Jazz Hands and Grandma Cole

My pally, Wendy, and I planned to spend the day Saturday chatting and watching the show choir contest that our kids were involved in. It was nice a nice change from work, laundry, and complaining about the weather, I tell ya. And it was fun to just hang out with a friend for a change too.

Things began at the Mayberry Junction--a retro-themed restaurant based on what else? Mayberry. Yep, Andy Griffith, Barney Fife, and Otis the Drunk's Mayberry. The menu offered: Goober's Pancakes, Thelma Lou's Eggs, Aunt Bee's pie, and Ernest T.'s Tacos. Can't even make that up. Just imagine Wendy and I snarfin' our brunch under an autographed photo of Otis the Town Drunk. It was pretty hilarious. Where do you find something like that?? Uh, the small rural town of Manteno, Illinois.

We wrapped up Mayberry pretty quick and headed over to the solo competition at the high school, which turned out to be some pretty wacky fun.

Being that this is all new to me, I had no idea that there was actually a fan contest in the solo room. So, in between our soloists performing for the judge, they would crank some music and the crowd would go nuts--dancing, waving their arms, blowing party horns, waving clackers, and congo-ing in and out of the seats. And that was just us moms. The kids were on each other's shoulders, partying it up in the front of the room while we whooped it up in the rear. We sort of figured we had the fan contest wrapped up when Wendy's sister climbed on top of a table to shake it and her mom was the spotlight guest in the room. I think my kids were mortified.

Next stop--hair and make-up. Somehow Wendy and I got swindled into the hair and make-up room and we spent the next 2 hours spraying hair, each other, ourselves, and anyone else who happened to walk by with hair spray. And if that wasn't enough, we curled hair until our arms ached and every stitch of hair was spiraled. Add in some artistic flair with silver and black eye-shadow and we had ourselves some fun. I imagine this is normal in the world of pageants, but sheesh, this was girly squared--big hair, hair spray, and make-up everywhere. I think I'm still trying to pry my rings off after all that sticky stuff.

The kids performed later and it was great. Wendy's daughter was fab on stage--her hair magnificent after a rough start in the hair and make-up room. She sparkled and shined singing and dancing her heart out on stage and we hooted and hollered like crazed fans. These kids are remarkably talented and it amazes me still that this world of show choir contests exist. Who knew??

And my kids?? Oh they were here...........

behind the curtain in the band.

And although the show choir didn't place as high as we would have liked in the end, we did clinch the fan contest, taking first place overall. And yes, Grandma Cole was cited as being the cincher. Apparently other schools don't bring their partying Grandma's with them as a ringer.

Fools.