Dress Rehearsal

Here they are - my dancing dolls! This will be Brenna's fourth recital and Molly's second so they have declared themselves old pros and today's rehearsal was a piece of cake. I managed to sneak in and video Molly's class performing and Brenna's tap number. I'll try to get those uploaded later.

Here is Molly's number - it's a cute song!

And here's Brenna. This was at the end of a 2-hour session and they look pretty pooped. She has a jazz number and a long finale dance as well. I'll try to tape those at the show on Saturday.

No School!!

There great rejoicing in our house today as the girls wound up with a bonus day off. A water main break on the street near the school left the building with no water.

So now we are left to decide what to do with some unexpected free time. The girls do have a dance dress rehearsal today at 4pm so whatever we do will involve Molly with her hair in rollers though!

Eww! This is not what I wanted to see in my backyard yesterday! Needless to say we had a little chat with the girls about what they should do if they encounter an extra "friend" in the yard while they are out playing!

All's well here and we're enjoying the warm weather over the holiday weekend. We were up at the pool today and ran into lots of folks we don't often see - other than at the pool! I think we're going to have a nice summer.

Molly had her "Step Up Day" at school yesterday. That's when all of the PreK (and the 9 students who will be coming to join them next year) visit the Kindergarten classroom and spend a few hours with the teacher there. Molly said it was lots of fun, "even if all we did was work, work, work. And do you know there's no tv there?!" Clearly she has some misconceptions about what type of activity will be expected of her next year! Her lead teacher will be a fabulous woman who was the secondary teacher (there are 2 in every class) when Brenna was there. I'm excited to be back in that class again (sounds like I'm the one in school, huh?) Brenna will have her Step Up Day during her last week of school (she had Field Day yesterday). Word on the street is that there is a tremendous jump in expectations at Gr. 3 but she's not worried. Her teachers will be a team of two young women who work well together and seem to have a great rapport with both the kids and the parents. So as sad as we are to see this year coming to close, it's nice to end the year knowing what good things await for next year!

But I still don't like the snake . . .

Things are going swimmingly!

It's a busy week here with lots of activities and errands to run as the school year winds down. But in case we weren't COMPLETELY crazy before now, we went ahead and signed Brenna up for our pool's swim team. Well, it's only the beginner squad but she's excited. Last year we couldn't have paid her to try it but this year she was very excited. They hold practices every weeknight from 4:30-5:15 from now through July but luckily the kids aren't expected to be there every time. Thank God because with school still in session and other activities still going on, she'll probably make less than half of them over the next 3 weeks! She won't swim any meets this year but it will still be a good experience. Most of her friends swim on other teams which I think was what encouraged her to go for it.

Things are starting to wind down. Yesterday was the last "official" dance class for both girls although Brenna has another special class and both have a dress rehearsal next week. Girl Scouts finishes up with a meeting this week and a luncheon next week. Irish dance has a show next week. Her teacher for that wants her to compete this summer but I can't commit to bringing her to Virginia each week for extra classes. Oh and we have four birthday parties between June 4th-8th.

Next week is Molly's last week of school and Brenna has one left after that. Here comes summer!!

A Special Goodnight

Tonight Molly and her best buddy Francesca had a special treat. Back in March at the school auction, our families won a "Bedtime Tuck In" with their PreK teacher (it was meant for 1 child but we split the price and the teacher was happy to do them together) Our girls simply adore this woman and we knew it would be a lot of fun.

So we all went over to their house and our families had a fun dinner together. (Francesca's big sister is very conveniently Brenna's best friend so our families are very intertwined!) Then Mrs. M arrived with cookies and milk and some special books (with wonderful inscriptions) for the girls. They played and giggled a while together before having their snack. Then it was up to bed where all three of them snuggled up for stories, prayers and lots of hugs and kisses. The funny part was when she asked the girls to say a bedtime prayer, Francesca launched into "Bless us O Lord, for these thy gifts . . ." I'm not sure Grace Before Meals is a proper bedtime prayer but I think they are just so used to saying it with her (they do it before snack and lunch every day) that it just popped out of them. Needless to say, that got a lot of laughs!!

How can you not love this picture? It's nice to know that in a world so scared of personal liability and such that we have such a wonderful school community with faculty willing to really get to know their families and have personal relationships. It was a special activity for the girls and one they'll look back on with nice memories for a long time.

Dance Recital songs

The theme of the show is "Movin' to the Movies" and every class is dancing to a song from a movie. Brenna will be in a tap number and a jazz number as well as the Finale. Molly will do only a ballet number. Given that the show is only an hour long (oh how I love this place better than the 3.5 hour show of the other studio we first tried!), that means we'll be filming most of it!

This is Brenna's song for the Finale. Dream Girls.wma All I know is that it involves tiaras and much posing! The funny thing is that the two classes performing with the oldest girls (teenagers) are Brenna's group (7-8 yo) and the other 6-7 year old class. Brenna's class has a very patriotic costume (she won't let me show anyone yet!) which should be okay but the other group is dancing to something from Pirates of the Carribean and their costumes are very "pirate wench" looking. That ought to be interesting for this number!

Her tap song is from the Molly American Girl movie. It's called "Victory Sisters" and it's quite long. The teacher's daughter dances in this class so their routines are always a step above in some ways. Sadly many of them can't keep up and it kind of ruins things. Brenna's been practicing though so I hope she remembers all her steps! Victory Sisters.wma

Her jazz song is sort of a swing version of "Yankee Doodle" and we don't have the music for that yet. I'm hoping she gets a copy soon because I know she needs to work on that a bit more. Same costume (another perk of this studio - no huge costume fees!)

Molly is dancing to a song from Charlotte's Web (and old version though, not the newer movie) called "There Must Be Something." 01 Track 1.wma It's really precious. It's about being friends which is especially nice since 8 of the girls in the dance class are also in Molly's PreK class at school.

It should be a cute show!

HAPPY MOTHER"S DAY!!

I have two very good reasons of my own to celebrate Mother's Day today. And my wonderful friends and family have many reasons of their own to celebrate as well. I think our pastor said it best at today's Mass when he blessed "all of the mothers, grandmothers, godmothers, aunts . . . everyone who loves another with a mother's heart."

So we say Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers who have touched our lives!

(And I know you'll all be jealous but I got breakfast in bed today. Brenna had already climbed in with me and Molly came running in with 4 granola bars, threw them in the bed and said, "This is all I'm allowed to make by myself!" But you know, it was the best granola bar I've ever tasted!)

Spring Concert

Friday night was the girls' Spring Concert at school. The Christmas Concert was canceled because their music teacher passed away very unexpectedly just 2 weeks before the show so this was their one chance to perform a concert this year.

Naturally it was adorable, the kids were fabulous and everyone's pictures came out too dark in the church but a good time was had by all.

(Feel free to comment on Miss Molly the poser. She's a total diva these days! She made a comment that it was good to be the youngest in the family "for lots of good reasons and only one bad one. When you're the youngest you're always the last one to get everyone else's clothes!" Mind you she gets more new clothes than any other second child I've known. She's a diva and she's spoiled!!)

Hanging at the Park

The weather has been beautiful and the girls have spring fever in a big way! Luckily we live right near a few great parks so we've been trying to get out and play a bit after school whenever we can. It's also "birthday season" and each of them has several parties during April/May. Add to that the myriad of school events, scout activities and dance classes/rehearsals and we are one busy family these days.

Last week Brownies for Brenna was on Monday instead of Friday. Except that Monday is also her dance class. But dance class also has a makeup class on Thursday. Whoops, Thursday is already booked for Irish dance class. That's okay because there's also a dance rehearsal next Sunday and the following Tuesday as well. Too bad that Tuesday is also the Brownie picnic. I'm really glad we limit her activities and we don't have soccer practices and games or something on top of all of this! Luckily Molly only has dance class. She didn't want to add another activity now but she's dying to do tennis in the fall. I don't know where the interest comes from for that but I think I'm going to have to get them a chauffeur or something. I can't keep up!

First Communion

It was a beautiful day - special in every way! The sun was shining (but not sweltering) and we had a nice lunch back at home afterwards with all of her grandparents and Auntie Krissy. Brenna was very excited and everything ran smoothly - except for one little girl getting sick (Brenna had to fill in and read this girl's part during Mass) and Molly getting pink eye. (Leave it to Molly to insert herself in some way into the festivities!)

Sunday it was back to church for the parish Mass (that's why her hair is up in some photos and down in others - too much activity!) where the kids sang their First Communion song again and took part in the May Procession to crown Mary.

I think she enjoyed her weekend and I know we're all very proud and happy for her! Nana and Papa headed home today (with a stack of photos of course!)

I have gazillions of pictures and will make up a nice one to mail to folks soon. I'll save some pictures for that, but here's a few from the weekend . . .

Brenna has something to show you . . .

Or actually to NOT show you!

Sure enough, that wiggley tooth finally popped out today. I think she was trying to hold it in until after First Communion, but it was not to be. She was playing a game with her friend today and a little bump sent it flying. Luckily the 3rd grade teacher was nearby and they found it and delivered it safely home in a Ziploc bag.



So now she has six permanent teeth in various states of growth. She looks quite like a jack o'lantern!! But the funniest part is listening to her talk.

Thee thounds tho cute!!