Chellisms

Take One

 

Yesterday was a very long day. Bailey had the dress rehearsal for her year end ballet performance, Sleeping Beauty. She is a member of the Royal Court and opens the show.

Her class is made up of six girls, including herself, and they are partnered up off and on through out their dance. Their teacher left after Saturdays regular rehearsal for a summer long trip to PA leaving them without an instructor. Last night they were short one girl, the missing girl is someone else's partner in the beginning of the dance and Bailey's partner at the end of the dance. They also intertwine around each other three different times during the dance, I can't explain it I just know that the girls are mixed up missing one person.  Needless to say things did not go well.

We were at the Performing Arts Center from 3:30 to 8:30, we were actually released at 7:45 but since the girls actually only got to run through their dance once with no instructor help and had no idea what to do being short one person I cornered an instructor and asked her if it was possible that the girls could go over their dance again with a bit of help. You know, since Thursday is the performance and they don't know how to do the dance being one short. They got to run through it one more time with someone reading instructions off of a piece of paper. The dance was better the first time. The school has a strict policy that if you don't make it to a dress rehearsal you will not be allowed to do the actual performance, this does not bode well.

As a parent I am extremely irritated. I completely understand the teacher's situation and why she is spending the summer in PA. The school should have compensated for that, there are several other instructors who could have, should have, stepped in and pointed the girls in the right direction. I realize the girls are 7 and don't expect perfection, far from it. I expect and hope for her to have a good time and to learn ballet, something she absolutely loves. She was not loving it last night, none of the girls were.

The hard part is that Bailey loves her teacher. I am undecided about next year. The school is across town, about 30 minutes from the new place. There is a pricier more established school closer, much closer. The closer school is about 2 1/2 times as much per month and the classes are twice a week opposed to once a week but I think she will learn more.

Yes, I am seriously considering paying quite a bit of money monthly to keep her in ballet. Ballet is her thing. She loves it and is serious about it, even at 7.

I just have to make sure I can work a soccer schedule around it. Sometimes having a husband who works swing shift sucks donkey butt.

House Hunting

I guess if the area is good enough for this mama and all of her babies it is good enough for us.

Girlies

I have been meaning to post a picture of Taylor's new haircut but got sidetracked by Tim's colon. Ew, I know.

 

I had my doubts about letting her cut off that much hair but, eh, it's just hair. And it went to a good cause, this was her third hair donation. The childs hair grows incredibly fast and she has a ton of it.

When we went to see Joseph she knew exactly what she wanted. Joseph promptly talked her out of it. She wanted it cut right below her ears, all one length. I love that man. With the thickness of her hair she looks a bit mushroomy with it that short. He managed to persuade her that layers were the way to go. This is the first time ever, with the exception of bangs, that her hair hasn't been all one length.

I love to take a flat iron to it and a little texturizer and make it a little messy but she gives me the stink eye and flattens it back to how she likes it. One of these days...

Hoe Down, The Recap

Taylor and her fellow 3rd graders and the 4th graders have been learning how to square dance as part of their PE class at school. On Friday night the school held a Hoe Down where the families were invited in to learn the dances with the kids.

Taylor immediately knew that between her father and I she was way better off with her father. Hey she's one smart cookie.

 

While the instructor was reeling out directions the younger siblings sitting at my feet were watching the test group dance and laughing their little butts off. They were funnier than the dancers. Just wait, their turn is coming.

 

Bailey soon discovered that she wanted in on the action. She found a few different partners, but she tells me that Byung was her favorite.

 

Hey, Taylor's group scored the highest in the PE class for square dancing. Maybe she has a future filled with a petticoat and gingham? Oy. At least she had fun.

Hey, we live in the Pacific Northwest. Rain and all that, kind of limits their outdoor activity, they also ride unicycles! Okay, some of the kids ride unicycles. The kids got my coordination skills and haven't mastered it yet.

What? Don't look at me like that.

Drunk Baking

I have to admit that I was a bit jealous when I read Tammie's post about all of the holiday candy making that she did over the weekend with her family.

Her post prompted me to e-mail mom and Ashley and set-up a baking day of our own. On the agenda we have, 3 batches of each of the following:

Pioneer Woman's Rum Cake

Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls, we are making 1 batch of these as it makes 7 pans

Pioneer Woman's Chex Mix

Peppermint Bark

Pumpkin Bread

English Toffee

Cookie Dough Balls

Divinity, plain and cherry

Peanut Brittle

Fudge

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Crunchies, this one will need a walk-through for anyone other than Ashley, Deb and I but they are so yummy. Edit: These are actually called Rosettes and the directions with purchasable tools can be found here. My recipe is a bit different but you will have to wait for that.

 

These are just most of the ingredients. I still have to grab the dark rum, milk, 2 lbs of white chocolate, more chocolate chips and a couple of odds and ends.

We are calling it drunk baking because, well, Ashley plans on being drunk while she bakes. I like to bake, Ashley not so much. I figure she can just sit at the bar and watch. And drink.

Drunk baking, it's what we do best. I hope.

Jeepers, Creepers, Somebody Got My Peepers!

They are only for reading at this point but I anticipate that she will eventually need them for everyday use. You can't tell in this pic but her frames are a cute brown and aqua color, very cool.

Snow Angels

We had our first snow of the season last night and to my surprise it was still here when we got up this morning. The girls were more than anxious to get out there and play in the couple of inches that we had.

That dark line down the middle of the street? Solid ice, you could skate down it. I may have tried and I might try and pass myself off as having mad skating skills but we all know I have mad ass busting skills.

Bailey got my mad skills. All of the stairs at the front of the house are completely frozen over.

A snowball fight soon commenced.

Taylor decided to sneak up on Bailey...

Revenge!!

And then someone spoke the magic words, hot chocolate. And the three of us headed back into the nice warm house and drank hot chocolate that had never tasted so good, well the Reese's peanut butter cups kinda helped too.

A Party Girl at 6

Since Bailey began taking ballet classes in September she has been looking forward to dancing in The Nutcracker. After many Monday, Saturday and some odd surprise rehearsals her performance was last night. Bailey was a Party Girl in the first scene. She did very well, except for the hair twirling. When she gets nervous she twirls a strand of hair on the right side of her head. Typically she wears a bun when she dances and it has never been a problem, last night the party girls wore their hair half up with the back down and curly. Perfect for nervous twirling.

   

While the girls were waiting backstage they were running around and basically all spun up. We had to check in by 3:15 and the performance wasn't until 7:30. I had never been to the theater where it was being held so I printed directions, ha, someone built a building in the middle of my street so it no longer went through and all the streets in that area are one way and it was slushing and I sat in a parking lot calling a friend to get another friends cell phone number for help (holy run on sentence, Batman!). The second friend didn't answer but I eventually figured out where I was and we made it about 5 minutes late and snuck in under the director's radar, thank the stars.

All in all she had a great time. Tim stopped on the way to the performance and got her roses, she was most surprised and excited. The best part about the school and the whole production is the way the older girls interact with the younger girls, the older girls have so much patience with them.

   

Now all she can talk about is the end of the year performance. Hey, at least with ballet we don't have to sit outside in the rain.

Oh, and before I get any nasty e-mail she has on lipgloss and mascara. Her cheeks are always that pink.

First Sleepover

Taylor had a friend sleepover this weeked, while she has been to sleepovers at Asia's house before we have never had Asia stay here. The girls stayed up watching movies until 11:30 and then went upstairs to bed. However, when Tim and I went to bed about 1:00 Taylor and Asia were still talking. I left them alone and let them wake up on their own in the morning. We saw them the next morning about 10 when they finally crawled out of their cave demanding food.

Who knew three girls could pack away that much Chinese food? And cinnamon twists the next morning, 3 of them are still missing. Is it a coincidence that there were 3 girls eating them? I think not.

Thankful

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and has overcome their turkey coma.

I am writing this in mid-December and back dating it to Thanksgivingish. I know that's cheating but I have a great picture to share that I had forgotten about.

Every time that we eat with the parents Pete threatens to lick his plate clean. My mom has a fit and gets mad at him. Since we had Thanksgiving at my house this year I told him that he couldn't leave the table after dessert until he licked his plate.

I think he just might have been in heaven. My mom on the other hand was not pleased with me, especially since I failed to capture the first lick on camera and made him re-lick.