Canon in D

Another long, long day!  It was so long, in fact, that we decided together that Madison could sleep in tomorrow.  We'll start with piano class afterwards.  Madison was on her own in this class, because today was the day where the kids picked the song they wanted to play.  We were surprised when Madison emerged from class, because she had selected Pachelbel's "Canon in D."

This was the song that Mommy came down the aisle to at our wedding.  We had a guest harpist there who played this song, somewhat of a standard for weddings at the time, and maybe even now.  We just generally didn't like the sound of "Here Comes the Bride" as much.  

Anyway, it was sweet that Madison chose this song.  While she was in the room playing, Mommy and Daddy went over to get her something to eat from Chick-Fil-A.  It would be a long day, we thought.  But it turned out to be longer than we even thought it would be.  

First, there were the pictures at Brenau.  As you can see here, Madison is posing for her production photo, something that Daddy and Mommy signed her up for.  This was immediately after class and eating, but Mommy did a good job getting her dressed up.

What's nice is that the one who runs the ballet, Mrs. Diane, was there to pose the children personally.

We'll get these pictures in a bit.  In the meantime, Daddy was snapping the ones you see above from the balcony.  This was where Daddy would be for the next five hours!

Yeah, that's right.  There was practice after the pictures, and it was for the red team (not Madison's dance team), with the understanding that there would be an intermission where a group photo was taken, and then the green team (Madison's team) could go home.

Only there wasn't an intermission.  And things ran late.  So the end result was that Madison was there for five hours or so, without dancing at all.  Somewhere around 9:30, she was called out to take her group shot, and that was it.

So to sum up:  take a personal photo at 4:15 pm (above).  Then wait around while others are dancing for five hours, and then take a group shot at 9:30 pm.  This was obviously not planned well for kids like Madison, who have to get up early for school the next morning.  We decided right away, and Madison was quite happy with this decision, to just let her sleep in tomorrow, and go from there.

In the meantime, Daddy was up in the balcony, and during that time, why not take a few pictures of the production itself.  This turned out to be a great blessing to some of the other parents, as Daddy took over a hundred pictures, and parents were happy to see nice photos of their kids in their costumes.

Here's Madison and a few of the other fireflies that were dancing.  This is the group shot towards the end.  The photographer is taking the picture below, as Daddy snapped it from above in the balcony.  It turned out really well!

Here are some of Madison's favorite characters, Cinderella's sisters.  Madison really, really enjoys all this.  And for all of our waiting around, she was just fine hanging out with her friends, playing games and talking.  And when all is said and done, it really wasn't that bad for us, personally.  Missing school a bit tomorrow might be bad, but in all things it could be worse.

But time is growing short!  The production is just a few days away, so practice went on for a while, and even later into the night after we left.  Madison did well with her dance last night, and we're confident she'll do well this weekend with her part.  The director was pleased with things, not really having to talk to the kids so much.

Now to the other big event of the day, one that happened while we were inside Pearce Auditorium.  There was quite a storm outside!  We heard the boom, and all day long felt the heat - it was 88 degrees at one point.  You just don't have it turn 88 degrees and not expect trouble!  There were a few tornadoes in Jackson County, and in our neighborhood, there were garbage cans tossed into the streets.  Tomorrow was a pick-up day, and many made the mistake of putting out the garbage the night before.  More impressive, the power was out for many, many people.  All of downtown Gainesville was powerless, including the Lakeshore Mall area.  Once we passed by McEver Road, the rest of Hall County - all the way to Forsyth County - was powerless.  Fortunately, we had electricity in our house when we got home.  Although it didn't matter so much - we were ready to go to bed, and nobody cared what time we got up!

It was quite a day, but now it's time to sleep, and sleep well.  This sort of day takes a lot out of you!