GIRLS' NIGHT OUT

Several weeks ago Naomi and I were invited to a concert. I accepted the invitation, marked the calendar, and gave Tim a heads up ... but I didn't tell Naomi.

This afternoon Silas asked me what "3:30 Kit" meant on the calendar and I told him I was just hanging out with my friend for a while. When Naomi asked me a little later what we were going to be doing I said it was just girl time. She, of course, pointed out that's she's a girl and asked if it was just for adults or if she could come along this time. I agreed to think about letting her come, eventually agreed to grant her request, then snapped a quick picture of ourselves while we waited for Kit to swing by for some allegedly unstructured girl time.

Kit and her friend, Diane, picked us up and Kit asked Naomi how her day had been. Naomi said good. Kit said it was about to get better. Naomi looked at me with a funny expression, then heard Kit tell her we were all going to a Newsboys' Love Riot concert together. The look on Naomi's face was priceless! She was surprised and excited, wondering if I knew and then how long I'd known.

We drove to the venue, had a picnic in the car while it rained and hailed outside, stood in line once the skies cleared, and then found a place to sit. Here we all are before the show.

Naomi took this picture as proof of what concert she was at.

Tim and the boys weren't home when we left and she didn't want her brothers to know where she was yet, but she was excited and wanted to tell someone. So she briefly interrupted Papa's visit with Aunt Judy and Uncle Dean to tell him her big news over the phone.

Then she was given a CD of her own to take home. She's so excited about that! She suggested the CD could be in the picture I'd wanted to get of her and I. But, of course!

Finally, it was Newsboys time. She watched.

She sang.

She clapped. She bounced.

And then we went home ... with a plan in place for how to tell the boys, who were already konked out when we arrived, about our fun evening. Her new CD is waiting in the CD player of our van and we'll turn it on when we head to church in the morning. The boys will probably think the first song is the radio, but at some point will realize they're listening to a CD and ask where it came from. That's when she'll do a little gloating - first that she got to go to the concert, then that she got to stay up later than her two older brothers. Honestly, I think those two things were equally exciting to her tonight.