Now that Alex is in the marching band at her high school (its still hard to say sometimes), we have to pay attention (somewhat) to the whole football schedule and such. She’s required to be there for every home game. They did get nearly the entire bad to go to an away game as a pep band (the only game we lost so far, sadly) a few weeks ago.

Two weeks ago was her schools’ homecoming. There were big plans, of course. I parade through downtown and ending at the football stadium.

Except that Mother Nature did not cooperate with us. It poured rain nearly all day and during the parade as well. Not only did it rain, but it was freakishly cold as well. That is such a great combination. As it turned out, the band director did not have the band in the parade because it was raining (so much). Ray, Phoebe and I were at the parade, and pretty bummed to not see them in Alex’s first the parade. I imagine not so many people showed up in the rain to see half the floats as there should have been driving down the streets with everyone all covered up in rain gear. Still, they chucked handfulls of candy at the spectators. We stood at a corner near the end of the parade route (mostly because we were late getting there), so Phoebe got a TON of candy. People she knew were coming up to her and stuffing it into her coat even, it was hysterical. I cannot even begin to describe how much was left on the ground in the puddles and drain runoff streams!

After the parade, we went to the football game. The only reason we did this is that Alex got our tickets for us that day, otherwise we would totally have skipped. So, we watched the band to a pregame show and before they had arrived, we noted that the usual section that is all roped off with “reserved for band” signage was not set up.

Once they completed their pregame, the band took off back to the high school band room. Not long afterwards, Alex called us to say they were done and could go. Apparently, the only reason they even did the pregame show was because the principal made them do it. So, we had sat through less than half of the first quarter of the homecoming game. I guess that is enough to say we were there! Right? Right! In the end, our team won and clinched their playoff spot (needing six regular season wins).

On Saturday night, Alex attended her very first homecoming dance. Ever. She looked so beautiful and grown up. I wish I had better pictures, but for some reason, her dance started at 8 pm, in the dark.

She had a great time. Although, she didn’t meet up with anyone before and didn’t go with anyone, she met friends there and had fun. My baby is almost all grown up. When did that happen?