Gabriela's Last Dance Recital

Yeah, we had our last dance recital this past weekend. We were all excited to see her perform again. She's always done such a great job and this year she was in three numbers. (We secretly dread this concert each year because it is soooo looong and we know we will have a hard time with the other two.) I have a lot to say about dance and have been meaning to write a post about it for a long time, but when I came into the dressing room at intermission and found Gabriela lying on the floor, I knew we were both done with this whole thing. She told me she wanted "to go home and that she missed her stuffed animals and blankets." I feel pretty confindent in my decision to end this. 

But onto the concert:

 My little prima ballerina.

 She looks so skinny! That's why her nickname at home is "little bones."

Wish I could say that about myself. Wow, my face has really rounded out!

 This ballet number was to "Someday My Prince Will Come" from Snow White.

 This is from "What's New at the Zoo?"

 Yes, she is supposed to make that face.

 And this lyrical number is to "When Somebody Loved Me" from Toy Story.

 We were all very proud of her and she was happy as pie to finally get flowers after her performance. We love that kid and admire her will to stick to it and work hard. She really has come a long way and it's been fun to watch her dance over the last three years.



Just the latest...

It's been a while since I've updated, and I've thought of a million things I could write about, but I'll just keep it to the basics. I'm happy that our Valentine's Day turned out better than I thought it was going to be. I've been wanting to start a breakfast tradition for a couple of years, but this year it finally worked out. We had all been sick that week and I didn't have time to get to the store to get the girls some Valentines, however my mom did come through for me. She had gotten the girls some really cute outfits when I was there visiting and I was going to wrap them up as a Valentine from her, but she let me just let them be annonimous and so the girls had something waiting for them that morning. We had a really yummy breakfast and we all sat around the table together at 6:30 in the morning. I turned the camera off while we ate so I could be more in the moment and it was lovely. We went around and told things we loved about each other and fun just being together. The tradition is definately sticking around.

 Over the weekend, Gabriela had her first dance competition. We had to go up to the Salt Palace for it and she was pretty excited about it. She got to perform her new lyrical number and they wear these little princess dresses. She did really well and doesn't seem to get nervous at all. But after spending our whole afternoon up there, I think we are both done with this dance thing. It's taking over our lives and our family's. Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to drop in and watch her second number.

 And these two little rugrats hung in there for the five hours that we were there. I spent most of my time chasing and trying to find them as they ran around the convention center. That Sophia is a fast one! The picture is really bad, I know, but those are the outfits they got in their valentines and they refuse to wear anything else these days.

 Oh, and everyone had to get in on the makeup action. Bright red lipstick included. And for some reason, Sophia insisted she wear this ginormous bow on her head all day.

In other news, we went to an RV expo...don't ask how we ended up there...on Thursday and we found the perfect one for us. We've been thinking about one for a while and how nice it would be to take to GA every year since we can't fly anymore (too $$$). The girls wore themselves out going in all 1000 or so RV's in that place. I thought I was going to have this baby right their on the expo floor from all the walking. I was having major contractions that night, but we survived it.

Life is good. It's been busy. Just looking forward to hanging around in my sweatpants today and not doing anything. Thank you President's Day. Oh wait, I never did have time to go to the grocery store on Saturday. I guess I better get to that since we have nothing in the fridge or pantry.

Her 1st Audition!

Well I think I've got it working on my other computer, so I'll post a little at a time. Over the weekend we had team auditions at Gabriela's dance school. This is an eye opening experience for both her and I. They completely covered the windows so noone could watch the girls learn their material for the auditions. They had two days of workshops and then on Saturday they auditioned. That first night at the workshop I realized that my kids wear my heart on their shoulders. Gabriela looked so innocent to me and was smiling and so happy that I was there to watch her dance with about twenty five other girls her age. I have never been so proud of her. I know what an audition is like and I felt like I was the one auditioning. Knowing my little baby was being sized up among these other girls, it still makes me teary eyed. It's heart wrenching...and she's only FIVE!!! It's only going to get worse as she gets older and realizes what is really going on. on Saturday she was happy as pie and went and did her audition and acted like it was piece of cake. I am really proud of her for doing such a brave thing all by herself.


On the second night of workshops, she made a new friend whose name is Alex. And on Sat. morning she found her and they were inseperable. And they got to audition together. That's pretty lucky if you ask me. Hopefully they will make the same team, that would make it all the more fun. I really love this dance school, so if you are interested please check them out at www.thedanceclub.com . They are very professional and disciplined, with a great feeling in the studio and good role models.