when you can volunteer to party

As y'all know, my kids have had the mindnumbing horror delight of having Momma show up at their school to wander around their class, get all chummy with their teacher, quiz their friends in Math, lead them and their friends around a maze of floating decks dodging lunatic geese, and spy on them see what they're like on their turf.

The ability to volunteer at my kids' school anytime I want to is certainly a perk of being a SAHM.

My very last volunteer event was less in-my-kids'-face and more in-other-kids'-faces. I volunteered to corral and queue-up the talent acts for the school's Annual June Barbeque.

This event is a big deal. See all the people? Yeah.

And because this year is the school's 60th Birthday, the party's an even BIGGER deal.

So, in addition to the customary hot dogs, smokie dogs, chips, drinks, and water melon, we had birthday cake too!

They even rented a huge inflatable slide. I swear, I didn't see my kids for a good long time. They lived on that slide!

Harmzie's Pepper spotted Mini and off they went to tackle that monstrous slide of fun and slidey goodness. I was pretty dang lucky to stop them long enough for this picture. Aren't they cute?!

The dude sliding down the left on this slide picture is Lam. He still hadn't built up all his strength from fighting the flu the week before, but that didn't stop him from tackling that slide several times, blowing up balloons, and running after of his friends... at least, for a little while.

This was his last slide of the night, and he was wiped... even anxious to go home and relax.

But long before that happened, I had a job to do. As mentioned, I was to line up all the talent so they would be ready to perform on cue.

Here's Harmzie's Norah dancing on stage with her friends. They were the first act, so I didn't have to round them up...

... which is totally unfortunate because they were the only kids I knew from the school. Seriously, my kids are in Nursery and Grade 1 -- I know none of the kids in Grades 4, 5 & 6. The rest of the acts had kids in those grades.

Yeah, I was pretty useless.

The organizers didn't mind though. They just appreciated the moral support and the fact that I was there just in case they needed me.

The last act was a performance by the Principal and his band. Yup, our school's principal knows how to rock!!! He's an all-around nice guy, very friendly, and he tries to do his best by his school and students -- like last year when he told the students that if they raised enough money to hit goal for one of the fundraisings, he'd camp on the school roof. So motivating. And yes, he totally did.

Anyway, the band played a "Happy Birthday" song, and we all noshed on angel-food-vanilla-icing-nut-free cake. Yum!

It was a beautiful evening, warmer than I'd anticipated -- I'd brought my black jacket, and we had a great time socializing with our neighbours and some great friends, like these folks...