Dancin' machine

Tonight we went to Archer and Cady Gray's school for their Fall Festival fundraiser. Hot dogs were eaten, chip & dip recipes from all the grade levels were sampled and evaluated, bingo was played and cakes were walked.

The kindergarten teachers had the most ... aggressive ... dip sales operation. The idea was that you were supposed to sample all the dips and vote with a donation for the one you liked the best. Under a blue awning, the kindergarten teachers wore the local high school's football uniforms and did organized cheers.

Just as we were finishing up our food and getting ready to head out to the carnival games, the kindergarten tent fired up a boom box with a dance tune. I'm sure I had heard it before, but it was a little under my vintage. Something about stepping this way, sliding this way, jumping back and forth, then clapclapclapclapclap.

Cady Gray and Archer dropped everything and started dancing. They jumped in the aisles. They slid and stepped in front of people trying to navigate to tables with plates full of chili. They clapped like their lives depended on it. No matter how many times we tried to herd them out of the traffic lanes, they jumped right back into the open spaces as soon as the amplified voice told them to.

If the Pied Piper needed an updated tune, this would be it. Completely irresistible to our children, I tell you. The beat pounded and the voice commanded, and they were helpless to do anything other than dance.

Safety dance

Today's post about the final round of a month-long knock-down drag-out is at Toxophily.

All week long, while Archer's been at language camp, I've been putting notes in his lunch with questions for him to answer and blanks to write in his response. Since he had promised on Wednesday as we were walking home that he would dance the polka with me "this weekend when I have more time," I wrote the following in yesterday's lunch note:

Can you tell me the steps for doing the polka?
Step 1: ____________________
Step 2:____________________
Step 3:____________________
Step 4: ____________________

When I fished the note out of his lunchbox last night before packing his lunch for today, I found this response:

Step 1: Find a partner.
Step 2: Turn on music.
Step 3: Hold hands.
Step 4: Twirl!

Dance party

One of my favorite pastimes is watching Cady Gray dance. She twists her palms like she's doing the King Tut, bobs her head, and twirls in kind of a hippy-dippy fashion. And I can make her dance at the drop of a hat -- by dancing myself, by saying "move and groove," or by just rocking my head back and forth to the radio.

I'd really like to see her tackle some of the steps you can make Mo Willem's characters Elephant and Piggie do on this page. Check it out -- if you pick the dances in the right order, you can make them do power combo moves!