Ladies Night Out and The Party Dresses

As I mentioned in my last blog, my Tafeedth (Quran Memorization) school had their end of the school year celebration, Sunday night. It was ladies only and I was excited. The only time I go somewhere without the children is to the hospital and that is to give birth to another one, masha’Allah. When I had my gallbladder removed I even kept my then two month old daughter with me over night until I was prepped for surgery.

I told my husband that the party was from 7-9pm. He said, “No problem, I’ll keep the kids. You don’t have to stay the whole time, you can go late and leave early.” He was not being mean, he actually said it like he was relieving me from some possibly horrible experience and giving me an excuse to get out of it. In all fairness he has an after Isha bedtime and we still had to exchange the girls dresses, because their party was the following evening.

After my husband dropped me off at the party, he said “What do I do with the kids at the salat time?” I told him, “I don’t care, they are your kids figure it out!” Then he goes on his, “it’s haram for me to take them with me to the masjid because they disturb the salah of the other worshippers. You need to consider that when making plans.” I asked him how it is that I can take them with me and the girls will pray with me and Adam will sit quietly (only at the masjid, at home it is a different story) but when he takes them to the masjid they act like little banshees. So I told him I was staying at the party the whole time, because I needed a break and proof that I needed a break was that he did not know what to do with his kids for two hours without me. I just reread that and I sound awful. It was not as bossy as it sounds…well maybe it was!

I walked in the party and I was greeted by a smiling woman with a wand. Yes, a security metal detector wand. I was shocked because I haven’t seen one since I left America over 5 years ago. I asked her what in the world was that for and she asked me if I had a mobile camera phone. I was so glad that I forgot mine at home, she briefly waved her wand around me and let me pass through. I was then greeted by the gawa woman who handed me a cup. I took a seat, removed my abayah, niqab, and talha. Did the hand shake, cheek to cheek kiss and long greeting with the women around me, put my clothes back on and walked home.

I felt so guilty about leaving the kids with my husband and making it inconvenient for him and the other worshippers in the masjid to pray that I had a whole FIVE MINUTES OUT!

Wouldn’t you know it, they weren’t home and did not come back for two hours! We then went to exchange the dresses. My dh sat in the car sleepy and warned me not to take long (more than 5 minutes is too long). So I exchanged them for the first big frilly dresses I could find. They were not as formal as the walima or ‘Cinderella’ dresses, but I didn’t care. It wasn’t that kind of party any way it’s just that my daughter’s teacher wanted to showcase her because she is American.

They were so excited about all the layers in these dresses and wanted to make sure I documented the tricks they could do in it.

That’s them making the dresses look like tea cups!