A Wedding Postponed

Well, I was all ready for the annual Q&U wedding today, but it is snowing like crazy and school is cancelled.  Good news is that since the snow is supposed to stop, it's simply rescheduled to tomorrow afternoon, and my wonderful principal volunteered to call all the parents of my students and let them know about the change.  Almost like having a wedding planner to deal with the frustrating details!

So tomorrow, I'll wear my 'Queen Jeans,' as all the girls are to dress as queens, and I'd rather be comfortable than costume-y on a busy day.  Love that in first, rhyming makes almost anything work!  I'll throw on a faux-fur vest and the tiara I wore at my own wedding, and that will be queenly enough for anyone.  We'll spend the morning decoration and doing QU things like word lists, bingo (I know, lame, but the energy is so high, the activities need to be pretty basic) and studying quarters.

At the ceremony, the kids carry a Q bride and a U groom into the auditorium and stand as attendants.  Our Principal will reads vows and the boys (dressed as quarterbacks) and girls (queens) recite QU poems.

For the reception my awesome happy hubby burned a CD of wedding songs so we'll be Chicken Dancing, Hokey-Pokeying and Macarenaing for a while, families too I hope.  After that,  we go back to the room for the class Valentine's Day party.  I have a cupcake display with tiers and a volunteer mom made the cupcakes,  and there will also be pizza donated by a local delivery place.  I didn't hunt that down, a mom thought of it and pursued the donation, and I am so grateful for her help!

QU wedding is a little over the top of what's needed for a simple sound lesson, but it works on other levels too.  One of the things I love about doing this on Valentine's Day is that it diverts attention away from the boyfriend/girlfriend aspect of the holiday that I REALLY want to discourage among six and seven year olds.  Although we all need to like each other and get along, they don't need to be 'liking' each other at this point!  The focus on QU is a great distraction and it keeps the party day a little more academic.  I barely spend any class-time on the wedding other than on 'The Big Day,' so it doesn't put me off-schedule with district plans.  And it is a lot of fun for the families, with so much positive feedback and interest in helping out.  If anything I have had to rein in some enthusiasm to keep it kid-centered and casual and not a full-on black-tie affair!