Tuesday night was the big night. Sophie and the rest of the kids in her drama class were finally performing the play they had written themselves. They had been practicing for a couple months, and even had to give up a Saturday morning for rehearsal. I had her wash her hair, then I braided it in two long braids since that is what her character wore. I took her up to school at 4:30 to get make up on and for one last rehearsal.
Chris came home at six, we ate dinner, and then got all ready to go see Sophie in her play. Some of the kids even changed their clothes! Alexandra especially put on her silver sparkly shoes, and let me put a ponytail in her hair. So cute! We piled in the car and drove up to school. Hmm, that’s weird, there’s hardly any cars in the parking lot. Sure, we’re early, but we’re not THAT early. Hey, is that a kid from drama class getting in a car and driving away? Uh, oh, that looks like set pieces piled up in the parking lot. It can’t already be over, can it?
And there was Sophie running to us across the parking lot, hair unbraided and streaming behind her. She wasn’t crying, or even super upset, just kind of flabbergasted that we had arrived just in time to bring her home. She told us that they had filmed the whole thing, so we hadn’t totally missed it. We could watch it together later. I just gave her a big hug and lots of kisses, and apologized over and over. Everyone else was genuinely disappointed that we wouldn’t get to see it live, and that also comforted her. I went and talked to the drama teacher, and she said she felt horrible.
She had noticed that Sophie was acting kind of strange at one point, and Nirmala also couldn’t remember actually seeing us out in the audience, but of course she was busy with the play and the children. If Sophie had said something to her, she would have called us, but Sophie was also concentrating on doing her part. She did email me all the photos she and her husband had taken of the play that very night. That is what I will be posting here. 🙂
I honestly don’t know why I wrote down the wrong starting time on the calendar. The only scenario that makes any sense to me is this; Nirmala originally sent out an email with the date of the play in it, but not the time. I wrote a plausible sounding time down, just to reserve the spot on the calendar, intending to go back and change it when I got the real starting time.
But I didn’t see that email. She did send another one giving the information for the Saturday rehearsal, which I read. But I didn’t actually open it. If I had, I would have seen the first email attached, with the proper start time in it. sigh
I am just thankful that Sophie is so forgiving, and that she was prepared in a small way for us not to be there. She had seen the calendar just that afternoon, and knew that I thought the play started at 7:30, not 6. 
Also, she was able to stay for the entire after party, and munch on as many treats as she liked. Papa wasn’t there to shoo us all home, or tell her only one piece of cake. 🙂 So it wasn’t all bad. 
And as I told her later, she could be as naughty as she wanted for the next couple of days and I wouldn’t get upset with her, since I was still feeling guilty. heehee But she didn’t take me up on it.
All the actors signed a large card at the end, and received a fancy chocolate treat from Nirmala as a present.