Swan Lake

Emily Grace LOVES going to see ballet productions, and we hadn't yet seen Swan Lake yet, so I bought us tickets this year. What a beautiful show!

We arrived with some time to kill, so we perused the gift shop, and Em tried on some hats and masks:




During the first Intermission, we treated ourselves at the concession stand. Em chose this fancy looking cupcake, and I picked out a brownie (which was heavenly)


Our favorite scenes in the ballet were where ALL the swans would dance together (24 of them!). They were so in sync and really just FLOATED across the stage. It was incredible. I couldn't find a comparable youtube video for the large swan scenes, but I did find this video (posted below) of one of the smaller swan scenes, which we think is pretty spot-on to what we saw. VERY VERY cool, in our opinion!!! (I did NOT take the video, just found it on youtube). I'd be hard-pressed to dance gracefully on my own, let alone joined to three other dancers doing those moves!

Dance Recital 2012 Photos

Connor (I need to call and have her fix this one. She turned his green shirt yellow, and the fake color is up over the side of his neck and his jawline.)




Emily's Monday ballet class (no individual photo of her because they didn't get to order costumes and I didn't want the solo picture of her in her practice leotard!)


Emily's Wednesday ballet class




Em's tap class

dance recital 2012

Connor was in his first dance recital last week, performing with his level 1 Hip Hop class. Super stinkin' cute!!! He invited his Kindergarten teacher to come watch him perform, and he was soooo thrilled when she came!


There were four shows total, and between my two dancers, we participated in three of the four shows. Emily was in the audience for the first time EVER (Connor performed in the morning recital, which she wasn't a part of). She enjoyed getting to see the performances, since she's usually backstage and misses out!

We sent Connor home after his show was over, and then launched right into Emily's two shows. It was a LONG day, but well worth seeing the kids enjoy themselves. Connor had been very nervous about being on stage, but told me afterwards that he really likes his regular class, but he wishes they could do the stage stuff more often. LOL!

Emily and Katie dressed and ready for their ballet performance (they performed this routine in both the mid-day show, and the evening show).


There was another ballet routine they got to perform, but they didn't have a costume for it, so I didn't ever bother taking pictures backstage (they just wore their regular practice leotards and had a ribbon in their hair)

Katie, Emily, and Katie waiting for their tap routine (performed 2nd half of the evening show).


We hadn't really had time for much more than little snacks here and there throughout the day, so I took Emily out for some food on the way home (around 9:30pm!). She picked McD's. We hit the drive through so we could just go home and relax, but then we saw one of the Katie's inside with her family, so we parked and went in after all.

Dance

Last week was Parent Viewing week at Emily Grace's dance studio, so parents got to sit in the studio and watch class and take pictures/video. The girls put on a short performance at the end.

Emily is in two days of ballet and one day of tap.









the tap studio is so SMALL, I didn't really get any good pictures of her




Then I forgot to take a group picture after I was done videotaping the tap routine!

I didn't take many pictures of the 2nd day of ballet because the warm-ups were all the same, but I got a decent group picture (ignore the random heads at the bottom of the picture, the girls were too close, and I couldn't back up any further due to the wall behind me!)

Am I CRAZY??

I started taking an adult jazz class at the beginning of January. A few moms from the dance studio Emily attends approached me about doing it, suggesting that it would be nice to have a better understanding of the time/energy our daughters put into dancing, as well as being something fun and different for ourselves, and a great work-out. One of the moms said that for her, she wanted to set the example for her daughter that you're never too old to try something new, and you always just have to try your best. She had me sold right there! When push came to shove, only two of us ended up being able to join, but there is another class at the "sister" studio in another town with four more people taking adult jazz (all of whom have at least five years experience--even more intimidating!).

I was extremely nervous the first class, having ZERO dance experience, but it's really been a lot of fun! After only 5 classes, the instructor approached us about performing in the June recital with her other class. My gut response was NO FLIPPIN' WAY! People show up to the recital to see their CHILDREN dance. And the self-conscious part of me wanted no part of performing onstage when the little girls with more experience than me could do a better job!!!!!! OR performing with women who actually know what they are doing (since we'll be combined with the class from the sister studio)!

The instructor asked the two of us newbies to keep an open mind for a few more weeks, practice the routine with the other four ladies a few times, and give her our final decision later. Emily is BEGGING me to include myself, while my husband is pretty adament that I shouldn't. Part of me wants no part of it, while the other part of me thinks that the whole reason I started this class was to be an example for my kids, to step outside my comfort zone and push myself, and I SHOULD perform.

Decisions, decisions!!

We had our first nearly-full group practice (one person couldn't come) and I had a great time! With 5 of the 6 of us all together, I didn't feel as much like the spotlight was on me... LOL Also, the instructor has choreographed the routine in such a way that there are three different parts happening pretty much all at once, and the part for the two of us who are brand new just isn't as complicated, yet still ties in and looks good. So I don't feel intimidated that I'm trying to keep up with much more advanced dancers on-stage; I just have to keep up with the other new dancer!!

Agreeing to perform in the recital would be extra incentive to work-out and tone this body of mine, plus, besides making me a nervous wreck, I think it would be really fun in the end, and would MOST DEFINATELY be stepping outside my comfort zone (for those of you that know me personally, you know what a creature of habit I am, and what a big STEP this would be! LOL)

If you're interested, THIS is the song we'll be performing to if I agree to participate (though we're cutting the long instrumental part out so it's not a five minute song!!)

Let's take a vote: Do I agree to perform, or no?

Emily's Dance Recital--Part Two

Emily and one of her best friends, Katie, before the recital (they hadn't been given their soldier hats yet)


Emily during the ballet performance


Emily during the tap performance


Emily and her cousin, Ali, after the recital


I hadn't thought about it enough in advance to actually follow through in time for the recital, but I wanted Emily to give both of her dance teachers thank you cards for their work in getting the girls ready for the recital, and choreographing everything, etc, so I spent some time Monday afternoon putting together a thank you card for each teacher. I thought it would be fun to use my new Cricut Cartridge (Everyday Paper Dolls) to try to create a card resembling the dance costumes Emily wore. The lighting in the picture STINKS, but you can get the main idea of the cards. I think they came out pretty well! (if I do say so myself...LOL)


I cut out a yellow football jersey then cut off the big shoulders and fringed it to use for the epaulettes, and cut strips for the shirt. I had to make the hat on my own. I realize now I forgot a little yellow brim, but o'well. I saw Em's ballet teacher receive her card, and she loved that it matched the girls' costumes. I didn't get to see the tap teacher receive her card, but Emily said she liked it.

My little dancing queen is already asking when she can have another dance recital...

Emily's Dance Recital

Emily had her dance recital this past Saturday. It was the "holiday" show, so some shows had Christmas music, and others didn't. All the costumes were sort of put together with stuff we already had, or could get cheaply, but it came together really nicely, I think! Em's first performance was for her ballet 2 class, which was combined with the ballet 1 class. The 2's were soldiers and the 1's were ballerina dolls. VERY cute, but not my favorite, simply because there wasn't a lot of DANCING involved for Emily, and lots of standing around doing soldier poses. However, like I said, it was totally cute. The two other girls I zoom in more closely on are her good friends Katie and "friend" Emily.



I LOVED the tap performance. I didn't get to see much of this one being rehearsed because the class is held in one of the dance rooms you can't see into unless you stand outside in the cold, and I am not that die-hard. I was very pleased with how it all turned out. Emily had a BLAST!!!!!!!



They held the rehearsal and the recital in the same day (I will say I am NOT a fan of this, btw, what a LONG and stressful day for the parents! LOL!!!), and after the rehearsal was over, I was trying to get her back into street clothes so we could go get some food before the recital, and she was wiggling all over with excitement. It was adorable!

Ballerina Princess

If there were ever any doubt about Emily's love for ballet, I would say this journal entry puts those doubts to rest! Her journal actually had several different entries about ballet in it, but this is the only one with a ballerina drawn onto the page, so I had to share it!


And while we're on the topic of ballet, I thought I would share with you some pictures of my little ballerina from the recital weekend:

Here she is, hanging out backstage, waiting for her group's turn


posing with her flowers (first time in four years I've remembered to take a picture of her holding her flowers!)


Emily and Ali (my niece-to-be!)


posing with the backdrop after the show


Emily, Katie, and Anya


Emily and I (again, first time in four years I've gotten a picture of at least one of her parents posing with her while she's in costume--and I'm not wearing nice clothes for the occasion because I was room mom backstage for this performance)

Emily's dance recital

Emily had the first showing of two shows for her dance recital last night. We have one little girl in the class who is WAY too young to be there, but the parent's pushed and got their way. She's darling and tries her best, but she's just nowhere near the same level as the other girls. We knew she'd kind of be doing her own thing, but no one expected the audience to enjoy it to the point of laughing through most of the performance. You can see Emily falter when the first laughs come through (she told me afterwards she thought everyone was laughing at HER at first), and she never fully recovers from it. She's stone-faced instead of smiling, and by the end, the laughter from the audience has gotten contagious, and the little gal causing it all is enjoying the heck out of things and is REALLY hamming it up. Em's in giggles and almost not even dancing by the end. I guess it is what it is (and maybe today will go better), but I was disappointed on behalf of the other girls who worked really hard and took it seriously, only to have the audience laughing the whole time... Their group did get the biggest applause of the night, though, so that's something! ha!

More Photoshop Elements fun

I babysat Grace on Thursday, and after seeing Connor parading himself through the house a few days ago in Em's FLUFFY tutu, I got the "brilliant" idea to try to pose Grace in it the next time I had her. SO, not long after her mom dropped her off, I stripped her down, stuck her in the tutu, and got a few pics of her looking entirely confused, a few of her laughing and cooperating, and few of her really ticked off and wanting it off. I didn't force the issue. LOL But I got enough decent pictures that I decided to mess around in Photoshop Elements to create something.


Colorizing the pink tutu made it a bit funky colored in some places, because there was no way to keep the color of the floor seen through the tutu from showing as well. So that explains the "orange" tint in some places. I needed to have had a huge thick white sheet spread out or something, but it's still pretty cute.

I fell in love with that quote quite some time ago and have been wanting to create something for Em's room with it. I think I might just have to pose Emily for a few pictures and insert them into the same collage so she has one of her own!

Isn't Grace a sweetheart?

The Nutcracker Performance

Em's dress rehearsal was tonight, so I was able to video tape her portion of The Nutcracker. You can't tell which one is her for the most part, but I felt it more important to get all the little mice in the scene rather than to zoom in on just Emily. Plus, they move around the stage so much, I figured it would be too hard to keep the camera on her while it was zoomed in anyway. You get your first real glimpse of her (where you know it's her) when the little mice are all crouched down on the ground. She's just to the left (our left) of Clara. (PS I videotaped a little bit into the blackness at the end because there's actually one more small part, and I wasn't expecting them to cut the lights...so I videotaped for a few seconds to see if they'd flash the lights back or not...they didn't...LOL)


Here's Emily with her friends Ally (top) and Alison


Emily and Alison

Nutcracker Mouse

Emily got her mouse costume at the end of class Monday. From the picture they posted in the studio, I wasn't overly excited about it, but seeing it on her and the other girls, it's actually PRETTY DARN CUTE (the tummy, the tulle around the neck and sleeves, and across the bottom are light pink--the camera flash kind of washed them out a bit in the pictures)!




She's been practicing really hard, with Saturday half-cast rehearsals for the month of November, on top of her usual Monday dance class. In December, She'll have one more Saturday half-cast rehearsal, then a few days later the full-cast dress rehearsal, then she performs in both shows. She and her fellow mice have gotten quite good at their dance routine and are having a blast! There is a viewing window into the studio and I'm constantly seeing smiling, giggling girls through it. Em's so excited to go each and every time. I plan to take a little video of her portion of The Nutcracker a the dress rehearsal so I can share it with you all.

PS She did her own hair that day, and woke me up that morning to let me know she was already dressed, her teeth were brushed, and her hair was done. Pretty creative of her, eh?

You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile

Emily has her big dance recital later this afternoon. She's REALLY excited!! She had her dress rehearsal Thursday evening, and the following pictures and video are from that night (they aren't strict about no flash and standing up and all that fun stuff you can get away with to get decent pictures during the rehearsal! LOL).

Emily's on the far right, with friends Hope (far left) and Chloe (middle)










Here's the video I took (Take note that I was snapping pictures at the same time I was video-taping, so be forgiving in the video when I didn't follow Emily towards the beginning as she does the skipping part and there's a brief portion of basically empty screen in the video...I tried!! Oh, and be forgiving of the two ding-dongs who walked through my video! ha ha!
)


(PS I'm guest blogging for the next few days over at My Crazy Castle)

You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile

Emily's recital dress came in last week. Isn't it adorable? (by the way, she's doing part of the dance in this picture; it's to the song "You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile" in Annie)


Unfortunately, it's the itchiest, scratchiest thing on the planet and she HATES IT. She was in tears a few minutes before that picture because I was forcing her to put it on and wear it around the house for awhile (hoping she gets used to the scratchiness of it by the time it's recital day). SIGH

It also arrived WAY TOO SMALL, which was tons of fun. I could barely zip it up in back and she was yelling that it was choking her. There was BARELY enough room to stick my finger in inbetween the material and her skin it was so tight to her body. It's got a built in leotard, and that was pulled so tight from crotch to shoulder that the collar was sticking out funny. The sleeves were squeezing the heck out of her arms, and it was CLEARLY very uncomfortable. Her teacher said there was no way we'd be able to order another one in only a month, so we'd have to hope someone else's was too big. Parents have no part in choosing the appropriate size, and this is the second year out of only three years her costume as been too small (the first year of dance, it was stretchy material, at least, but it was stretched so tight around her torso you could plainly see the white threads of the seam showing the entire length of both sides). NEXT YEAR, I'm insisting on viewing the sizes and measurements and making my own decision, so at least if it's wrong, it's my own fault! Thankfully, another little girl's costume did end up being too big, so we traded, and all is well (except for the itchy factor).

Less than a month until recital day! I always get such a kick out of seeing her on stage.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

I shot this video during one of Emily's dance classes shortly after she turned four as they were practicing their recital routine. It was her first year of dance and she seemed soooo grown up, but when I view this, two years later, I'm overcome with how LITTLE she seems!!!! Obviusly, they still had some more practicing to do, but I think this sort of thing is about the most adorable thing on the planet! I totally cried on recital day seeing her up on stage! (btw, she's the one that turns around and waves at me a few seconds into the video)