District choir festival.

This was the big night for BISD's elementary choirs, 17 of which performed in the coliseum tonight. The best? Why, Ryan's choir, of course!

His group sang "We Go Together" from Grease. We were impressed that the kids knew all the rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dongs and shoo-bop sha wadda wadda yippity boom de booms. Nana and Papa got to come, too, to see Ryan perform.

After each choir sang one song, all the kids performed the finale together:

The finale photo I tried to get but couldn't (because of people STANDING in the walkway right in front of us, blocking the view for a BUNCH of people--aaaarrrrrgggghhhh) was a shot of all the moms and dads on the floor taking pictures with their cell phones. They left their seats on the floor to get RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEIR KIDS' CHOIRS. Some of the kids were at floor level, but there was a mob of parents, three or four deep, standing right in front of them. Forget that the kids are trying to sing with a couple hundred other kids spread around this big gym. Forget that other parents who kept their seats would like to see their children perform. No, let's all just crowd around our kids and take pictures. I'm all for taking pictures (No duh, huh?), but it's one thing to stand up and take a shot and quite another to block whole rows of audience members for the duration of a song. Honestly, I should be used to the widespread lack of courtesy and common sense, but it still amazes me. What a bummer.

What was NOT a bummer was the program itself. It's fun to see so many kids who enjoy singing enough to join their school choirs. In Ryan's case, he and his choir buddies are at school 40 minutes early twice a week so they can be in choir. And all that hard work shows!

After the show we joined the masses at Baskin-Robbins. It was crowded, so we enjoyed our dessert outside:

As is her custom, Katie ordered pink bubblegum ice cream. And by law, if you eat pink bubblegum ice cream, you must collect the gum pieces on a napkin until the ice cream's gone and you can chew the gum.

I took a picture of Katie's gum pile because it always makes Brett and I reminisce about our own childhood trips to "31 Flavors." As kids we both used the same technique to keep the gum until we could chew it properly. Just seeing that pink pile reminds me of visits to the Baskin-Robbins at Tyler's Broadway Square Mall. We'd sit at a little round, pink table, and I'd keep my gum all nice and neat on my napkin!