Skating as the sun goes down

"The Christmas Dream"

We signed Ava up for dance classes at The Edge Performing Arts Studio in the fall. She wanted to take ballet and tap. Special ordered tap and ballet shoes later she went to her first class. After the first couple of classes they started practicing for the BIG "Christmas Show". I started to hear other parents talking about last year's Christmas show being 2 hours in length with practices every day for a week before the show. I started to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into. As the months went by we received a practice schedule for THE SHOW. Sure enough, 3 hour practices five days in a row plus two "shows" on Saturday. Yikes. For a 4 year old? How would she handle that schedule? Would she be a tired little wreck by the time the actual show came around?

Another month passed and we got our bill for THE SHOW costume. $50.00. A Wizard of Oz "Dorothy" costume still clearly marked $20.00 from Target. Gulp.

Finally, we entered the week of practice. Low and behold, Ava was fine with the schedule. Her mother was not. Screaming kids everywhere. Practices that started a solid hour after they were to begin. Older dancers throwing out f bombs around the little kid classes. Noise, noise and more noise. I am positive I sent out multiple text messages to friends to "bring alcohol", "bring sharp objects", or both, during the hours spent on the 1980's sectional next to the pile of sweaty dance gear.

The day of the show Ava was very excited. She put on her beautiful dress and we carefully applied black eyeliner, mascara and bright pink blush. What a cutie pie. We arrived an hour and a half before the first show, as required, and waited an hour for something to happen. A half an hour before show time the kids were rounded up and stuffed backstage. I spent the next hour worrying that Ava was scared or lonely or crying backstage. The show started a solid twenty minutes late because someone was parked in the fire lane and we couldn't start until the offender moved her car (with North Dakota plates no less). After multiple pleas an elderly lady in front of us stormed off grumbling under her breath. FINALLY the show was about to start.

The show itself was pretty amazing. Dane was speechless.

Ava's portion was about 65 seconds long. I refuse to calculate how much time and money was spent per second, but the thought did cross my mind. The experience was priceless for Ava though. She took the stage (albeit for a SHORT TIME) in front of 150 people. That takes some serious guts. But, I think we'll try a different activity after the new year!

Proof 2009

Proof

2007

2008

The Amazing Cheese Stick Tradition

This could possibly be the strangest birthday tradition ever. I didn't plan it. It just sort of happened. When Ava turned 1 we happened to take her to Applebees. We figured a cheese stick would be a good match for a big 1 year old and we snapped a shot of her nibbling on it. Every year since we have braved the inevitable cold on December 15th and sat down at Applebees for the obligatory cheese stick picture. Tonight will be no exception. Some day I will create a scrapbook for Ava that contains every silly cheese stick picture and every birthday we were blessed enough to share with each other. Family rocks.

The Best Present Ever

Ava's Party

Last week it was 10 below zero and we were starting to wonder if the snow princess sledding party was going to turn into the "yeah! let's all play in the basement" party. Today the sun was shining and at 1:00 it was nearly 25 degrees. Jason set up his fishing house in the park across the street and stocked it with little kid chairs and a propane heater (which we never needed because it was so warm). He drug the firepit from the backyard into he driveway and stoked a fire.

When the girlfriends arrived we hit the hill. I was so impressed! I lost count of how many times we skipped up and skidded down that hill. After about an hour some of the girls were crawling to get up the hill so we called it quits and went inside for hot cocoa and princess cake. Ava felt like a million bucks today. What a blessed little girl.