bike the drive

Sunday morning Jeff and the kids got up early so the could participate in Bike the Drive.

Here are the kids out in the alley, ready to go at about 5:30 am....
Alex on the Drive....
and Clara....
It was a foggy, foggy morning (which changed to pretty major thunderstorms once they were home)...
Enjoying a snack at the turn around point by the Museum of Science and Industry...
And finally, some extremely unflattering photos of the kids enjoying the pancake breakfast back at Grant Park :-) ....

They LOVE doing Bike the Drive and look forward to it every year. This was Clara's second year and Alex's third. Given that they rode their bikes down instead of driving this year, they ended up riding around 25 miles yesterday morning!!! I'm so proud of them!!

days 118-122

day 118...
... icing the injured ankle :-(

day 119....
.... the first Friday of the spring where it was warm enough to get ice cream from the ice cream man after school!

day 120...
... a drawing of the main character of a new favorite book from the library.

day 121...
... ballet.

day 122...
... a post Minute Clinic treat of gummi butterflies (where the guy insisted that Clara could not possibly have strep and therefore would not do the test.... story continued with the next set of photos)

days 113-117

Today I'm not even going to bother with an excuse... I'm just going to start posting :-)

day 113...
... our car, loaded up and ready for the drive back to Chicago. We do most of the kids' camp shopping while in MO... so most of this is camp stuff.

day 114...
... sunrise service on the beach Easter morning!

day 115...
... fabulous chocolate chunk cookies from our neighbor!

day 116...
... Clara's art project. She's in an after school art program and LOVES it.

day 117....
... a little 2 player Plants vs. Zombies over breakfast before school :-)

recital photos... part II

Finally the last of the recital photos...

For some reason, I didn't get a single good shot of Clara's third dance piece. Not sure what happened there.

So, it's on to the Sicilian Tarantella..

....another favorite...

... as I mentioned before, I love the traditional folk dances.
Oh... and in case you recognize the costume...
... yes, she wore this same costume last recital.
In fact, this is the third time she's worn this costume...
... since they performed this same dance in a competition/showcase in the fall.

The boy after the recital...
... waiting to give his sister her flowers.

Clara and her friend...
Clara and her flowers...
Checking them out...

The girls and their flowers...
... before we all headed off to our traditional post-recital dinner together! I was done taking photos at that point so I just left my camera in the car. It was a great evening out with friends! This year we had our own private room at the restaurant which made things really nice.

And finally, the view of the city as we drove back toward home...
It was really a wonderful day! We had our doubts that it was all going to work out as Alex had two shows that day... the last one ending just one hour before Clara's recital (his show was downtown, her recital was in the 'burbs). This was going to be cutting it close but then we got the email reminding us that the cast members were supposed to stay to help breakdown the set. At first we thought about getting a sitter for Alex, but in the end, we opted to ask permission for Alex to leave right after his show. Clara rode out to rehearsals around noon with her friends. I rode with friends out to the recital a little later and then Jeff picked up Alex and drove out with him... arriving with about 5 minutes to spare before the curtain went up!! Thank goodness for good friends and good traffic!!

the recital photos... part I

Yesterday was the big year end recital for one of the places Clara dances. It's always a good time. Her one class is a pretty tight knit little group and they so look forward to this day together... since not only do they get to hang out all day together and perform, but we always go out to a big group family dinner afterward.

First up... the Waltz of the Flowers from Sleeping Beauty...
Yes, this is the dress that nearly cost Clara her life the day before. But as you can see...
... we got it clean!!! That's the side above that she skidded down the sidewalk on the day before.

My color casts are horrible on all of my recital photos (please forgive me!).

Next up... probably my favorite dance and costume of Clara's.... the Ukrainian Dance (Hopak... had to look it up on youtube).








She really really loves the traditional folk dances (to be honest, so do I)... I wish her teacher did more of them!

Now to work on the rest of the photos!

the pre-recital photos

Taking a quick break from my photo a day posting project.

Yesterday afternoon we made an attempt at taking some photos of Clara in her dance recital costumes. The weather was definitely NOT cooperating with us! It had been warm (actually hot) and summer-like a few days before... but yesterday it was cold (50's) and raining. But since it was our only option, we had to make an attempt.

The first costume, the Ukrainian Dance costume, went well....






I LOVE that costume! I also love that they do the traditional folk dances in her class AND that they have traditional looking costumes.

Next up was her costume for the Waltz of the Flowers...


Notice how there are only two photos (and no photos of her other two costumes). Right after this last photo, Clara got the brilliant idea to run up the sidewalk and leap. Not the brightest idea under the best of circumstances but yesterday the sidewalk was wet and slick. I was just walking behind her so I saw the whole thing go down. She tripped as she came down, slipped and slid down the sidewalk on her side. Her pure white costume had a big wide stripe of dirt and grass stain down the side. I was nearly ill. Her teacher is crazed enough on recital day without adding this to the mix. So, we rushed in and immediately set to trying every stain removal technique we could find. Finally, by bedtime, we had accomplished our goal and had erased (almost) all of the traces of the "accident". Thank goodness it was only dirt and she hadn't hurt herself or ripped the costume! Hopefully I'll get some photos of the other two costumes when she's on stage today!