Madeleine's Recital

On Sunday, we celebrated Madeleine's first year of dance with her recital. It was fabulous - exactly what you thought a small-town dance studio's recital would be. Madeleine's class is the 4-5 year olds, and their ballet and tap routines were also exactly what you thought they would be. Madeleine did very well, considering she's the youngest in the class and sometimes has trouble focusing. She spent a lot of her dances watching the other girls, and did okay with the steps, and got lots of direction when it was time to move from the girls on either side of her. Gramma and Granpa, Kelly, Grandma C, Aunt Laura with Nathan and Kaitlyn all came. Shannon was able to get home in plenty of time from Oklahoma City, in spite of a canceled flight, thanks to a generous priest who drove him the 8 hours home. Afterwards, we went to Bonkers to spend time with Shannon's family and celebrate.

Getting ready!






Watching the big girls practice their tap routine at the dress rehearsal. I took all my pictures during the rehearsal so I could get closer without disturbing the other families.

Madeleine, second from the left, sitting with the rest of her class.

The ballet routine was called "An American Wedding". I don't know why - the music wasn't especially wedding-ish, except for a few bars of the wedding march from Midsummer Night's Dream, but it was cute, short, and simple. Madeleine is third from the right.

The tap routine was to "This Land is Your Land". She did better with the steps with this routine, but had issues remembering where she needed to be when. The other girls were very helpful and kind of pushed her around the stage until she got where she needed to be. She's second from the right in this photo.

Again, second from the right, but in front now.

A rare synchronized moment in the routine.

This land is made for you and me! As a side note, the day after her recital, she was fighting with Noah over a cardboard diaper box they had been playing in, and she pushed him out, saying "This land was NOT made for you and me, Noah!".

Final pose!


The actual curtain call. Madeleine is fourth from the left, I think. The Senior Dance Corps members are mostly teachers and demonstrators, and they were the ones to herd the dancers around and get them on and off stage, which was nice, then a parent didn't have to do it.

The gave all the dancers medals with the logo for the recital on it. Madeleine thought she had won an Olympic Gold Medal!!! She kind of looks like an ice skater in these pictures, with the costume, the flowers, and the medal.

At Bonkers with Nathan.

The day after, she dressed her brother in both costumes. Here they are, taking their own private curtain call. I'm going to be in big trouble in about 10 years for taking these pictures.

A close up of Madeleine's recital roses. I was playing with the macro setting on my new camera.

Hockaday Park

Earlier this month, we packed a lunch and headed into town for some park time. We usually go to the "plastic park" in front of Bush School, but this day we decided to go to Hockaday Park. Some of you will remember the old "Cowboys and Indians" theme the playground had - the concrete fort, the metal teepee and stage coach. I don't know when that stuff was removed, probably years and years ago, but it has been replaced by much more PC and liability-reduced playground, featuring ADA accessible equipment, rubber matting, and a small rock climbing wall.

Dance class open house

This week was spring open house week for Madeleine's dance studio. The parents were invited into the last 30min of class and the girls did their tap and ballet routines for us. My squirrelly girly Madeleine did fairly well - having myself and the other parents there was very distracting for her. She's also the youngest in the class, the other girls are older and have all taken dance before. All things considered, she knew the routine, even if she didn't always turn the right way! They also handed out the recital costumes on Wednesday, which was terribly exciting for all the girls. The recital is May 3rd at 2pm at Champ Auditorium in Fulton.

The ballet routine is called "An American Wedding", and the girls are all little brides. You should see the costume - it comes with a veil and everything and is Madeleine-tastic.

The tap routine is set to Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land". It's actually a pretty cute routine, as is the ballet. Very simple and seems appropriate for 4/5 year olds. The costume is a sweet little red tap dress - it's adorable and Madeleine looks beautiful in it.

div>

Tub Time

The kids play mostly very well together in the bath tub. There's usually a couple fights over the faucet, a toy or two, and who splashed who, but for the most part they do well and enjoy playing together. They love bubbles, and think its especially funny to give themselves bubble beards.

Slainte mhath!

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day early with Mom and Dad, as they were in St. Petersburg on spring break on the 17th (I know, boo hoo!). We had Irish beer, corned beef sandwiches, traditional and American traditional soda bread, and lots more good food. Mom and Dad hired a local musician/entertainer to come and sing and play for us. He played the guitar, banjo, mandolin, and Irish drum, and knew lots of songs and stories. He was also very good and patient with the kids, which is a plus, since Madeleine was all up in his business the entire evening.

Madeleine and Noah model the tee-shirts I made for them.

Playing along with the singer. (I can't remember his name, but he was cool)

Madeleine "helping" Brooke Czeschin to dance.

Brooke checks out the guitar.

Happy 2nd Birthday Maia!

Happy Birthday to our fair haired, moose-loving, princess of the extreme northwest!

Newly born in 2007.

Nearly two in 2008!

Happy belated birthday to our niece Maia, who turned two in January. We had a small birthday party for her in December before the Pucketts left for California, and it sounds like the party continued at Disneyland for Maia!

Christmas night, dressed in new princess finery.

Rockin' with Noah at her party. We were also watching a Mizzou game, that's why everyone's in their Tiger gear.

Reading Cookie Monster with some Cinderella specs, dressed as a HSM cheerleader.