a storybook ending....almost.

Have you ever seen that episode of The Middle where Frankie Heck has two events happening at the exact same time (Sue's first cross country meet and Axl's Homecoming game where she gets to walk him out onto the field) and she can't quite figure out how to work it all out?

well, this week I was frankie heck. in probably more ways than one, but for this story i had a parallel dilemma. After scouts on Tuesday, Owen had his soccer team party at 6:30 and Sophie's holiday choir performace was at 7:00. How do we not go to the soccer party after all that happened this year? Especially when he missed the very last game this weekend because he was sick. serious bummer. So i had to go to that.

But how do i miss Sophie's holiday performace? She's in 8th grade and in every ensamble they offer and would be performing a ton. voice ensamble, dance ensamble, madrigals plus all choir numbers?

So, we got babysitters (which was a whole drama in and of itself) from 6-8:15 (they had to leave at 8:15) and decided to hit the party for 30 min and be a little late to the performance.

(remember, doug is in NYC all month.) (psssst. don't you love all the paranthesis?)

So, Owen and I walk into the pizza place and I start talking to the team mom who tells me that they decided to give the SPIRIT AWARD to Owen! Whaaaat?? This is a big deal! Everybody gets a trophy and then they hand out one additional award to only one person. the spirit award. And they were going to give it to Owen. I nearly cried right there at the table.

Such great news, but it meant that i was stuck until they handed out the stinkin' awards. We couldn't ditch early. So, 7:15 rolls by, 7:30....7:40. Finally they decide to give out the awards.

When they called his name, Owen was totally shocked. They asked if he wanted to give a speech and he said no. so cute. Yeah, yeah, hooray for Owen and then I immediately grabbed his hand and dashed out the door hoping to make SOME of the performance before I had to get back home to the babysitters.

We pull up and I see people leaving the auditorium. "Owen, run! We missed it. Hurry, hurry let's go find Sophie and pretend we were in the back all along!"

As we walked into the auditorium I realized that not everybody was leaving. I saw the last few girls in black dresses (Madrigals) leaving the stage and it donned on me that it was only intermission. I found a program and she was in the first 3 numbers AFTER intermission. I looked at my watch.. 8:04. crap! i have a MAX of 10 min and then would be a few minutes late getting back home.

Then I see green and white constume starting to line up to come ON stage after intermission. so we wait and wait... i really wanted to see at least ONE number! even the beginning??

We wait a little more and finally at 8:15 I had to call it. We ran and ran back to the car and headed home without seeing anything. Nothing. We made it for intermission.

I relieved the babysitters, threw the babies in the car and ran to Vons for flowers for her and Robin, her good friend that was bringing her home.

Spent 20 bucks on 2 bouquets (come on, VONS!) came home, tied them up all cute and waited for them to drop off Sophie.

note to self: flowers from any where but Trader Joe's is a rip off.

When Sophie got home, I opened the door with the flowers all presentation-y and she was standing there in the dark by herself, Robin's family had already taken off, and she looked irritated. Turns out she was just bugged that one of her friends had been bossing her around all night. And although she appreciated the flowers, it seemed like a major fail at that point (for a lot of effort i might add.)

Anyway, by the time we got around to talking about how much I saw of the show, I very much considered trying to fake it. I didn't and she was ok about it. I told her we will order the DVD and watch it together for family night because Doug didn't get to see it either.

Sometimes you just can't do it all, I guess. But here are some great pics that we can look at sometime down the road and totally forget how it all went down that day. Look at all those smiles!

The one on the right is the Spirit Award. wahoo!

Madrigals

p.s. Frankie Heck didn't make both events either. And if you don't watch that show yet, you should. It's really funny. Well, at least i can relate to it.