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. 

Random

Since I can't seem to post on any sort of schedule or theme, I thought this post could be a list of random events and photos. 

Big in my life, but no one elses - I chopped off my hair. Well, actually I went to a professional.

No after photo since I am not sure how I feel about it yet. 

My daughter and I made a last ditch trip to the Amish greenhouses after birds and animals dug up her newly planted perennials. 

No luck at our first farm. 

And nothing but tomatoes and peppers left. 

We did stop at the Mennonite grocery for meats and cheeses so it wasn't a wasted trip.  

My daughter dropped me off at my church office where I saw six clients in one day, mostly my age. Don't tell me the economy is improving. 

Good news and food porn.  I went to our area amusement park with two grandsons and their dad. I hestitated on renewing my pass in the fall because I wasn't sure I felt up to all the walking in the sun anymore. I am happy to report I was there for over 5 hours, walked almost four miles and was fine.  We also have meal passes. 

This is a "hot honey chicken biscuit" and was the reason the grandsons wanted to go. 

My son and I got the breakfast sandwich. Everything came with a ridiculous amount of tater tots. I did eat the sandwich which I am sure was over my sodium allowance for the day. 

I ordered three sides for lunch, the chicken dumplings (which are like tiny noodles but delicious), fried potatoes and fruit. My grandson saw it and said, oh, that is what I meant to order. 

So I traded for the steak, fried potatoes (covered in salt) and salty biscuit.  I only ate the steak.  It was good, but not as good as the chicken dumplings (which I am sure are loaded with sodium too). 

Mr Merry is having a rough summer with sciatica and busitis so I doubt he will be making anymore visits. 

We have four grandchildren playing baseball this summer altough one broke his foot the first week and isn't actually released to play yet. 

A steam locomotive traveled by my area and I got to spend an afternoon in a lawn chair by the cemetary's fence where my husband thought he could get a good view.

My oldest son took a break from his volunteer job restoring a different steam locomotive at a railroad museum nearby to join us.

A photo of me from 1975 with short hair. This is my reminder that it will grow . . .