International Night!

McKinley has an annual International Night, where kids perform songs and dances from around the world and parents bring in foods representing their countries, and there are lots of games and other things going on. When we went last year, we had a blast -- Rachel had a flag of Belgium painted on her face, and really got into some of the games and activities (the kindergartners didn't perform).

This year, Drew and I have been listening over and over again to the songs Rachel was singing as part of the 1st-grade performance. The Spanish Club members did some salsa and other dances. Rachel had to wear blue pants and a white shirt, so she and Drew went out and got jeans and a long white blouse. She looked so grown-up on stage, with her long hair and tween outfit, that, as Drew said, it's hard to believe she was a baby once. ("We're parents," he said incredulously as the performance was about to start. "We're listening to our kid sing the songs that have driven us crazy over the last few weeks." Uh-huh.)

The performance was lovely and I got a few photos with my camera. I felt bad that I hadn't done any volunteering around the event, but I was so tied up with work and freelancing that I didn't felt I'd have the time. There's still the PTA auction, which I hope to help out more with than I was able to do last year.

Nicole, Sidney and Nicole's ex-husband, Chris, were there. Nicole said to me, "It's embarrassing when the vice-principal mainly knows you for the trouble your kid causes," and then she laughed it off. I'm glad she feels comfortable enough to share that with me, but still...it made me wince all the same.

Rachel asked if Ivy could sleep over tomorrow night and we said, sure, bring her over for Family Fun Night (I believe they will be watching a Shirley Temple movie, which were my favorites growing up, too). Rachel got upset that we wouldn't promise a sleepover, but she does have Hebrew school and a swim lesson on Sunday, so we'll see -- she is doing so well with swimming, Drew says, it's great to see!

Drew also said tonight that Rachel is having some interpersonal issues with members of the Buddy Trio, which is why she was subdued and kind of upset when I picked her up tonight (I wasn't in the best mood either, having spent my day running all over town doing errands I've been putting off since practically the time we moved here, but I just finished a magazine story so I'm seizing the moment before what hopefully will be an onslaught of work). My guess is that she's having to mediate between Sidney and Simone. Perhaps she'll tell me more this weekend.