Going, going gone!

Yesterday, Victoria cut her hair in order to donate it to Wigs for Kids.  We got about 9 inches of hair off her and she is super excited by her cute new style.  She's been wanting to cut and donate it for quite a while but I wouldn't let her until after her year end dance performance because pulling short hair back into a ponytail kinda sucks.  Now that dance is done we were ready to make this happen.  Jessica and the House of Carmond were great and charged us pretty much nothing since V was donating her hair, which was a nice surprise.  This was Victoria's first full-on hair salon experience and she was delighted (and a bit nervous) when Jessica washed her hair in the sink. She felt so fancy as Jessica snipped and shaved, added product and blow-dried.  Such a positive experience with a great end result.  

Pretty proud of my fantastic little girl.

Who loves to dance? We do!

Saturday was the girls' end of year dance show.  We had a technical rehearsal on Thursday, dress rehearsal on Friday and Saturday was the big show.  Due to the dress rehearsal, Friday night was a late night for us, with the girls not getting to bed until after 9:30.  The 2:00 show time on Saturday meant no naps to make up for the previous late night.  Boy were C & V cranky! By the time the show ended they were done.  D-O-N-E!  We were driving home with two crying girls who didn't even know why they were crying.  It was a long day with a lot of stimulation and their emotions were out of control.  That being said, during the show they were amazing.  Seriously amazing!  Caitlin was cute as a button during her number.  I can't say that she knew all her steps or even what she was supposed to be doing most of the time, but she was happy and dancing and an absolute joy to watch.  Her enthusiasm and excitement was so contagious that it didn't even matter what her dance moves were.  Victoria was also amazing, but in a different way.  It is incredible what a difference two years makes.  Two years ago Victoria happily danced on stage, performing without a clue as to what was going on, much like Caitlin did.  This year, she was a dancer for real!  She knew her moves and performed them in time to the music.  She was a leader and while I'll admit that my eyes didn't stray far from her for pretty much the entire performance, it seemed to me that she was one of the best dancers in the class (Mommy bias?).  I was so proud of both of them for getting up there on stage and doing their dances.

Dressing room smiles

On stage

Dance Craziness

We are full-on into dance season, with our year end show coming up on Saturday.  This means that we have tech rehearsal tonight, dress rehearsal tomorrow and then SHOW TIME!  The past week we have been busy with trying on costumes, getting used to dance hair and makeup, and fitting in some extra dance classes.  While I love seeing the girls dance and find the build up to the big show exciting, I have to admit that I am looking forward to not having dance for a few months once all this craziness is over. 

Born to Dance

Tap dancing Alley Cat

Faerie wings

Ballet Faerie 

Get Off the Couch...

Get on the floor. (Everybody walk the dinosaur?) This is something I love doing with my kids. It lets me play with them at their level instead of making them come to me. Sometimes I lie on the floor and let Caitlin crawl all over me. Other times, we all settle in for a living room picnic. We play with dolls, walking them through pillow parks and along blanket trails, making little doll beds out of those same pillows and blankets. We build amazing forts. We climb in boxes. We also find all the dust bunnies that aren't so visible from up above.

Girls vs Boys

Victoria likes to label the boys and the girls. "Daddy is a boy and Grandpa is a boy. You me and Caitlin are girls." Today I asked her how she knows who's a boy and who's a girl. She thought about it for a bit and said "girls drive cars and boys drive trucks. Boys go to work while girls stay home with the kids." Indoctrinating my daughter into the world of gender stereotypes? Check!

Eyelashes

Bedtime is my snuggle time with Caitlin. This is when the two of us head into her room to cuddle in the glider rocker. I get her tucked into her sleep sack and settled comfortably on my lap (we have a special arrangement of pillows that helps us out). We dim the lights and close the door. For these few moments, it is just the two of us. No older sister, no chores, no tv, no computer. Just the two of us, enjoying an amazing closeness. At first, she is a bit restless, sometimes sitting up, sometimes just trying to nuzzle into me, in just the right way. Slowly, she moves a bit less, though her little hands still grab at me, periodically, just to let me know she isn't quite ready to sleep just yet. For my part, I simply look at her. I look at the way her amazing red hair sits just perfectly on her forehead. The curve of her cheek, her button nose, her peachy-pink skin. The way her eyelashes feather across her butter-soft skin.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

I took this photo from our yard, last night after 6 pm sometime. It was a bit early but I figure it still must be good luck since it occurred less than 6 hours before St. Patrick's Day. You could actually see both ends, as well as the outer "double" rainbow and if I had been a bit more on the ball I bet I could have found that pot o' gold.