Car Full of Screeching Girls

I took Davan and five of her friends to see Home for the Holidays, a Do Jump show. It was a school performance and, thus, shorter than the regular evening show, but still quite entertaining. Davan got to see at least one of her instructors in the performance, which was fun. There was a question and answer period after, during which the main question was, "How did you do that?"

The show was fun, but the real adventure was herding around six girls ranging in age from 10 to 15, which was enjoyable, too. The girls started showing up at 9:15 with the last two showing at 9:30, causing me the most stressful minutes of my day, wondering if we were going to make it on time. When the two sisters arrived, I threw them in the already warmed up van and we were off to pick up our last girl in exchange for Ari. (She - the one we picked up - is watching Ari for Davan while we're in Florida.)

I drove as quickly as I could without being too much of a maniac and we made it at exactly 10:00. We were not the last group to arrive and, contrary to the information I'd received when I signed us up, they did hold the show until all were there.

My girls were polite waiters and show watchers. We chose not to battle the crowds leaving, instead lingering for a few minutes talking about the show while the school groups worked their ways out.

Both the car ride to and from were loud, cheerful events, reminding one passenger of her brief stint as a school bus rider.

Once back home, I hit the kitchen to make lunch for everyone while the girls commenced to playing. They played on Davan's trapeze, out on the trampoline and, in one case, sat at the kitchen table and drew until lunch was ready.

After chowing on pb&js, fruit and veggies, they were off again, this time to the living room and toy room for piano playing, dancing, balancing on the exercise balls and then onto games such as people knot, where you have to get untangled without regrasping hands or, in this case, rags in lue of hands, and telephone. Then it was back to the trapeze followed by the trampoline. After all, they were inspired by the Do Jump show.

I, meanwhile, got ready for the trip tomorrow. I finished folding clothes, got some food ready (we'll be buying most of our food there, but there were some things I wanted to take) and packed my bag. I'm all ready with the exception of my book and toothbrush, to be added in the morning.

The girls were gone by 2:20, leaving Davan and I to snack on the leftovers and to get Davan's packing done. She packs herself for trips, but asked for my company while she did it today. She is also now all ready except for her book, toothbrush and bunny, to be added in the morning, or carried, as the case may be.

Everyone needed to go because Davan did need to get her packing done and soon it will be time for gymnastics, but I sure enjoyed having the extras today. I know having a big family isn't the same as having a gang of friends over, but, strangely, for having a single child family, I sometimes yearn for a large family. The problem is I get very stressed out by baby/toddler hood and, as anyone who reads here knows, the whole getting them when they were already older thing didn't pan out for us. Ah, well. It was fun for today.