Stand up and sing

Today was a talent show at Jennifer’s school. She attended one of these before and had sang a song that she had learned in class. This year, however, she has been flexing her writing muscles. She has started writing songs. And one song she wrote is a song she sang at the talent show tonight.

We received a flyer long before the event. Since Jennifer told me she wanted to sing, I made sure she would be ready. That meant making sure she got her sleep, ate right and got some extra exercise to strengthen her lungs. I also went over what she would wear. Even though she wore a dress the last time she sang, she insisted on NOT wearing a dress this time. To be honest, I wasn’t surprised! (Like me, she is very anti-dress!)

I also had to figure out what kind of arrangements to make with Jesse (age 4 ½). The last time we’d gone to a talent show, Jesse got bored and I ended up chasing after him a lot. It was REALLY frustrating!! So I was not planning on taking him with me this time. I really wanted to see Jennifer sing.

Thankfully, my friend, Martine, said she’d watch Jesse for us (actually, she and her husband both did). Even though she’d had dental work earlier in the week, she said she would do it. This was SO AWESOME of her!! (Thank you, Martine!) It worked well because her son is one of Jesse’s buddies, so they were both excited about visiting with each other.

Even though we ended up running late, Jennifer and I got to the talent show in good time. I tried to talk her out of wearing her beloved KidSports cap during the performance but there was no way she was going to take her cap off! (She wears it ALL the time and if she leaves it anywhere, it is the Worst. Crisis. Ever.) I let it go. After all, she’s only 10 ½! It’s not like she would be on TV.

Jennifer got in line to perform and I found a seat to sit in. But I ended up moving after I caught sight of some friends and went to sit with them. It was cute watching all the children perform. They sang, danced, did a skit, swung around the hula hoops, played the violin, the piano and one boy even played the xylophone. Some of them were dressed up REALLY nice! One little girl even wore a long white dress and a white headband, making her look like an angel. One of the older students, an African-American girl, had her hair back and she was wearing the same kind of jacket that Michael Jackson wore in the Thriller video. Really! I couldn’t stop staring at it. It looked exactly like that jacket. It made me smile but it made me kinda sad, too. I wondered if she was going to do that famous zombie dance in the video but I didn’t get to stay long enough to find out. It woulda been neat, though, if she did.

Anyway! Jennifer was finally called on the stage to sing. I was really excited about this and snapped a bunch of pictures. A lot of them were dark, even though the flash was on. I moved closer and was able to get a better pic:

After her song, the principal allowed Jennifer the chance to say into the microphone her dedication. She’d dedicated the song to her three BFFs and I was glad they were there to hear her song. They all stood to cheer and dance around when their name was called out. Everybody laughed and clapped. The four of them hugged. It was such a cute display of real friendship. The song Jen wrote is about being best friends forever. 

We had to leave before the whole show was over, but we had a great time. A lot of people told me that Jennifer did a great job singing and they liked her song. (She got an encore performance when we went to Martine’s house to pick up Jesse.) 

It was a great time and I am very grateful Jennifer got to sing her song and we got to see some familiar faces again. Those are happy moments that are just perfect to end our week with.