Happy Fourth of July

 This is my aunt that I am named after, my mother and my Great Aunt Betty. They are standing in front of their house on Garden St. (Aunt Betty and my great grandmother lived with my grandparents at that time - which was around 1935). 

We will be spending July 4th in front of our air conditioner during our town's annual parade. We will then travel in our air conditioned vehicle across town to my daughter's house for my grandson's seventh birthday lunch. We will return home while the rest of the family gathers in a parking lot to watch the fireworks. 

I hope everyone stays cool this weekend. 

Unofficially

Our outing to the Unofficial Taylor Swift Lover Tour was beyond our expectations!  This is a heavily photo blast post. Ten years old seems to be the perfect age for this outing - although there were at least three limos full of bachelorette parties among the crowd of hundreds! 

We posed by the sign showing off our bracelets. 

And we were featured in the facility's Facebook reel! (screenshot)

I sprung for the expensive seats (only $20 for the unofficial Taylor Swift) on a terrace with table service. It cost me much more for the chicken fingers and ice cream than I paid for tickets. 

I guess we will get right to the costumes - the unofficial Taylor performed twelve eras, I believe and I think there were that many costumes if I caught them all. 

They aren't in this shot, but she even had backup dancers. 

We cheered every costume and every song.

The girls were disappointed not to be on the grass until the concert started and they saw the standing crowd! We were seated above even the bleacher seats at the stadium and could see over everyone.

This is a crowd shot from their website - we are under the table with the red umbrella on the top right. 

This is outfit eleven!

And now I see there are more than 12! I did not expect live music, but she had a guitarist and a drummer. And she actually sang, it wasn't lip sycing. 

We were crushed that we came this far and she still did not sing "Shake It Off". That was the song they were waiting for.

These girls! She asked for heart hands and they complied.

She included the "Showgirl" era. (this is out of sequence.)

And ended with "Shake It Off", fulfilling all of our dreams. 

They had the best time!

Posing with mom aka Mrs H (her friend was in her mother's class this year.)

Posing with a grandma with an awful haircut. 

End of the Week

 

I survived the week of VBS with three year olds. By Friday we were down to a managable dozen. My daughter is a super teacher and all the children just love her. 

Our bible verse was Jesus is the Light and those creative snack ladies made a cupcake inside an ice cream cone to look like a flashlight. It took me over five minutes to convince the class to take a bite. They thought the frosting was cheese.

Yesterday was a rainbow gummy over blue jello for a verse that I have forgotten. We were afraid to try this too. Luckily there was 1/2 a banana too. 

Eating bananas and the marshmellows on top. 

Our music teacher

My daughter, the child pied piper.  She is very low key and everyone talked about how much calmer the preschoolers were this year. 

We practiced for the show tonight. We also practiced at the end of the day with the other classes. By then 3 classmates were in the back of the church with me, refusing to walk up the aisle. 2 more started crying during the song. We are not performers.  I did not attend the presentation and carnival tonight. Vacation Bible School wore me out! 

Tomorrow I am going to a Taylor Swift concert! It is not really Taylor Swift but we are just as excited as if it was! It is at a minor league baseball complex and Gramma has sprung for seats on the raised deck with a table with an umbrella and wait staff who will bring us lemonades. It is by the rail and the younger ladies can still dance. My daughter, youngest granddaughter and her friend are going.  I even have a Taylor Swift outfit. It's a t-shirt that says "I am in my Gramma Era". 

VBS

This is the week I am spending with twenty four 3 year olds at Vacation Bible School.  

We are learning that Jesus is the light and taking turns going to the potty. 

Sometimes we color.  The theme is Illumination and that decorations are as over the top as usual.  

We get a little scared in the hallway but our classroom does not have the same lighting which makes us happier. 

I will try to catch up when we finish the week.  

You may notice the giant white hoses. The entire air conditioning system at the church died last week. They have rented a temporary system that does not quite reach our classroom. 

I can't believe how creative these folks are - this constructed from a bucket, a pool noodle and balloons.