How D'Ye Do, Calgary Stampede?

Ok. I am trying to be as excited about this without sounding like I am bragging, or overly proud of the accomplishments of my children. I am also trying very hard not to sound like the ultimate stage mom, but I'm afraid with kids performing - on a stage - the term "stage mom" may actually be accurate. Anyway, a few weeks ago, when I was without computer, or I would have written about this much sooner, I saw an ad in the Herald calling for kids to come audition for the Stampede Talent Search. After consulting with PWL, we decided it would be a good experience for our girls to see what an audition is all about, and I took them to the audition. It was seriously just like American Idol, only with a much more diverse population of performers. Still the really brutal ones who can't sing but their parents really think they can, but also a few really amazing kids. The girls are a little too young to really pick up on the competitive vibe that is underlying everyone's interactions, so that's a good thing, but I was very aware of other mothers sizing us up, wondering what kind of a performance we were going to put forth. It was intense, and we were only there for 2 hours. The auditions ran for 4 days! Anyway, the talent search runs for 7 nights, with 10 senior performers (age 13-21) a night and 2 junior (age 6-12) performers. They take 70 senior performers in all, and only 14 juniors. While we were there, we saw at least 6 junior performances, and when we left the audition, there were at least 50 people still to audition that night. A little bit crazy, but the seniors are actually in a talent competition and the winner actually gets money and the potential to be discovered, etc. etc. The junior performers don't win anything, but they get the opportunity to perform on a stage with a live band in front of hundreds of people. Terrifying? For some, perhaps, but Missy Mae and Little Ray are old pro's at this stuff, and they actually kind of thrive on it. I'm not making that up, although I realize children are a product of their environments and the possibility that they love that stuff because they know no different has crossed my mind. So enough information already...they made it. They're in. I don't know what night they'll be performing yet, and we have to do some serious improvements to their costumes (any suggestions?), but they're in! They were seriously so cute in their audition that I was pretty sure they would pick them, but I also didn't see the other 3 days' worth of performances, so I had nothing to base that assumption on. They are singing their official trademark song (see previous post if you'd like to watch it), so hopefully they aren't too sick of it by July to want to sing it anymore. Stampede, here we come!