A Fun Friday

Well it was.

The day started with an early tailgate party at my son's school. Let me preface this with a step back to the beginning. Everyday my son brings home a pile of papers. Some are graded papers, some are notes about upcoming events. It's hard to keep up with everything, but I am pretty good at filing things to check out later. (When I say "file" I mean stick in a pile on the buffet.) I do read them from time to time to make sure I am not missing something important. However, I NEVER saw a note home requesting we send in items for a Tailgate Party. Every time I saw "tailgate party" on the calendar I thought they were referring to the Fall Carnival which is next week. Then I get a note from the teacher on Friday saying, "Don't forget the Tailgate Party next Friday. Please send in what you agreed to donate." Now I am really confused. Monday morning I went into the school and asked James' teacher what she was talking about. Come to find out, I missed some important paper a couple of weeks ago. Don't ask me how with my "organized" method of filing. Regardless, I did, but she reassured me that she had all the supplies she needed and that I could just come help at the party. So help I did. And it was fun.

The kids had hot dogs and goodies. After which, they were able to go around to different games like beanbag toss and relay races, face painting and dance party, or even tug o' war. There were first graders running all over the place. I met some nice parents and even got some phone numbers for walking partners.

After the Tailgate Party that went on for what seemed like for ever, I walked home and rested before the evening's football game. When I got there, Gary was already waiting. What a surprise since it was only 1:30. Caitlin got home about an hour later and told me that all of her hair had to be put up on her head so it could not be seen under her marching hat. Let me remind you how short her hair is now (not conducive to putting up):

Thirty minutes later I managed to get it all the little pieces put up in a way that didn't look like her hair had been in the food processor. (Even at 14 she still whines when I French braid her hair.)

Her band director expects timeliness and requires the players to be at the school in their spots two hours before the game. As mentioned in another post, we don't live near the school so we try to combine trips. This time after we dropped her off, I took Gary to a store that Caitlin really likes so he could take her shopping for more winter clothes. After the diversion we went to the stadium and staked our claim on what we thought was some prime stadium "real estate." We got to watch the football players warm up, listen to the cheerleaders and people watch. Gary happened to sit next to a retired couple who talked his ear off the entire pregame period about his years in the Air Force. I think he actually enjoyed it. Then the time we were waiting for came. The marching band came in to the stadium. This was their first time wearing their brand new uniforms and they looked marvelous. (Unfortunately, the sun and the stadium lights were not cooperating so you will have to squint at most of the pics.)

 Have you ever seen bigger plumes?? Cait says they are very heavy.

 You can see now why they wouldn't want to wear them in the rain.

Today Caitlin is at a band clinic working on improving the show before their next competition. Then we are headed off to the local Oktoberfest. (I know it isn't Oktober yet.) The art show is supposed to be a juried one so I hope to see some good local artists.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Today's Music Note: Redo - My first music choice wouldn't work. :-( Instead I will share with you a fun story from the actor Andy Griffith. His voice makes me smile. To my non"Southern American" speaking friends, I am sorry I don't have a "Standard English" translation for you. :-) Oh and Peggy, you will have to turn the volume up really loud on the Mixpod because the only version they would allow me to play is poor quality.