Dance recital

WHAT a fun day!! Paige's dance year came to an end and there was a major recital at Hamilton Place.  Hamilton place is a huge theatre with 2 balconies.  Big time.  I had to bring Paige to the theatre for 11:00am for the dress rehearsal in full costume, hair and (minimal) makeup.  I'm so happy that I got to watch the rehearsal as I was able to videotape it with my phone.  For the actual evening performance, cameras were not allowed.  In the video below Paige is on the far right.  Doesn't she look so cute??

I definitely got to live vicariously through Paige.  I always wanted to dance as a kid.  Not at Paige's age, but a bit later when I had seen a few friends dance at their recitals.  Well, I did do musical theatre for 6 years or so, but never had a pair of ballet shoes.  sniff.

In addition to seeing Paige's routine, I got to watch a few other classes rehearse their numbers, including a huge opening number of 67 dancers. I've never wanted to be 15 years old again so badly.  All the energy, flexibility, and fitness. I felt very old.

Anyway, after the rehearsal we went home for a few hours.  Paige and I relaxed while watching a movie, just to be low key.  At 5:00 Amanda came over to babysit Rose and Scout, followed by James a bit later (decided to leave Rose at home and enjoy Paige's dance fully). We powered back some pizza and went through the same motions again of costume, hair, makeup, and back to Hamilton place. Right away we dropped off Paige, met up with Mary Jo, who came to watch the performace, bought Paige a flower, rand then got our seats.  Paige's routine was number 4. Even with the 1000 people or so sitting in the auditorium, Paige did the same great job that she did in her rehearsal.  So so so proud of her.  She had been scared of the recital for a few weeks, but she didn't look nervous at all. On the stage with her class was the class assistant to help them remember the moves.  Next year, if she decides to dance again, which she says she wants to, she'll be on the stage with only her class, and the teacher off in the wings doing the movements. 

We made it to the first intermission and decided to call it quits as it was already 8:00 ish and Paige said she was ok to go home.  We stopped for a quick ice cream at Baskin Robbins before heading home.

The dance schedule for next year comes out soon, so I'm going to look over it with her and see what she wants to do.  Some kids do more than 1 class, which she could do if she wanted to I guess.  We'll see what the schedule looks like.  She may go into Sparks as well. 





Scout update and Scout casualties...

Scout has been home for 4 weeks now.  So far she has ruined 2 balls (which we let her play with--her teeth punctured them almost instantly), and most recently, this book.  The book happened this morning when she jumped up and got it off the couch while I was brushing Paige's hair.  We didn't even notice.  Pretty good though I'd say.  But really, we don't leave toys lying around and she's not allowed in any of the bedrooms. Oh--a couple of dropped crayons have met their demise as well.

 I have to say, it's pretty hard work to keep one eye on her at all times, but will be worth it in the end.  Very very exhausted by the end of the day due to constantly being alert, as well as from her 5:00am wake up.  Her night time kennel disasters have stopped and now she sleeps right through from 9:00ish to 5:00am. We do wake her up once before we go to bed to take her out.  I actually enjoy waking up at 5:00 as it gives me lots of time to make Paige's lunch, read a bit, take Scout for her walk, and then have a shower when Scout has a nap at 7:00ish.

Paige is no longer scared of Scout and loves to play with her.  Scout in turn is very gentle around Paige and Rose...has even endured being poked in the eye, had Rose attempt to ride her, pulled by the tail, and pulled on the ears.   She likes to play bite me however, which is very frustrating.  Working on that.



Making progress.  Sleeping on shoes.  A few weeks ago these crocs and boots would have been toast.



We took Scout to the vet a few days ago for her booster shots.  She could possibly have a mild ear infection, which we have to reevaluate later, and does have an intestinal parasite (ew!), which is apparently common in puppies--have medication for this.  She weighed 18.6lbs. Going to the vet with Paige and Rose was both fun, and extremely not fun at the same time.  They thought it was a great place to act up and generally be ridiculous since no one was paying attention to them.  Poor girls, everyone wants to talk to the dog now...because who can resist a 3 month old lab puppy? Apparently no one.  When we go to the park about 20 people come over to pet her, which really takes my time away from the girls for the moment.   We are trying to train her to sit when people come over to avoid jumping when she is 70lbs. If I'm not there to supervise it gets crazy.  We tied her to a tree yesterday at the park last night while i pushed the girls in the swings.  I thought the barage of people was over so I left Scout to chew on ground material while i pushed the girls in the swings.  A few minutes later i look over and there is a girl on the ground on her back laughing while Scout is jumping on her and biting her hair.  The girl thought it was great and fun, but not really the message I want to send to Scout about what is acceptable! Now if you're thinking this sounds insane, it really is, but mike is away in chicago for 4 nights and I really have no choice but to go on 2 walks a day with all 3 girls.  Trying to train Scout to walk at my side nicely with a slack leash while Paige and Rose either run ahead, or dawdle along behind is really quite difficult. A little crazy! I can only imagine what it looks like...4 blondes spastic in the streets.