Kate's Nutcracker week

This week has been extremely busy.  Lets just say that Thanksgiving is going to feel like a cake walk compared to Nutcracker.  Kate had rehearsal's, and performances every night this week.  It was all worth it though because she has had an experience she'll never forget.  I asked her on the way home from closing night if it was all that she thought it would be?  She replied "it was better".  I couldn't ask for more than that.  She was able to perform an adorable dance in a gorgeous costume, made really wonderful friendships, and performed with a live orchestra.  Probably the highlight of the whole week was when she met the Ballet West Ballerina Elizabeth Mcgrath who performed as the sugar plum fairy.  This wonderful Dancer came backstage to the dressing rooms and signed autographs and took pictures with the girls.  I couldn't believe it.  She went so above and beyond to be accommodating and be patient with all the little girls.  Kate didn't have a program to have her sign.  She wanted her to sign something more meaningful than just a piece of paper she'd loose, so she had her sign her ballet shoe (her shoes were a year and a half old and we need new ones anyway).  She has cherished those shoes and put them away someplace special.  I couldn't believe how truly wonderful and kind this young lady was to take photo's with the girls.  I'll definitely be following her ballet career, and try to take Kate to watch her perform.  What a wonderful example she is.  I was so proud at how well Kate did.  She had a more difficult dance for her age group.  She did great at it.  As if to make this week any busier she also had a voice recital.  Each year her voice instructor does a Christmas recital.  Kate performed "Here comes Santa Claus".  She did a great job especially since we didn't have a lot of practice time with all the nutcracker rehearsals.  As soon as she performed her song it was off to the opening night performance of the nutcracker.  Kate had for performances total. 

Being in the nutcracker was something that my sister Karyn had the opportunity to do, but I never did make it.  Back then it was just Ballet West that did nutcracker's and the competition was pretty tough.  Being in the nutcracker would have been an experience I would have loved to have had.  I'm glad Kate was able to do something so magical.  I hope she will be able to have this experience again next year. 

 Here is Kate's Ornament group closing night.  We discovered that one tradition with Clytie's nutcracker is that all the girls give a small gift to each girl in their group.  We found this out two days before the closing night.  So we had to scramble to think of something to give the girls.  With ten girls in her group it was like Kate had Christmas all ready.  She even had one little girl give out a nutcracker.  I told her thank you so much, and she replied "yeah, my Mom goes over the top".  I had to laugh because I'm imagining her picking up that comment from her father.  At least that is something Dan would say.  In this picture you can see each girl has a flower that matches their costume.  We were so lucky and we found a big bouquet of flowers at the store all in the exact same colors as the girl's costumes (blue, pink, purple, green, and yellow for the jokers).  I bought the bunch and took it home and individually wrapped them for each girl to take home.  They loved it. 

Haley's Baby!

Nice picture of Kate

 I took this photo of Kate just before a photo shoot I did of my sister in-law Haley's baby.  This was just a test shot, but I thought it really depicted Kate's beauty in a simple way.  She is becoming such a beautiful girl. 

Halloween 2013

BOO!  It was Halloween again, and boy do we have a lot of candy!  We have candy all over the house.  The kids have stashed their loot in their rooms, but it seems like wrappers pop up all over the house.  I think Jence is addicted to sugar, it seems like he has a knack at finding the kids candy, and always has a piece in his little hand.  This year we once again headed to Kid to Kid for their costumes.  I'd highly recommend checking out that place.  Kate had been doing some browsing on the Internet and picked out a 60's go go girl costume on line.  For the amount of money her costume would have costed I was able to buy all four of our kid's costumes at Kid to Kid.  The costumes look great and really they only wear them one or two times so it makes sense to buy them used.  Jence above was a Crocodile.  He looked so cute with the hood on but refused to wear it, I guess he didn't like the way it felt on his head. 

 Benjamin was Wolverine.  He loved that his costumes had extra padding for a really muscular look.  He's say look at my muscles mommy, I look tough.

Then Kirk decided to be an Army Guy.  He looked really cute in his camouflage.  He even had a gun that went with the costume, but it didn't make it into the photo. 

Kate was a 60's go go girl.  We got the costume at Kid to Kid for about eight dollars.  except for the boots.  Those I had to buy online for about $25.00.  Kinda expensive for a costume, but I rationalized that she could wear the boots to church, and school.  She could probably wear the hat too, it's pretty cute.

Here we are as a family.  I was the usual Cat girl.  I got these cat ears while I was in college. They have served me well as my go to quick costume.  Halloween is fun, it's one of my favorite holiday's.  Now if we can just get rid of the candy that is all over the house we can move onto the next holiday and  get more sugar!