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Lucy's Dance Recital - Let's Celebrate!

On Saturday Lucy had her very first dance recital. And she was great!
Warning: tons of photos. This post is mostly for me to remember the fun night. Sorry for the overload!
Lucy was in the youngest group of dancers, but she was the oldest in her class and took it all really seriously. She wanted to make sure all the dance moves were correct. She even told me the day before the performance, "Mom, I need more help with the ballet dance! I don't know it all the way!" I ensured her there was nothing to worry about.

Lucy's class performed 4 dance numbers throughout the night. The first was a Mickey Mouse birthday song. They looked irresistibly cute in their Minnie outfits.
They came skipping on stage stage carrying birthday gifts.
Then they danced, looked cute, forgot the moves, remembered some moves,
and wiggled their tails from time to time. It was really, really cute.
And Lucy loved being just like Minnie (even the red lipstick. Though the eyebrow liner was a bit scary).
While Lucy's class changed for their next number, her school friend Nicole got up on stage for a Shirley Temple dance.
Seriously, how adorable is this sight:
I don't even know this little girl's name but what a doll!
The next number was "All the Little Children" and they sang and danced in party dresses (Lucy asked every girl in the room do you like my sparkly dress?)
The three-year-old girls weren't always interested in dancing.
There was a photographer backstage, taking group pics after each dance. Cheesy backdrop. But I liked piggybacking on her set-up.
The finale was with all the dancers, in their Let's Celebrate T-shirts (the theme of the recital)
The white gloves were cute.
But my favorite number was "Petite Ballerina".
This is the dance Lucy was worried about and honestly, she was the only one on stage that knew the entire dance. Pretty funny.
They all looked dainty just twirling, singing, and acting like ballerinas.
Here's a 1 minute video from the dance, jumping in mid-way in the dance (Lucy is 2nd from the left). Wait for about 10 seconds and it improves. I like how Lucy instructs another girl to move off stage afterward.

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My favorite moments of the night though were just watching the girls interact with each other.
It reminded me so much of my dance days and getting ready for play performance, with all the excitement and build-up of going on stage and performing. I could tell that Lucy really wanted to do her best. And she was also excited to see me afterward and ask what I thought about it.
These are two of her favorite friends from class, Katie and Aurelia.
These cute girls were from another dance class that combined with us for the performance night.
Lucy's got a lot of fun dancing years ahead of her!
And Owen was a good sport about it all. He's gone to every dance class rehearsal with me, hanging out in the waiting room, playing with toys and coloring. He and Casey came to the performance and had front row seats. Owen loved clapping for all the performances.
Good job little dancer!
Time to wash out that crazy Frida makeup. We went out to get a treat afterward (at uh, 7-11. Seriously, these kids are easy to please) and the checkout lady looked at Lucy kind of weird. I promise we're not the Ramseys.

Mother's Day 2011

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms!
We hope you enjoyed your day!

Our festivities started out early in the week when the kids brought home decorated flower pots and cute cards the kids brought home from school. They could have brought me a hand-drawn picture and I would have loved it all.
I'm so lucky to be a mom to these cute kiddos! Lucy's right eye is kind of red from a strange allergy she had that day. It's kind of funny to me that we've sealed that moment in history now.
At church today the kids sang the token Mother's Day song which I always love (even when I didn't have any kids!). And then they surprised us in Relief Society with cool corsages and funny "about Mom" pages. The only defining characteristic Owen could point out about me is that I have "2" eyes. I feel special. At least he doesn't know my weight.
We spent the weekend without Casey (he's in Virginia for business) but we made the most of it and actually had a lot of fun. On Saturday we went shopping, got sandwiches, saw Gnomeo and Juliet (really cute) and on Sunday we hung out at the house, had friends come over to play, went to the park, and I whipped up two super chocolately molten lava cakes. One for me; the other for me. Okay, I let the kids try one. They didn't get very far into it.
With Casey gone, I warned the kids this morning that since it was Mother's Day, there would be no fighting or whining among them. Haah. They actually did okay!
Lucy was a real sweetheart and kept reminding me all day that it was Mother's Day, giving me hugs, and saying I love you. It was very sweet.

And finally, we took our token Mother's Day pic together! Here's a look back at the previous Mother's Days....

2006
Lucy was only 3 months old and I remember that the night before Mother's Day she slept through the entire night. The best gift ever!

2007
Can there be a worse picture? We both need help.

2008
How we miss Casey's parents, their house, and the gorgeous bougainvillea.
Owen is 5 months old, Lucy is 2.

2009
More pretty flowers; more cute kids

2010
Texas! (and the boring cheap fence. I miss the bougainvillea). Owen is such a goof.

2011
5 year old Lucy and 3 year old Owen.

It's a pretty amazing job we moms get.....to watch our kids grow and teach them as best we can to be independent adults. What a cool occupation.