This evening was open house at Elizabeth's school. We saw her teacher and the principal and the crossing guard and E told them all "Good Morning" just like she does every day when we get to school. It didn't matter to her that it was 7 p.m. She still said good morning to everyone.
There was a silent auction, pizza slices for sale, build-a-bear, everything a growing a school needs to raise money - and very little to entertain kids while mom and dad worked the raffle table or bid on auction items or whatever else we're supposed to do.
We did visit E's class and she showed where she sat on the carpet when her class gathered around the teacher. She demonstrated the faces of her class including brilliant blue, greedy green, and pokey pink.
But the highlight of the evening had to be when we all went to the gym for the raffle drawing. The kids had all been sent home with 24 raffle tickets to sell and I'm guessing most of the kids had sold their tickets. There had to be thousands of tickets in the hopper. With the principal reaching into a huge tumbler to draw names, a volunteer paraded out the prizes to be won.
They had a new bicycle, an iPad, a fender guitar, an XBox, two iPod shuffles, and a new Sony Google TV. That's right, six prizes for thousands of entries. Once E had heard there were iPods for prizes she was certain she would win one because she really wanted one because the old one of her mothers that she gets to listen to has a bad battery in it and it always needs charging.
As we sat in the middle of the gym floor with E in her mother's lap, the drawing started. The crowd is noisy and it's hard to hear. The first name was a family right in front of us and they picked the TV. Elizabeth was OK with that because she wanted the iPod. The second prize chosen was the iPad and then the XBox. When the first iPod was picked, E started to get cranky. When the second iPod was taken E began to recognize she wasn't going to win an iPod. And when the bicycle and guitar were gone it became a reality. E didn't win.
And that's when the tears started. I'm not talking about a few I'm unhappy with momma tears. I'm talking about full blown crying and wailing. "But I wanted to win!!" and even more tears.
Her mother and I both tried really hard not to laugh at the drama but this was high drama for a 4-year-old. Her mother finally got her to calm down by telling her she could as Santa for a new iPod. While that stopped the tears, it immediately started the demanding-toned-questions of when will Santa be here and how do I ask him.
I know it will only get better as she gets older, but WOW, what an evening.
