Julianna's 1st Ballet Recital

Julianna's very first dance recital was last Friday.  She has been going to class for months and the recital was finally here!  She got her costume weeks ago under strict instructions for it to hang in Mommy's closet.  Can't imagine why?  Finally on Thursday she got to wear it for dress rehearsal.

I had no idea how much goes into these things!  I was never a dancer (my sister was but I didn't pay that much attention).  When the teacher said they need to have their hair in a tight bun my stomach dropped.  What?  Have you seen Julianna's hair?  Wet hair and a LOT of hairspray worked like a charm.  She wouldn't take her hair down.

Friday night I think she was a little nervous but our neighbor was also in the recital so that helped.  She was excited to see Ella's costume.  Ella was very sweet and held Julianna's hand backstage.

The performance went well.  She smiled and did most of the right stuff.  They each had a partner that they danced around.  Julianna's was pretty clueless so Julianna kept telling her she was not doing it right.  But it was all as cute as you can imagine.  At some point they give out a video of the entire recital.  Parents are not allowed to take pictures or video.  It's awesome!  You can just focus on your kid and not getting the perfect picture.  However, I did take a video of the rehearsal.  It's a little crazy and the lighting on Julianna is not great.  I loaded it on my YouTube site.  She is in the back row first dancer on the left.  The one who keeps checking to see if she is on her green sticker.  We are very proud of our little ballerina and I am sure we have many, many, many more ballet recitals in our future

Thanksgiving

First I don't think I can talk about our Thanksgiving week with out saying WAR EAGLE! 

Around here the kids get out of school for the entire Thanksgiving week.  So I try to do fun stuff.  They always, always, always pick Chuck E Cheese.  We also went to a trampoline place called Champion Kids.  Grace was sliding down into a foam pit.  I can't believe what a little daredevil she is!

Finally on Wednesday Aunt Lyndsay came to visit.  She was up bright and early to run the Atlanta half marathon.  Of course that morning was the coldest day we have seen in a while!  25 degrees is not normal for us!  But Jake and I braved the cold to cheer Aunt Lyndsay to her finish.  We were very proud of her!

For Thanksgiving dinner we decided to split the meal with our neighbors.  It was so nice to pop down the street and only make half the meal!  And the kids played and had a great time.  Grace ate 3 helpings of corn, some turkey and kept coming back for a bite of roll.  She is just too cute! 

Finally to wrap up the weekend we went in search of the perfect tree.  3 Christmas tree lots later we found it.  Jake was so excited.  He loves to get the christmas tree!

Yesterday we decorated the tree.  Brian was a little late so I thought it would be a good time for a photo shoot.  Sometimes they just all smile at the same time and I catch it.  I love a cute pajama picture!