For 8th grade graduation, a big dance is held off-campus at a hotel. I was on the committee to help pull this dance together for the kids. The cost of the dance was 250rmb ($40). It was a tough committee as my friend Lisa stated, “there are too many captains on this one ship”. In the end, we pulled together a very fun dance for the kids.
Emersyn and Jim left the graduation ceremony for Emersyn to go home to shower and get beautified, again.
Dressed and ready! Emersyn dance dress came from the Black/White store on sale, too. It was a size 0, therefore, if fit perfectly (chest and all).
I left the ceremony to decorate the ballroom for the dance. The theme for the dance was Galaxy. The class voted on the theme which was an easy one to work with for the committee. The room looked fabulous! The ES Musical had just finished and we were able to use the planets from the production for our decorations.
At the dance, we had the kids check their mobile phone in with us. We wanted to take away the distraction of kids on their phones and be present in the moment. The kids put their phones in a zip lock bag with their name on it. Some were not to thrilled to hand over their phones, but it was communicated to them. Lisa G. was funny telling the kids we would only use their phones to take selfies of us!! Since the kids had no phone which means no camera, we had a Mom, Trisha, take photos of the kids with a backdrop. Other parents, including Jim, were taking photos to be shared on a flicker account.
A photo of some of the Moms that help to put this dance together.
Photos of Emersyn with her friends…
Dinner was a buffet dinner for the kids. Soon after the kids entered the ballroom, one of the students came to tell us there was wine in the punch. We thought he was kidding, but not…THIS IS CHINA (TIC). The punch was served with wine because that is how it is always done. We told them to take it away as our 14 year olds won’t be drinking it tonight.
Time to dance…
We had a Mom (this is a parent volunteer party) as the MC. She is a Zumba instructor – enough said. She had them do games to keep them ALL dancing. The girls took off one shoe to leave on the stage. The boys had to pick up a shoe, find the match and dance with the girl! They all had fun.
We had purchased from Taobao blow guitars, saxophones and microphones. The kids had a blast playing their instruments…and, of course, beating each other with them.
Lisa D. had arrange for some friends to come make an appearance at the dance. They were a big hit.
At the end of the night, Emersyn & Bella did one last photo!
While the kids were dancing the night away, Rachael, Lisa G and I were putting the mobile phones, all 104 of them, in the t-shirt gift bag. The kids needed to check-out. Getting their t-shirt and phones was the perfect solution to have them check-out properly.
It was a fun night, the kids danced all night. We left the hotel at 11:30pm. Ethan and Emersyn were asleep in the back seat…should of grabbed a photo of them sleeping!