The Cannonball's First Dance

So as you may or may not know, I happen to be the father of two girls.

Crack for little girls.

As such, I have certain duties and responsibilities that childless guys or dudes with sons simply don't.  These include, but are not limited to, struggling with ponytails, watching My Little Pony and Strawberry Shortcake (instead of something that doesn't make you want to kill yourself), being the male barbies whilst playing dolls with the kids (ours is, for whatever reason, named Steve Rotchie - don't ask), making pink scrambled eggs, and vetoing fashion choices so Protective Services doesn't come and take our children away.

All in a day's work, really.

As it turns out, another obligation for dads of daughters is the annual Father/Daughter Dance.  Which, I guess, has been around for quite some time.

Anyway, Kris was pretty excited about this, and took Alayna out dress-shopping for the big event, did her hair, the whole nine yards.  It was cute for about fifteen minutes - while we had our 'prom picture' taken, and she ran around with her friends, etc. - then it was two hours of kids running around shrieking in the dark to horrible, horrible pop music while a ring of dad's stood on taking copious amounts of pictures on their phones.

Check it out:

Dressed for the big date.

Arriving at her school. . .

Entrance to the dance.

They set up a few food tables so people could eat before the dance started.  Fortunately, I ate before so I didn't have to sustain myself on chicken fingers, 'salad', and macaroni and cheese.

Alayna tries her first Faygo (she sort of liked it, but she's not a huge fan of carbonation.)  Honestly, in the last seven years I haven't seen it down here once, as it's definitely a Michigan thing. . .

After eating, as the lights dimmed and they started playing music, Alayna wanted to check out what was going on in the school's library (mostly girls doing crafts and bored dads looking at their watches.)  Most of the girls at the dance were older (an by this I mean 7 or 8), so she didn't know any of them.

Fortunately a couple of her classmates showed up shortly thereafter and she began running around the 'dance floor' with them.  For the slower songs, the dads took a break from our photo-taking and 'danced,' which, for me, meant picking my kid up and slowly rotating in a circle. . .

With the low, inconsistent lighting, most of the still shots came out like crap, but the videos fared much better.  Below is one I spliced together to give you an overall impression of what the evening was like:

She spent the majority of the dance running around with a friend from her class, Violet.

After Violet and her dad took off, Alayna began to lose steam.  So after eating a second piece of cake in the art room, we decided to call it a night and take off. 

- Brian

A Forced March for Sugar

Happy All Hallows Eve, gangsters.

. . . or whatever it's called.  I don't know.

I've never been one to really put a lot of stock into the back story concerning Halloween; I don't honestly care that much about it.  It's pumpkins, cheap costumes, and sugar - big whoop.  I'm sure at one point in time, a thousand years ago, there was a great festival around the event, and lots of naked dancing and virgin-sacrificing was to be had, but around here - in the Ginger Mill subdivision - we're short on both naked dancers and chicks who haven't been laid yet who agree to be knifed for a pumpkin.

(however that worked back in the day)

What we do have, friends, is a crapload of candy.

With that said, commence Halloween Trick or Treating 2012.  ENGAGE:

I picked up the girls from Sunchild around 5pm, and quickly force-fed them dinner in order to begin the costume suit-up process.  Trick or Treating kicked off at 7pm, and we wanted to get as much candy harvesting as possible in with the girls before they dropped dead from exhaustion. . .

Unfortunately, the pumpkins that we had carved with Papa and Nana - FOUR DAYS AGO - were already beginning to rot.  They were filled with mold and falling apart, so we were unable to light them. . . despite having stored them outside on the patio.

Yet another reason why I hate mold.  F*** you, Mold.

Kris had just gotten off of work, so unfortunately she didn't have time to get into costume for Trick or Treating

The round-up begins. . .

Dorothy, Strawberry Shortcake, and Kris.

Abby checks out her plunder.

Checking up on Toto, who lost his home in order to make room for candy. . .

Dorothy's progress

About a twenty minutes into Trick or Treating, Alayna started to grow tired and began riding in the wagon. . .

. . .Abby, on the other hand, was motivated by the prospect of copious amounts of sugar and soldiered through.

Hot wheels.

Strawberry Shortcake.  Still pumped.

Dad's turn to haul two lazy-ass children. . .

(by the way - this year, I went as a badass.)

These kids were dead on their feet after 42 minutes of Trick-or-Treating.  I blame this on their weak, Farwellian blood.

. . . though the offer of eating some of their hard-won candy seemed to keep them up a little while longer.  Go figure.

(I think Kris is wasted here. . .)

SUGAR

- Brian

Halloween (er, "Fall Fest") at Sunchild

What's up, fellas,

Well, Yours Truly got to take another day off of work today, bringing my 'days off' this week to three: professional in-service day on Monday, Jury Duty on Wednesday, and - *queue fanfare* the 2012 Sunchild Academy Halloween Fall Fest Parade today.

Boy howdy do I ever love two-day work weeks.

Anyway, I drove up to Sunchild around 9am, armed to the teeth with cameras and camcorders.

Observe:

I showed up a little early, so I killed time in Abby's classroom with some other parents as the kids did 'Circle Time.'

(Abby's not very big on participating.)

Abby kinda freaked out with me in the room, and ended up spending the next hour or two clinging to me like stink on a hobo.

Strawberry Shortcake, participating in a classroom photo op.

This is about the best one we managed to wrangle out of these kids. . .

The Wicked Witch leads her minions forward.  I decided to camp out in Abby's room for the parade (as Abby wasn't about to let me leave soon anyway).  Every class at Sunchild, according to the plan, would each take turns parading through each of the other rooms, seeing how they all connect to one another. 

The Cannonball spotted us as the Challengers parade through. . .

Watching the parade. . .

Strawberry Shortcake and Dorothy

After the parade, we hung out in Alayna's classroom and killed time before the Halloween party kicked off. . .

Abby ransacks the Challengers kitchen. . .

Impromptu Zumba session?  Why not.

Circle Time with Ms. Virginia, Alayna's VPK teacher.

Beginning of the Feeding Frenzy. . .

Healthy snacks.

I seized the opportunity while the kids were all busy stuffing their faces to sneak out and head back home.  I had a crap-load of lesson planning waiting for me, and for a two-hour Halloween shin-dig, I had to justify taking a full day off of work somehow.  Being an adult sucks.

- Brian