The Winter Concert

I must admit that a terrible thought did occur to me---to skip Chloe's winter concert at her school this morning. How could I think such a terrible thing?

1. Oliver--he's teething (at least that's what we hope it is!) and he's feisty, to put it delicately.
2. It's 16 degrees outside.
3. The piles of snow that cover the yards, sidewalks and streets. Parking at Chloe's school is minimal and there is no school parking lot so you have to park on the streets surrounding the school but about 1/2 of the streets surrounding the school are NO PARKING and add to that the snow piles along the streets, there is only about 1/4 of the available parking space. Now throw in that the concert was for grades 1-5 and you can get the picture that parking is NOT easy to come by. Its not even easy to park on nice, warm days much less cold, blustery days with giant snow/ice piles blocking half the streets.
4. Yes, I could have walked and I did think of it but I walked to school to pick up Chloe on Monday, a nice, sunny 40 degree day and it was nearly impossible. There are many neighbors who have sidewalks of ice, snow piles block the sidewalk where it ends into a street and you half to have a pick axe to climb over them and then drag a stroller up and over. I felt like I climbed Mt. Everest on Monday when I  finally made it to Chloe's school. I ended up walking back home along the street, not the sidewalk, following all the throngs of children and parents having to do the same thing. I wasn't going to do that today, because those were the streets people were desperately searching for parking spaces.
5. The police officer giving tickets to parents who had parked illegally. I had found a parking space and was gathering my items together when a police officer tapped on my window and told me I had to move because I was less than 20 feet away from the corner of the street. I did move to another spot and was lucky I was still in my car when he arrived. The other parents parked illegally on the opposite side of the street weren't so lucky.

So, I DID park the car legally and I did load up all the necessary items to keep Oliver at bay (I hoped) during the concert and I did attend. Oliver behaved well-enough as he ate his snack and drank from his sippy cup. He did let out a few squeals, but did not cause the concert to come to a halt. He did however confiscate the F*lip so I have no video of the event. If I tried to pry it from his grasp he let his displeasure known (and for those that have met Oliver, you know that he is VERY good at letting you know he is displeased).So, I only have photos from the event.

The first graders sang first and it was very sweet. They sang "Grand Old Flag", a song about Phil the groundhog, a song about love in which they used sign language, their school song and a Valentine's song. Chloe, of course, was the star of the show! Well, at least mine anyways.