Jena's Sadies Weekend

As mentioned in a prior post, Jena asked Clarence Park to attend Sadies with her.  They joined a group of friends which included 21 couples--most of them from our stake as it turned out including many from our ward--mostly boys.  The theme was "Cinematic Duos".  They decided to go as Mulan and Shang which was great but turned out to be difficult to find costumes, especially when I was still run at about 25% most days.  Local costume shops had general Asian costumes but not Mulan nor in the right style (I probably was a bit more picky about that than I needed to be but it is China.  We had to have the right time period at least.)  Finally on Wednesday night, we decided to just go with matching karate outfits.  Even that was drama as many of the studios only sold ones with logos.  Ugg...by Friday morning I was once again on the internet trying to figure out what to do.  I finally thought to search marital arts and found a center in Ogden with solid black ones.  And the people were so nice.  I headed up in the afternoon with Jena and bought 2 of them.  When we got home Jena tried hers on and it was just a bit tight.  She was okay but I was kicking myself that I didn't take the owners offer to try it on.  However on my phone was a message from him telling me to definitely come back and trade them if they didn't fit.  I couldn't do it until late that night but it worked with their schedule too.  They acted like I was doing them a favor by buying from them.  I wanted to give them cookies.  I was so relieved to finally have that part done.  I am not the best costume mom (just ask my kids!).

Instead of a traditional "day date", their group decided to play night games at a large park in Kaysville which is located about 20 minutes away from our house.  We met them there as Jena had theatre prior to their 7:00 start time.  We arrived a bit early to find 15 scouts and 3 leaders having a bon fire, several high schoolers from a different high school already running around the huge playground, and it was pitch black and cold.  At 7:00, several cars poured into the parking lot including Clarence's so she hopped out with her donuts for the group and I drove off.  I have to say that I thought I was nuts leaving Jena there even with such a great group of kids.  What if she got lost in all of the confusion of 40 people and extras running around in the dark?  Only because I knew that Jena was exactly where she wanted to be and that Clarence and the other kids were great and had known Jena for a long time did I not drive back and get her.  She arrived home at 11:00--big smiles and happy!  They had finished the evening at a neighbor's home whose son was also in the group.  She loved just hanging there as well with the other kids.  A perfect start to the weekend.....

Saturday and the actual event--Here are some of the pictures we took of her and Clarence and the group:

Mulan aka Jena

the knot



Practicing her moves

Clarence and Jena

Many of these kids were in the same group for prom and they had decided to once again head to Clearfield High School to take group pictures prior to eating dinner at Red Robin's.  So once again, moms and dads headed over with them to take the pictures.

The group

A picture of the girls taking their selfie picture

The Seniors being silly

The boys

Girls being silly

And she had a great time--as predicted.  They ate together at Red Robin's (Jena had chicken strips and an Oreo milkshake).  The dance was back at the small gym which was decorated with movie posters and other drama stuff.  She even got to help clean up as Clarence was on the committee for decorating.  She is great at stuff like that and loved it.  Again she was home with big smiles and great memories.  It was fun to listen to her talk about the night.  The perfect end to the Sadies weekend!