days 147-153

day 147....
.... it was late, I realized that I had taken a photo yet that day.... went into Clara's room with my phone, hoping to snap a quick little sweet sleeping picture... instead, found her up building a "portable lego house".... sigh.

day 148....
.... another late night, another day without a photo.... so I snapped a quick photo of what was on my nightstand with my phone.... The Red Pyramid (Alex's book but he said I could read it first since he was heading to camp) and the ID card Clara made me so I can enter her room.

day 149....
... our friends hosted a last bash before camp... the kids had a blast! After playing in the sprinkler a while, they decided to have an art sale. This is the buzz after the announcement that "customers are coming!" had been made. They did end up making $11, which shocked us all! Given that there were nine kids with varying levels of involvement in the whole venture, they opted to give the money to a charity versus try to figure out a way to split it.

day 150....
....Bike the Drive. Clara's first year. She had never ridden 15 miles before so she struggled a bit. Jeff said that she complained the entire way to the turn around point and then was good after that. (Jeff took this photo for me)

day 151...
.... the absolutely fabulous City Museum in St. Louis (more photos to come in another post).

day 152....
.... dropping the kids off at the bus to camp on one bright, sunny day!

day 154...
.... first day without the kids was a "me" day... hair cut and color, then a pedicure :-)

days 140-146

day 140....
... the ponytail holders the girl made for her cabin-mates at camp. (somewhat amused that spell check wanted to change cabinmates to "cab inmates")

day 141...
.... hockey dominates our TV lately (phone)

day 142...
.... Jeff and his new bike.

day 143....
.... dance friends after the recital (I really love this photo!)

day 144...
.... cottonwood tree fluff everywhere... it looked like snow! (phone)

day 145....
... Alex basking in the glow of a Cubs' victory at Wrigley Field!

day 146....
... the new do.... man, is it SHORT but it is soooo CUTE!!! (and will be so much easier for her to manage at camp)

spring recitals.... a retrospective :-)

A friend of mine had a suggestion for a blog post the other day.... a collection of Clara's spring recital photos over the years. So, after getting lost in old photos for several days, I finally focused, located her recital photos and narrowed the collection down to a few to post.

First up....

3 year old Clara.... May '05
She was in a pre-ballet/tap combo class in Texas. They did one number... a tap dance to Patty Cake, Patty Cake. They sang AND danced.... but as you can see from the photo below....
.... Clara was a little more interested in belting out the song at times!

Clara with her roses....



4 years old.... May '06

Still in Texas but at a new studio due to the previous one relocating further away from our house.

She was again in a pre-ballet/tap combo class... but this time they did two dances in the program. If you couldn't tell from the big yellow dress, their theme was Beauty and the Beast.

They did their tap dance to Be Our Guest...
and ballet to Tale as Old as Time...

5 years old.... May '07

We made the move to Chicago mid-year so we rushed to find her a dance studio so she would be able to be in a spring recital (this was big because her studio in Texas was already ordering costumes and she was really sad about moving and missing the recital with her friends).


This time the pre-ballet class was not a combo.... just ballet...


6 years old.... May '08

Yet another dance studio. This time we made the move because this one was within walking distance from our house. She was in four pieces.... two ballet, one character and one jazz. I only took photos of two costumes.

Character...


and one of the ballet...
I didn't take any stage photos. The whole thing was a MESS!! The other two costumes where frightening.

7 years old... May '09

New dance school again. This move prompted by the chaos of the last place. It had been a mess all year but the recital was probably the final straw. It really is sad when I (who LOVES to take photos) couldn't even bring myself to take photos at the recital.

So, we made a change, trying out two new dance schools in the fall of '08... she dearly loves them both and she's still dancing at both places. One place does not have recitals, so her recital photos are just from one school.




I didn't add this year's photos to this post just because they're in the post right below. We love both places she dances at right now... we have no plans to change again... however, at some point she will probably have to choose just one of them. Until that day.... she'll continue to do both!

dance recital

Yesterday was Clara's spring dance recital.... she so looks forward this every year.

She loves hanging out in the dressing room with her friends...
.... and the thing I love is that these truly are her friends and as a bonus, the moms are my friends as well. This particular group is very close. The girls get along beautifully and work well together. This group of moms is made up of moms that always stay during class, so we sit and chat together each week. We've gotten to know each other well and all enjoy each others company. It is truly a special group to be a part of.

Anyway... enough mushiness... back to the photos...

The ballet piece Clara was in.... When the Sun Comes Up...



The character piece for her Saturday class.... the Mazurka....

And finally, her favorite... the Tarantella....



(need to re-edit this one.... it is the lone photo I edited last night and I clearly wasn't thinking straight)

Clara with her flowers that Alex picked out....
I have another post recital photo that I love.... Clara with a couple of her friends from class... but I'm saving that for my photo of the day post (when I get around to it).

After the recital, we went out to dinner with dance friends and their families. It was a really wonderful day!

recital costumes

It's almost recital time again! Clara now has all of her recital costumes in her possession, so we decided yesterday was a good day for a few quick photos. Especially since her teacher makes the costumes and reuses them... photos have to be done before the recital since the costumes are returned immediately after the performance.

First up....
.... the Mazurka.

Followed by her favorite dance and costume.... the Tarantella....


... and finally the costume for the ballet piece she's in....

Now I can't wait to see her up on stage!