Tag Archives: recital

Crunch Time

December 16, 2012 Amy Leave a comment

Well, the last of our December weekend commitments have taken place and now I need to focus on baking, wrapping, delivering and enjoying.

Elliott had her Winter dance recital yesterday afternoon and we went to see The Nutcracker last night. This was our second year attending and I can tell that it would be something that I’d be so sad to miss each year. I love starting new traditions….thanks again Gramma for starting this special holiday habit!

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{post recital}

Elliott did a jazz/hip hop number to a spunky Jingle Bells tune. Gramma and I were the backstage mamas for the show and had 20 6-9 year olds to account for. Fortunately they are a little more self sufficient than the 4-6 year olds we attended to last year! Our girls danced 22nd so there was a lot of waiting around before they hit the stage. They did so well, though, and Elliott already has her trophy sitting proudly up on her desk surrounded by the others.

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{just a walkway was between us and the stage!}

Yesterday was Elliott’s special day and this morning we got to see Holden and his fellow 5 year old Sunday School friends sing “Soon and Very Soon” this morning at the end of mass. So precious….

He presented us with a special ornament for the tree after class. We were thrilled to have his sweet shepherd face on our ornament this year since last year there was a mix up with the packages and we got some other little boy’s ornament and were never able to get our hands on his.

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{these are the ornaments that I will cherish forever}

After church we went to take this boy to get a haircut! It had been six months since his mop had seen scissors…

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Just in time for Santa’s visit in about a week.

I have been looking forward to baking this week, but it’s a short week as far as school is concerned as the kids’ last day is Wednesday! There are two class parties, one Religious Ed party, teacher gifts and school staff gifts I need to get ready so I decided to get a start on the baked goods this afternoon. I pinned these Oreo lumps of coal and whipped up a batch this afternoon. Easiest things ever….I will definitely be making another batch with some peppermint Jo Jo’s from Trader Joe’s tomorrow! I bagged up about 5 pieces per person which I think is plenty to go along with the peppermint sugar cookie bars I plan to make tomorrow.

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{one package Oreos, 5 cups mini marshmallows, 4 tbsp. butter…process the whole package of Oreos into a fine powder. melt the butter and marshmallows in a sauce pan until blended. mix the marshmallow mixture into the Oreo mixture and spread into an 8X8 dish lined with parchment and sprayed with Pam. let sit for 10-20 minutes before cutting}

It’s also Gaudete Sunday ~ the third Sunday of advent…

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{rejoice!}

While our three candles were burning bright, I tried another Pinterest recipe, Lasagna Soup. The weather cooperated and it was the perfect night for this soup…

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{stir the ricotta/parmesan mixture and basil into the soup for out-of-this-world flavor!}

I will definitely be making this again for Christmas Eve with some crusty bread on the side for dipping.

*****

I hope that you had a beautiful weekend doing all things holiday. I definitely stared at Elliott and Holden a lot and thanked God for giving them to us and bringing them home safely each day.

Prayers for Newtown and our broken world going up again tonight…..

Have a blessed week, friends!

XOXO

Family

Messy Bun

June 9, 2012 Amy Leave a comment

Yesterday was one of those moments as a parent that I will never forget…

I had to take Holden to LA and sat in traffic on a Friday afternoon for nearly 3 hours. Meanwhile Elliott had an on stage dress rehearsal…fortunately Jay had the day off and my mother-in-law is here so the two of them got her in full costume, make-up and a “messy bun” on the left side. Apparently there were lots of tears when doing the bun ~ it wasn’t messy enough. Miss Mechelle said it had to be messy, so that is how it needed to be!

We got to the high school auditorium just minutes before they went on stage to rehearse. Needless to say my nerves were frazzled and I was stressed out.

But, she looked ADORABLE. Better than any hair or make-up I would have done.

She has been relentless in practicing this dance at home. We downloaded the song to our iTunes library, I videoed her in class and she has been perfecting her moves for weeks now. I love that she loves dance. This will be her first hip hop/jazz routine as she just this year transitioned over from 2 years of ballet, tap and jazz. She is very sassy and enjoys the upbeat tempo of the music more in this genre. I admire her for wanting to try different styles of dance to find her comfort zone, although she isn’t quite ready to try my favorite, lyrical. “The music makes me sad”, she says. I know the more she dances she will understand the beauty of these {sad songs} and may want to tryout this style, but for now I am more than thrilled, over the moon, ecstatic the she is attacking hip hop and jazz and owning the stage. I could NOT be more proud and she hasn’t even performed yet!

Today is her big recital and I cannot wait to be screaming for her out in the audience…yes, I am one of {those} mamas!

You take your messy bun and go get ’em, Elliott!

We love you, sequins and all!

Family

Trophy

June 12, 2011 Amy Leave a comment

Our little tapper/ballerina performed in her third recital yesterday.

Each time she becomes more confident & more graceful.

As I was spraying up stray hairs, resecurring bobby pins and retouching lip liner & sparkly gloss, she kept saying, “C’mon, I need to go backstage!”

{sorry for the teeny tiny picture…I snagged it off Facebook [thanks, Julianne!] and can’t get it sized any bigger, but you get an idea of how darling she looked}

She’s so proud of her trophies. The first one broke 4 hours after she got it, was repaired and is now broken again. The second one crashed and burned last week, but so far this one is still standing. We’ll get the other two patched up and display all three {high} up away from little 4-year old boy hands.

She may be proud of her plastic trophies, but we’re even more proud of the tiny dancer she’s become.

Here’s to many more toe taps, shuffle steps, jazz hands, grand jetés, pliés, chassés, pas de bourrées and hopefully trophies that stay in one piece.

Family

Up On The Housetop

December 18, 2010 Amy

We were up bright and early today for Elliott’s holiday dance recital.

They have 3 shows throughout the day and why do we always get the early one at 9am?

This time I did things differently and didn’t stress…we used the foam rollers and I put them in her hair before she went to bed last night and I skipped the mascara because we already determined that 5-year olds and mascara don’t mix.

She did a tap number to “Up On The Housetop”. I won’t bore you with a gazillion and one pics, but here is a cute one of her on stage:

Last night at the dress rehearsal her teacher, Miss Sandra, told me “she’s a natural”. Awwwww….yes, I am a proud mama!

{Plus look at the precision here…she’s right on count with the leader girl! OK, done bragging!}

The whole show was DARLING. The 3-year olds are too much….I almost pee in my pants from laughter because they really are too precious ~ each one doin’ their own thing.

Jay and I agreed that our fave {aside of UOTH, of course} was the lyrical piece….Jay will admit that he loves to watch lyrical. When I am glued to So You Think You Can Dance, I always joke with him, “Here’s a lyrical routine.”

Is 40 too old to learn lyrical? Maybe that can be my goal for 2011.

Hmmmmm. That wouldn’t be pretty.

Maybe I should just stick to half marathons.

Getting back to our superstar…here she is receiving her trophy from Miss Erin:

And here she is with a special guest:

Our tiny dancer:

{Please pardon the Starbucks trash}

We’re so proud of you, Elliott!

We sure think you can dance!

XOXO

Family, Fiestas & Fetes, Friends, Fun

5-Year Olds And Mascara Don’t Mix

June 13, 2010 Amy 6 Comments

Yesterday was Elliott’s first dance recital.

Another big milestone. I’ve been excited about it ever since I ordered her costume in February!

Her little class was assigned to the 9:00am show ~ yes, 9am on a Saturday! That translates to getting up real early which for me is fine because I do it every morning, but for a 5-year old who went to bed at 11pm the night before….it’s not fine.

She had an 8:30 check-in so I worked the timeline backwards in my head and decided she needed to be up around 6am. I know, I’m overly conservative with stuff like this. I don’t like to rush so I figured I needed plenty of time to curl her hair, apply her “make-up”, make sure all the ducks were in a row before I dropped her off with the backstage “babysitter” (who she later told me was Grandma Jean).

Needless to say, she was less than thrilled by her 6:15am wake-up call (I let her sleep in!).

After we successfully, yet not painlessly, got all the rollers in, we applied a little Mac StudioFix:

…some eyeshadow and mascara:

With each cosmetic would come more pouting and whining.

Once everything but the lipstick was applied, I told her “Now whatever you do, don’t touch your face” and turned my back for 20 seconds to grab the hairspray.

Well, what do crazy tired, grumpy kids do?

RUB THEIR EYES.

RIGHT AFTER PSYCHO PAGEANT MAMA JUST APPLIED THE MASCARA!!

Seriously, I went into scary pageant mama mode for a brief sec and I am not at all proud…

I jumped up and down (apparently that was my first involuntary reaction) and yelled, “What are you doing? You just totally messed up your mascara!”

I know. I know. Terrible Mom award right there.

Well, that made her tear up and make things worse.

So, I took a deep breath, grabbed some Q-tips and went over and told her that I loved her and that we will just pile on the blush and lipstick last minute and everything will be OK.

Honestly, I felt so stupid by the way I reacted. Jay witnessed the whole thing. I SOOO could not be a pageant mom.

I just wanted everything to be PERFECT.

And it was…