Friendly Neighborhood Helpers

I realized a couple weeks ago that we never went to an open house at school for Allie.  Remember Mikey’s open house back in kindergarten?  It was around this time of year.  The thought again entered my consciousness when Allie came home with a big folder made out of construction paper with the words “First Grade Portfolio” printed on it.  Uh oh.  Did I totally miss her open house?  Because that would not be beyond the realm of possibility in my world.  I scanned recent school emails and asked around to see if I had perhaps completely missed the date.  Thankfully, yet puzzlingly, no one seemed to know what I was talking about.  They equated my talk of an Open House as the same thing as Back to School night.  Yet I remember them being two very different events- one in the beginning of the year when the teacher lays down the law (expectations and so forth) and the other towards the end of the year to celebrate all the hard work and to signal the winding down of the school year.

So apparently I didn’t completely drop the ball.  This time.  Score one for the mama.

Turns out, Allie’s grade puts on a spring performance instead.  So whew.  That date I knew about and even told Phil about it with enough advance notice so that he could request the time off in order to be there too.  Score another one for the both of us.

Such a cute program.

Apparently, the kids got to choose which “friendly neighborhood helper” they wanted to be and our girl chose plumber.  This plays right into her daddy’s plan to forgo college in favor of trade schools instead.  Well, knowing a good handyman (or girl) is always er, handy, right?

And there’s our cute lil’  plumber now!

Scanning the audience…

Still scanning…

And the moment she spotted us.  All of us.

Each of the groups came forward to sing their part of the show.

I’ve been singing “friendly neighborhood helpers, we love yooooouuuuuu” all week.  And Allie corrects me “we THANK you” each time.  And I keep doing it.  And she patiently keeps correcting me.  Because that’s just how it is when your mom has an ornery streak.

She doesn’t really mind though.  And I love her to pieces.

Her daddy had slipped out before the show started in order to surprise her with these.  And then was a little embarrassed when he realized no one else had brought flowers for their performers.  That is, until Allie gave him a big hug to thank him and declared herself the luckiest girl because her daddy was the only one to bring her flowers.  Pink ones, even.  I think he felt better after that.  🙂

Afterward, we all went back to Allie’s class for a little “cast party” where this guy made off like a bandit with a cookie, a doughnut hole, a drink, and this lollipop.

Which he just was not going to share, no matter how hard daddy tried.

Ah my Allie-girl.  No open house, but I definitely think your grade’s show was an even better idea.  And now first grade is coming to a close and I couldn’t be prouder of you, sweet little girl.

Ahhhhhhhh!  Feeling sad that these days with my littles are flying by so quickly.  She’s growing up so fast!