my back.

It was her turn in the relay.  And I couldn't pry her off of me.  So I told Madeleine to go.

Madeleine gathered her basket of beach toys and began running to the other side of the room.  Clue another much older, clueless boy running amok: next thing I knew, Madeleine and the second-grade boy had collided, sending Madeleine and basket of stuff flying, with Madeleine face-planting on the floor.  Then Madeleine was inconsolably sobbing in my arms.

Meanwhile, all of the other teams had finished, and everyone was waiting on Julia and Madeleine's team, which could not finish the relay until Julia and Madeleine had taken turns.  Madeleine was sobbing in my arms.  Julia began sobbing anew because she wasn't going to get a turn now that Madeleine wouldn't finish her round.  I had to reassemble Madeleine's basket to bring to Julia so she could take a turn.  The entire room cheered her on.

End of crying, right? 

WRONG.

The next activity went smoothly, but afterwards, the kids went on a "Sea Urchin" hunt, looking for little plastic bumpy toys that were hidden all over the room.  Guess what happened when Madeleine didn't find one? 

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! 

So the adults re-did the search, with older kids hiding the urchins, and younger kids getting to search for them.

ADULT IN CHARGE: Okay, the urchins are all hidden!  Now, ONLY kids in kindergarten, first and second grade get to look!  Go!

Madeleine is not in any of the above-mentioned grades.  Any guesses what happened?

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Sigh.  I don't think we had enough attention on us already.

Finally, the event wrapped up with a magician, which elicited NO tears from my girls.  Thank goodness.  In fact, Madeleine was completely wrapped up in the magic, even while the older kids tried to debunk every trick the magician performed. 

At one point, a little girl was brought up on stage as a volunteer to be turned into a bunny.  The trick wound up being a magic want that unfurled into a plastic tarp with a bunny on it, complete with face-hole to line right up with the girls' head.

OTHER KIDS AROUND US: That is so FAKE!

MADELEINE: (cracking up) He didn't REALLY turn her into a bunny!  Mama.  I thought the magician was going to turn her into a REAL bunny, but he didn't!!

That's the spirit, Madeleine.  Keep up your belief in magic and all your innocence as long as you can!  (But maybe ditch the constant crying.  Just sayin.)

So, we survived the event, with a roller coaster of emotions, but at the very least we all left with smiles on our faces!