Annie Oakley

I came to a brilliant conclusion this May. Not that I haven't sort of noticed it in Mays gone by, but this year it hit me HARD. May is the month that teachers try to cram in as much stuff as is humanly possible. I love my kids' teachers. They are AMAZING, but I don't love the amount of crazy they added to my May this year. Choir concerts, Ballroom dance concerts and competitions, Wax museums (as seen in this post), end of year dance festivals, parties, reports, projects... and then there are the sports. Unrelated to school, but busy still. Soccer tryouts, soccer tournaments, soccer everthing! THEN, I had lots going on business-wise, PLUS a U2 concert that Jared and I had tickets for. (EDITED TO ADD: Talk about De Ja Vu... apparently I posted that first paragraph nearly word for word in a post a few weeks ago. See? My brain is kinda fried!) SHEESH!! I tried to make visiting teaching appointments at one point, then had to cancel them due to unforeseen insanity. Oh. My. Goodness. Somehow we survived... mostly. I'm not sure my brain is functioning fully at this point, but I'm trying!

One of the FUN things Kaitlyn did during May was the annual 5th grade Wax Museum. Each student had to read a biography about someone from US History, do a written report on them, make a poster, and BECOME that person for their living wax museum. Kaitlyn originally wanted to read about Milton Hershey. Not sure why she wanted to be a guy, but we had some sweet ideas for costumes. However, when we had a hard time finding a book for her to read, she changed her mind and went with

ANNIE OAKLEY!

The wheels in my head started turning, and we came up with a costume from items we had around the house. We were planning on borrowing a toy rifle (since ours have somehow gone missing) from my sister, and the outfit would be complete!

Day of the Museum: I headed out, got in the minivan, and made my way down the road. I had a few errands to run (including going to pick up the rifle) before I would actually arrive at the school. Suddenly, the van started lurching. It was acting REALLY crazy! I called Jared, left a frantic message about how "Something is SERIOUSLY wrong with the van!", then had an idea of what it could be. I jumped out and walked around to the other side to find a FLAT TIRE! Crap! I know how to change a flat (mostly), but it could seriously cost me some precious time. Like hours.

Luckily, we have AAA, so I called them and they had a guy at my house within the 1/2 hour. Phew!

Unfortunately, I now only had about 10 minutes to get up to the school! I drove straight there (without her rifle, by the way) and made it just in time... without my camera. So, while I don't have any pictures of her standing by her desk and poster in her cute Annie Oakely-ness, or video of her "coming to life" when we pushed her button, and telling us all about "herself" just trust me when I say it was AWESOME. She did a fantastic job, and the other kids in the 5th grade were super cute too.

She was very patient and stayed in her costume after she got home so that I could snap a few pictures... still rifle-less. Oh well. I love my little Annie Oakley.