Monday, May 23, 2011

Introducing our "Tiny Dancer"



Saturday night was the Empress' third dance recital. The prior two were with a different dance studio that we left for several reasons. The new one....well, all I will say is, it is prestigious, expensive, and, well.... disappointing. The Empress loves to dance and ballet has been her favorite. This tickles me, as I loved ballet and danced for over 10 years. Her goal is the toe shoe. It is years and years away, but that is her motivation. Plus, she is very good. Has a lovely elegance about her dancing.


So, the disappointment. Well, shall we say that I paid a lot of money and I expect her class to at a minimum, know a very basic routine. Minus several minutes of "free dancing" on stage. For goodness sake, her program two years ago was 100 times better. I am not knocking my daughter here. She did all the moves perfectly. She was the only one. I had to tell her after the rehearsal to just focus on herself as she was whispering and pointing to the other little girls who were completely lost. Saturday she did great. Smiled and focused on herself. I was very proud of her.

Now, with that said, I do not want to continue with this dance studio. I have given the Empress several options: go back to the prior studio (which she loved), take a year off, try gymnastics, or taekwondo. The Empress immediately said that she would like to take a year off and try gymnastics. I agreed. But, she made it clear to me that she would only be taking a year off, then she would return to ballet.

Good. Feeling better. Glad she has another year of dance behind her. Looking forward to filing our Monday evenings with something a little more productive.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Muffins for Moms



Friday was a marvelous day. I got to go to school with the Empress. In celebration of Mother's Day, the Kindergarten did a "Muffins for Moms" day. She made me the most beautiful hat. Frankly, when I saw the hat, I was quite sad that I hadn't had it the week before for the royal wedding. I would have given those royals a run for their money in a lovely hat contest. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I would be able to model my hat for the Kentucky Derby. Oh, how I love "hat" events. Anyway, the Empress also made me a sweet card with pictures and we were able to start a project together that will be presented to T at the "Donuts for Dads" get together for Father's Day. Of course we also had muffins. Yum. I would have loved to spend more time at school with her. I was so fun.