Kid Dates

That's what I call them, anyway. I try to squeeze them in whenever it works--the most common date being a breakfast on a Saturday morning with whichever parent is available/preferred to go to Kneader's or IHOP.

But last week I happened upon an advertisement for BYU's "Winterfest"--a series of productions being put on up at the Conference Center in Salt Lake every weekend of February into March by the different performing arts groups at BYU, so Elizabeth and I saw the BYU Theater Ballet perform "The Snow Queen" on Friday night together, followed by dinner at Blue Lemon. (And it was so fun to read in the program about Sandra B. Allen--chair/director/everything of the BYU ballet department for the last 113 years. Sounds like she's retiring this year, but her name brought back memories from when I accompanied for the BYU ballet classes. Sandra actually taught the first class I played for, and I'll never forget the feeling of total and complete panic when I showed up to work at 8:00 at Monday morning for the first time, and after being given no training whatsoever--just a massive book full of about 20 hours of music I had never seen before--I suddenly heard her say, "Plies . . . 5, 6, 7, 8 . . ." After a moment of awkward silence and a sideways glance, I suddenly realized I was supposed to be providing the music for the dancers . . . NOW! Okay! Here we go! That was a serious crash course in sight reading and faking it. ((Luckily, sight reading is my strength. That's how I got hired, but still.)) That was also the beginning of my carpal tunnel syndrome. I played about 20 hours a week for over a year. Do you like my stories within stories? And my run on sentences?)

Here's Elizabeth with the wicked Snow Queen:

The reception with the dancers after the performance:

Mac and cheese at Blue Lemon:

I love these little private, one on one dates with my kids when I can pull it off. It's such a totally different dynamic than when all the kids and family are together. It's so much easier to really see and hear your child when you are alone with just them and no other distractions--like other children! (Same principle as the spouse date, really.) Not to mention Elizabeth still adores me and would like nothing better than to spend a night out alone with Mom. It's hard not to want to oblige since I know she won't always feel this way. In any case, I highly recommend kid dates. 

And wouldn't you know it, right after seeing the Snow Queen, we finally had the first decent snow this winter--on February 19th. Crazy! 

Part 3 of "The Love Story" tomorrow . . .