Chica's 8th Grade Dance!

Okay, peeps.

Although May hasn't official hit, the past two weeks have definitely ramped up to that chaotic, Maycember, lots to celebrate/lots to do vibe. 

(In case you're unfamiliar, Maycember is the very real phenomenon that May is just as demanding as December for families of a certain age--and it hands \down IS).

Every week and every weekend for the next month is pretty chock-full.

But I'm happy to report that I'm in a pretty solid mindset to deal with the onslaught.

At least, I hope I am.

There's a comfort to the predictability, now. Knowing what's coming and that May is going to be a whirlwind is half the battle.

And on the flip side of it...summer arrives (which is a new level, new devil--for an entirely different, post, ha).

Anywho...we're knocking out major events and milestones left and right for the foreseeable future--and last night was a big one:

Chica's 8th Grade Dance!

I've been so happy with the dance vibes at the kiddos' middle school--at least, compared to our anxiety-riddled vibes, back in the day.

I mean, don't get me wrong: there's still been some anxiety, but I feel like the school has figured out some pretty rock-awesome mitigation tactics.

For starters, the dance for each year/grade level happens immediately after school, in the gym. Which cuts down on the angst of going home, getting all tied in knots changing and arriving...or chickening out altogether, ha. Plus, there's always a theme to guide some of the clothing choices, which helps a tiny bit.

But for 8th grade, things ramped up a bit with the dance taking place at a different school location, in the official evening--prior to a day off from school (to celebrate Fiesta, down here in San Antonio). So the vibes definitely felt more official. I suppose that's appropriate, considering the fact that it's marking the end of middle school!

Still, I'm so stinking thrilled to report that the anxiety--at least for Chica and her closest friends--was minimal.

They knew the theme far in advance. Western/disco; kind of an odd, hysterical combo. Chica randomly found a simple, happy dress at one of her favorite stores during an impromptu shopping-with-buddies excursion almost two months ago. And we lucked out with easy Amazon boots and earrings for flair.

Easy. Peasy.

Moreover, Chica's extended friend group managed to make plans to get ready together for optimal fun. A few of them had to participate in a school soccer game and grouped up to rush to one house to change and prep, while Chica and her dear buddy (who weren't involved in the soccer game) paired up for their own prep session that happened at a more leisurely pace.

It helps that I'm super-tight with this friend's mom, so we made it a mother-daughter foursome of nothing but smiles for miles.

It felt so happy and chill to go hang out altogether, help the girlies get ready, and keep the anxiety-free vibes flowing.

It was such a happy hour. It kept the girlies in the moment and out of their heads, and then we took a gazillion pics before sending them off! Obviously.

I'm so grateful for my Mama village, too, One mother took them to the dance. Another brought them home. Yet another gathered up and delivered some overnight bags to us. And I hosted four of them for a sleepover so they could keep the happy dance vibes going!

I suspected Chica might ask for additional friend time, post-dance, and decided it might be best to control the narrative and get ahead of the situation, ha.

Chicklet knows these particular fiends of Chica's well--especially after joining in another sleepover about a month ago, by surprise accident. So she was pumped to have them around. I continue to be grateful for the kiddos' friends that also have siblings and tend to be more generous with letting anybody crash.

And, honestly, it was all pretty easy-breezy, as they didn't make it home until almost 9 p.m. and just spent some happy time decompressing, showering and snacking before holing up for some movie watching--and sleep earlier than I think they'd hoped! All of them have been running and gunning so hard between school and extracurriculars. They might have talked a big game about a 4 a.m. shuteye, but they barely made it to midnight, ha.

In fact, they probably had as much chill time together this morning before they had to depart as they did last night.

Because I'm not a wise woman and I just don't know when to quit...I stacked another kid thing on top of this one, to optimize time with additional young humans in the house.

Little Man had a couple buddies over to help counteract all the girl time he had to put up with, and it might come as no shock that three boys during a few daytime hours were far louder than five girls for an entire sleepover.

It was 4 p.m. by the time we ushered all the extra kids out of the house, and I don't think I need to report that I was tired.

I'm not often proved wrong about my body and my capacity for activity of any kind, but...the day before last, I was proved wrong in a big way. A week post surgery, I thought I was ready to dive into a bunch of my regular household chores, and, boy was I wrong. 

I made myself very uncomfortable, had to accept my limits--and let the hubby say he was right about telling me I was trying to do too much, too soon.

My post-op appointment to get the all clear isn't until the end of next week, so I'm going to try to cool it and behave a bit better until then.

Might be difficult because life just keeps trucking along at a fast pace. But...I'm going to try.

Okay, signing off for now; planning for a chill evening if we can managed it.

And then another day, another packed schedule mañana!

Happy Weekend, peeps!

Over and out.