Totally (un)Cool

It is not very often that you get opportunities to gain "cool" points with your children, but we saw the opportunity and grabbed it on Sunday as we took Mary Ella to the Hanna Montana concert at the rodeo. We did this last year and she was excited, but this year...whoa baby...we earned some MEGA points. It started off with getting ready for the rodeo. I put on a black shirt, jeans and black boots, walked out, and Mary Ella said, "wow mom, you look cool" (cha ching....cool point #1). Now I realize she was so impressed only because I slum around in sweats 99 percent of the time....good way to lower the standards :). Anyways, then comes the bus ride. She had the biggest grin on her face. Leave it to a 4 (almost 5) year old to find pure joy in riding a bus. We arrived and walked around a bit. Scott was a sucker and got her the "light pink" cowGIRL hat with the tiara "bling" on it (cha-ching...cool points # 2 & 3), then proceeded to get her a concert t-shirt (cha ching...cool points #4,5,6,7 and 8) even though I could have gotten her one a Walmart for $10. BUT I kept my mouth shut. This was, after all, between father and daughter....We settled into our seats where we met my mother's co-worker who was there with her daughter and 3 of her friends. They had made signs that said I love Hanna Montana (each word on a different poster) and made a sign for Mary Ella that said "Me too". It was so cute. Hanna Montana (aka Miley Cyrus) came out and Mary Ella couldn't contain her self. She was holding her sign (she would correct me here and say "poster") and stood up to dance her tail off (cha-ching cool points 9, 10, 11, 12.........25). THEN, during her transition from Hanna Montana to Miley she sent her daddy, Billy Ray Cyrus, out. He sings a song from his new album, which was actually pretty good. He then asks, "does anyone have an achy-braky heart?" All the parents (moms) went nuts, I mean NUTS....and I was included. As I was singing and dancing to that, um, almost 20 year-old song, I looked down and Mary Ella was looking at me like "what are you so excited about????" So I had to give back some of my cool points, but at least we were still ahead. Overall, we had a blast and I loved seeing Mary Ella let herself go to experience the pure fun of the moment. I just love how children don't contain it! I'll post pictures later.