Arts and Culture.

Thursday night Adam's school had their annual art show, which is a fundraiser for a scholarship fund at the school. It's a cute evening - each kid has three pieces of art around the play ground area, and each class makes a canvas of art that they put in a silent auction. Plus there were sno-cones. We met Tim for dinner out beforehand and made a little date of it.

His commentary is about the best part of his art, the little nut.

Friday night after gymnastics we went to the Feista fundraiser at Lexi and Juddy's school - all the carny rides in the church/school parking lot with our friends, what more could you want?

Hard to tell, but the middle swing is Ellie and Olivia, the third is Laura and Lexi - the other three girls totally peer-pressured her into it.

All of the other parents and kids were scared of the Zipper ride, but I've never been one to back down from dying needlessly in a carnival accident, just not how I was raised. So after dinner, Ellie asked if we could ride it and I said sure. We got in line behind this big group of teenagers, who kept inviting their friends to line jump with them. Ellie noticed them cutting, and I said "that's fine, we can sneak ahead" and so we did, and then later, when a couple of teens tried to cut in front of them, I told them to stand back, she was a little kid and I'd seen them inviting a half dozen friends already. It was frustrating to be standing there, watching the line move nowhere despite the ride emptying on a regular basis, with a little kid who didn't have a phone to look into or friends to gossip with - she just wanted to ride the dang ride. Directly in front of us were a younger brother and sister pair, who were also getting bored waiting. I got the ride operator's attention and pointed at all three littles and put my hands up in frustration, and he told us to come around to the front. I told the other two kids to follow me, and when they looked confused, I said "I'm a mom, I can do whatever I want, come with me." And lo, we got to ride right away. I showed Ellie how fun it is to make a rickety cage flip a solid half dozen times. No one barfed, no one cried, I got to yell at some teenagers, so everyone wins!

And yesterday, the best of arts and culture, taking Ellie to see Hamilton at the Segerstrom Center.

Moments from Hamilton with a 7 year old

Ellie: wait, all the actors have brown skin? 
Me: Yes. Because even though people think America was built and owned by people with white skin, America was built by and belongs to everyone.

Ellie: This doesn't sound like the real Hamilton. This isn't the CD. 

Me: They're singing live, that's part of the fun.

Anytime she caught someone saying a swear (most noticeably shit) Ellie: That's RUDE!

When Alexander and Eliza are cradling their son as he dies, Ellie: Mom, stop crying, he's not really dead. 

During Quiet Uptown, Ellie: stop crying. 

During the finale, Ellie: Mom, are you crying? Stop crying.

Overall, she did great. She hung in through the three hour show with less fidgeting than some of the adults near us. She clapped with genuine glee at the end of the big numbers, she laughed uproariously at King George, she danced a little in her seat from time to time. It was a totally self indulgent thing for me to take her, mostly for my own benefit, but I guess there's worse passions to try to share with your kids.