The girls have been rehearsing with The Re•Bops, a 22 year long Vermont groups that sings classic rock and Motown from the ’50s and ’60s.  They hired me to videotape their concert at Montpelier First-Night, too.

Audrey was really scared.  She liked doing Nutcracker because they had weeks of rehearsals, but for this they only had about 6 days (almost every Wednesday for the last two months), so Audrey felt unprepared.  The band also didn’t have stick to their set-list and Audrey was un-nerved by not knowing exactly what was next.  Olivia didn’t show such concern and remembered her lines and her dance moves better.  Olivia wore one of the band’s costumes, a knee length red skirt with the classic dog-and-leash sewn onto it, a white sleeveless shirt, scarf tied around her neck and saddle shoes.  This outfit was made for the bandleader’s daughter when she was 8 and now she’s 24!

The Vermont Youth Orchestra cancelled and so the Re•Bops took the 3 PM slot as well as their advertised 5 PM show.  Tammy Fletcher was in between them, and boy can she sing!  Stephanie hadn’t heard her before, but I had videotaped a wedding back in 2006 or ’07 up on Grand Isle and they were the Wedding Band, so I knew they were good.

Bennet Shapiro was the sound engineer, he did the music and sound recording on an ill-fated pilot video in 2009.  He gave me a board feed and after the show complimented my girls in their performance and mic technique.

I packed up all my gear onto the Magliner, but we waited for the elevator so the bands could get their gear in and out, which means we saw the next act.  And boy, could she sing, too!  I don’t remember how or why, but Audrey went up on the stage with her and played a percussion instrument during one of the numbers, and of course Errol followed her.

Good thing we had snapped his pants back together.  You know how toddler’s pants snap up the inseam to make it easier to change diapers?  Well Errol hasn’t needed diapers for almost a year now (I mean he is 2, way past time to wear a diaper!) and he unsnaps his pants (these are lined overalls) so they look like a skirt, and when he climbs around or sits down sometimes you can see his little gennies.  So, as you can imagine, I was very relieved that he was on stage under the bright lights before scores of people with his pants actually snapped together.

It took some coaxing, but we got them off the stage after she started the next number.  I have some video footage from this event.

Stephanie and I had expected to just go home when the girls were done, but I was secretly hoping to stick around and have a family time together.

We only had one button (the ticket to FirstNight events), and this year the shows ended by 9 PM, so we weren’t in any rush to go.

So we mosied our way out the building and around front where we find Kadesha and Kasimir, and Peter and Bonnie just coming out the front door. So of course our kids weren’t in any mood to go now. They went running around and around the plaza in front of City Hall while we grown-ups chatted.

After a while of this the kids hear that there’s hot chocolate to be had at the City Center. I wonder at this since there’s only as hour left of the events (it’s about 7 PM by now).

As we make out way down there a cement mixer comes down main street, wrapped in christmas tree lights! It looked like something from Burning Man. The mixing tub wasa even turning. Errol was mesmerized and I too: how did they power the lights on the rotating mixing tub?

We get to City Center and, as I suspected there was no hot chocolate left. But there were plenty of good things to eat. I went directly to the first table with a coffee urn and got a cup, boy did I need that. The next table had a bin of locally grown greens, and boy did I need that, too! As I ate the greens I spotted the last table as being SamosaMan.

SamosaMan had several stores, on right in Montpelier, but it had closed recently and I was disappointed, because they are very good. So I was pleased to see them here. When I had finished the greens I bought two samosas from them.

The kids had gone into the back, to Village Pizza and Stephanie had found some friends to talk to. At another table the Greek guy had about half his food left, including some great looking Spanicopita. His wife told him not to come home until everything was gone. He was going to be there a while…

After about an hour the kids decree that we are going to Bethany Church because there are even more rumors that there’s hot chocolate there. So we troop onwards and, sure enough, they have no hot chocolate left, just coffee. Bonnie announces that she has hot chocolate at her place and so we walk through the streets of Montpelier to her place.

The kids all go play upstairs while the hot chocolate is prepared, and the grownups have a well-deserved break. When it’s ready the kids come and drink and discuss the upcoming parade. I wonder at the time, not knowing what the parade route is. At 9 PM, the start of the parade the kids are getting ready, but not ready yet. I tell them that they are going to miss it if they don’t get ready. We get them out at 9:10, with Stephanie and I as overseers. Peter was going to come too, but he wasn’t ready yet, and we left without him.

As we approach downtown, we can see the end of the parade – going away from us! I enourage the kids into speed-walk mode and we catch the end of the end, where the people are filling in behind the parade walking up the street. I tell Steph my plan and then order Olivia to break through the pack and walk along between the spectators and the parade. Because the parade is moving so slowly, we speed-walk all the way back to City Hall, which is the end of the route, and we get to watch almost the whole parade walk by us!

The First Night organizers couldn’t afford fireworks and the event ended at 9 PM, it was about half the amount of events that they had in previous years. So they organized the end event to be a street dance MC’d by WGDR-FM and held under the huge disco ball hung on the outside of the City Center. There was a fire dancer and he took over the crowd with with twin spinning fire pots on chains. He did a ten minute bit with those and the kids pushed their way into the front row.

When those burned out he switched to fire breathing. Stephanie turned around and announced she couldn’t watch that. The visceral feeling of a mouthful of lighter fluid made her want to barf. So I stood by the kids while she got a break. I pointed out to the kids that he was wiping his mouth every time he took a swig from his canteen, that said canteen was always closed and placed 15 feet away from where he would blow fire balls, and I pointed out his assistant that was holding a large wet rag, just in case. But everything went fine and it was a great show.

The big toy at the event was a bubble-gun. A clear plastic battery powered pistol with a bottle of bubble juice that squirted a stream of bubbles everywhere. Once the fire guy was done Errol went bananas chasing bubbles through the streets. Audrey decided she wanted one, but I spent all my money on feeding them dinner, and besides I didn’t want cheap Made In China crap in the house anyway. Steph took the girls and I stayed with Errol as we wandered around the middle of Main Street chasing bubbles.