the ballet recital

my girls love love love to dance! they have been dancing for several years with a friend of mine, Heather, who teaches ballet out of her home. she normally starts little ones when they are around 3...but Ellie got lucky and started at the 2 year mark before she had made a firm starting-age. in January, Heather approached me about Alice coming to Ellie's ballet class - she told me that she really wanted to help in any way she could, and that would be a small way that she could do that. to me it was huge! Alice had been begging me to do dance for months and months and months. she was so thrilled to be in there with the big girls...and the big girls were so incredibly sweet to her. i am so grateful for this chance that Heather gave my girls to dance together - who knows if they'll ever get to do that again! it was a special lil blessing for us.

in June, they had their yearly recital. it was soooo adorable! here are the girls all dolled up and ready to perform:

 

they even got a special treat of Gammy showing up, just for the show! it was such a sweet, generous surprise. the girls were soooo happy to have her here!

the recital was beyond adorable! is there anything cuter than seeing little girls in buns and tights and ballet outfits? i dont' know that there is! especially a teensy tiny one, like little Alice. i had a perma-grin smeared across my face!

my favorite part of the recital was when the girls did their little solos. each little girl got to do their favorite ballet move all alone .... my girls got to twirl out together. it was so cute!

after Ellie did her little jump, Alice came to the middle of the stage, spread out her legs in a straddle, and lifted her hands like this, as if to say "tah dah!" i about melted all over the floor! it was Ahhhhh-dorable!

i am beyond grateful for the many people that have blessed my life in countless ways -- who knew that ballet would be such a blessing? well, it was. so grateful for these happy things i could look forward to at this time of my life.

xoxo

Christmas Traditions 2012: the Nutcracker.

another Christmas tradition that we started last year was going to San Francisco Ballet's production of The Nutcracker. M and i took Ellie on a special date to the city last year- and this year, i went with a couple of friends and their daughters.

the SF Ballet does these awesome "Family Performance" nights where included in the ticket price is a snack at intermission, a little souveneir to take home for the first 500 guests (which was a stuffed moose that Ellie immediately hugged and named "Sugar Plum"... oh and it now lives on her bed with her other 1,000 stuffed animals), and meeting some of the ballerinas before the performance. it is all pretty amazing and fantastic- totally worth the $20 bucks a ticket.


in short, we loved the Nutcracker- something so magnificent about those gorgeous ballerinas on that big, fantastic stage. and of course it was the cutest night with Ellie- who declared passionately after the evening, "i want to be a real ballerina when i grow up!"
and she has proudly declared that ever since.
sometimes i can't help but wish i were four.

and it was convenient that we were so twitterpated with the Nutcracker...because the next evening, our little ballet studio did the world's cutest thing. in lieu of holding a winter recital, they held a special "Nutcracker in a Day" event. basically, the little ballerinas came all dressed up in their tights, tutus and buns -- and for 2 hours, they did a craft, ate dinner, and then learned little pieces of several of the Nutcracker numbers. then, parents got to come back and watch their ballerinas perform the bits and pieces that they learned.

oh! my heart! it was exploding from all the cuteness.

Ellie would tell you that her favorite part was when she got to pretend to be a mouse in the mouse army. she loved tip-toeing all the way across the stage with her little arms like a mouse. so funny! i had two favorite parts: one was the end -- they had a beautiful ballerina come out as the Sugar Plum Fairy, and all the little ballerinas sat on one side and admired her dancing. it was darling.  my other favorite part was in the very beginning; they let each girl pretend to be Clara and hold their own Nutcracker. Ellie was sooo darling holding and caressing that Nutcracker. she was lost in it- like she believed that it was truly magical or something. 

but anyyyyyywayyyy. i know i'm being a super annoying, gushy mom. but i really hope they do this again and again and again -- such a darling production.

[note to grandmas: i do have videos -- but they're on M's phone, so i'll add them later]

Ellie Week: I love ballerina Ellie.

dance dance dance dance dance.
that's what's on Ellie's mind...all. the. time.
she's been talking about this ballet recital for weeks and weeks and weeks- showing me her butterfly moves and her spins and turns.
she loves to dance.
and i love watching her dance.

i also love seeing her all decked out in tights, the leo, and her foofy tutu.
gosh, is there anything cuter on a 3 year old than a tutu?
i think not. i think not.
so naturally, i took 152 pictures last night (really. i'm nuts) because i thought she looked so cute.
so welcome to yet another photo-overload post.
apologies.

pre-recital:

and then Ellie got in "recital mode" and started fluttering away like a little butterfly. she would not stay still for another photo. i couldn't blame her.

fly, Ellie, FLY!

and so i said, Ellie, please pose just one more time for Mama.
(and then i may or may not have told her i'd give her an oreo if she gave me a good ballerina pose).
so for two seconds she posed.
and it was a very cute two seconds.

when we finally got to the recital, she was so excited, she couldn't stand it.
she kept giggling and smiling and kept admiring the other girls.
and then she'd start practicing her moves on the big wood floors.
she was in dancing heaven.

and then it was recital time.
this is about 3 minutes long but it is so cute.
and again, it's mostly for the g-mas.

one of the funnest things about dance is that she's been able to be in the same class as four of her favorite little girls. they are all so cute with each other and all danced so well last night (though we missed one of them who is out of town).

{havin' a post-recital treat & chat with her little friend Kate}

M was super cute and brought Ellie some colorful Daisies.
she was amazed that they were hers.

all in all, she was pretty dang happy and proud of herself.

and she had a blast doing it.

i just adore ballerina Ellie.

we all do!

what a fun thing to add to our already-fun birthday week.
i'm getting tired, though (and it's only 10 am).
still, in spite of sleepiness, i'll be back tomorrow to report some more birthday week fun.
(oh the crazy things we do in the name of fun, huh??)

xoxo