Ballet

It is 10:30 p.m. and the house is finally quiet after Molly's big dance recital of the year.  There is a lot of formality to the whole thing, with dress rehearsals and make up instructions and a big, dark stage with a "curtain that opened all by itself!"  But Molly is in the very youngest group of dancers, and there was one little girl that refused to even go on, and another whose hair piece fell out on stage and cried (loudly) through the whole routine.  It was not so much dancing as just an experience.  One that most of the little girls, Molly included, found incredibly exciting.

There were older girls in the recital too, though.  Much older.  And they were really dancing, leaping through the air, lithe and incredibly graceful.  They were beautiful.  I was never a dancer growing up, was never graceful or lithe or glided anywhere.  And it's kind of hard to imagine a child of mine ending up like that.  But you just never know.  Dance on little girl.  Dance on.

On This Tuesday...

I have a sick chicken that is currently living in my bedroom.  I am feeding her liquids from a dropper, and I can't decide if she's got a chance and I'm helping or if I am unnecessarily prolonging her misery.  Chickens are a little hard to read.

It is Bryce's birthday!  He is not prone to getting overly excited about these things, but the kids have enough of that to go around.  I made Cookies & Cream Cheesecake Cupcakes.  They look really good, but I haven't had one yet.  I'll let you know.

Porter stayed home sick from school, but he is so not very sick at all.  He's been fighting with his sisters all day.  Argh.

And we are all finally recovering from a very busy weekend, mostly involving Molly's first dance recital.  It was a lot of work and a little bit silly, but she loved, loved it.  And it really was fun seeing her up "on the dark stage mama, the dark stage!"  Not being a huge ballet person myself, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed watching all of the kids perform.  It was fun.  And beyond cute.

Weekend in February

Besides the usual skiing lessons, we had a lot of fun things to do with the kids this weekend.  Porter's teacher had selected a piece of artwork of his to hang in the elementary school art show at the mall (such as it is here), and we got to go to a reception there.  Apparently it is totally embarrassing.  Especially when your mom takes a bunch of pictures.

 

Molly had her annual preschool play/fundraising event.  She's a little too young to understand the whole concept of the skit, and she sat patiently in the back almost the whole time just waiting for someone to call her out.  Which they never did.  And then she promptly fell off the back of the stage, where I rescued her screaming upside down body from a pile of old props and electrical cords.  Still, she had fun.

Bryce also built this amazing stool for the silent auction.  That's the Alaska state flag inlaid on the top!

Finally, we got to observe Molly's ballet class.  They are strict about almost everything, and don't let parents watch (or interfere) most of the time.  I took a lot of pictures, but when I went to look at them later, Molly is either blurry from running so fast or looks something like this.

She was so distracted by us being there that I can understand why they don't allow it.  And I could hear the future report card comments.  Talks when should be listening.  Can not keep hands to self.  Oh well.  It was still the cutest thing ever.