UMHB Easter Pageant

Every year UMHB puts on a wonderful Easter pageant. Our playgroup was meeting up to watch and I was excited to take Maddie and hopefully have a teachable moment. Of course things didn't go exactly as planned...

I was a little nervous b/c the show started at 12:30 and Cruz & Maddie both go down for a nap at 1:00. I figured Maddie would be fine even though she woke up really early that morning and Cruz loves to be outside so he would be fine too. WRONG! Ya know that little voice in the back of your head that says you probably shouldn't do something with your children? Well I keep having that feeling, but I quickly ignored it and said everything will be fine b/c we had been stuck in the house the past 2 days b/c Maddie had been sick so I had to get out!

We get there early to get a good seat and have a picnic lunch. It was very humid that day and so Cruz was sweating already. He is in his stroller and starts to fuss right before the show starts. So I get him out and he is sitting with me on the blanket which has ants crawling all over it that i keep trying to kill. The show starts and I"m trying to get him happy with puff snacks. I guess I was shoving them in too fast b/c he starts choking and throws up. Fun! So that makes him even more fussier, so I decide to get up and go walk around with him. I am in sitting in the middle of a ton of people that I have to walk around. Maddie was sitting with some friends so she doesn't see me get up.

So Cruz is content for the moment to be standing up. I see Maddie get up and start to look around for me. One of my friends tells her where I am and she spots me and I point to tell her to sit down. Well that does not go over well, she starts screaming crying so I quickly motion for her to come here. I get her calmed down and she goes back to sit down. I start to walk around with Cruz who is getting fussier by the moment. Then this older woman comes up to him and says-what's wrong sweetie? I say oh he is just tired. She then proceeds to stick her dirty finger in his mouth which he starts sucking on and she says on no honey he's hungry. I quickly walk away as I'm trying not to gag. Gross!

As they start the crucifixion scene, I see Maddie getting restless. She gets up and comes back to where I"m standing. I tell her to either go sit back down or we will just go home b/c Cruz was done at that point. I put him in his stroller and as I'm doing so, Maddie is crawling into someones wagon. I pull her out and she yells NO! So as calmly as possible I talk with her. Cruz seems content in his stroller, so I tell Maddie we can stay a little longer. She then proceeds to climb in the wagon again. I pull her out a little firmer this time while gritting my teeth telling her not to climb in the wagon again or she will get a spanking. She then starts screaming crying AT THE TOP OF HER LUNGS-this all during the crucifixion scene which we are standing very close to. As quickly as possible I start to push the stroller with one hand and pull her by the arm and get out of there asap. She screams and cries all the way to the car and all the way home. At this point I'm crying too. Thankfully we all go home and take a much needed nap.

With kids you never know how things will go. It was hard b/c I thought why are my kids the only ones having a hard time at this thing today? But I know there are other situations where they act just fine. As I was telling my sister this story on the phone the other night we were both laughing and she said you need to write this down! Glad I can laugh about it now!
I know Maddie did remember some of it b/c she told Oscar when he got home that she saw Jesus today!