Ballerina Girl

Kathleen started taking gymnastics back in August of 2010. In December of 2011, she moved up from her Tiny Tots class to the Tots class. The class is pretty much the same, except that Mommy isn't assisting anymore. She did really well the first couple of weeks, especially with help from her friend, Kenzie, who is older and had previously been in her Tiny Tots class. But it didn't last. Every week became a huge fight. She wanted me in there with her, but that just wasn't it how it worked. Plus, I had Leighton to look after. Thankfully, a couple of other moms would hold her for me, but my goal was to get Kathleen to participate without my help. She outright refused, and after a couple of months of fighting with her, I pulled her from the class. I was so sad to be leaving Aspire. I loved her coach and thought the program for little ones was great. But, it wasn't worth the $50 I was paying every month, plus the stress of getting both girls up, ready, and out the door every Tuesday.

We took a few weeks off and during that time Kathleen started showing an interst in dance. She would take my shoes out of my closet and pretend to tap dance and she always wanted to watch the Olivia episodes that involved dance. I asked her if she wanted to take dance lessons. Her answer was yes. So, in March I signed her up for a Pre-Ballet/Tap/Tumble class in Infiniti Athletics, where they have cheer, dance and tumbling instruction, as well as competitive teams. She loves it! Yayyyyyy! Her dance teacher, Sarah, is great, and happens to be the mother of one of Joshua's football buddies. At Kathleen's first class, she immediately recognized my girls from basketball.

Infiniti had their spring recital last week. There were over 65 performances (it was really long). There was lots of stress on my part. First, with the pictures, then dress rehearsal and then finally, the actual recital. I had to do hair and make-up for each one. If anyone out there has advice for applying eye make-up to a three-year-old, I'm listening!!! Anyway, two pairs of tights and a gazillion grey hairs later, I have one of the most precious memories ever...my baby girl dancing in her first ballet recital. She is the second youngest and the newest addition to her class, and her inexperience shows, but I don't care. Geoff asked me beforehand if it bothered me that she didn't do everything perfectly (he was being very generous). I told him that I had plenty of time in the years ahead to worry about whether she was good enough or doing everything just right. For now, I enjoy watching her have fun. Besides, no one expects perfection out of a toddler. To me, every mistake was perfectly as it should have been and I wouldn't have had it any other way. Now, for the pictures:

And the video.

My favorite part is when the curtains open. You can hear everyone in the audience say, "awwwww!"

And I swear, these babies got a bigger applause than any other performance that day. I tear up just thinking about it. And, yes, I did cry, which makes it hard to take photos.

Warning: due to the lighting, the quality of the video is less than spectacular. We opted to just take the Flip camera with us instead of the regular video camera. The Flip allows for quicker digital download. The video camera is also digital, but we bought it in 2003 and the software is not compatible with my computer. We also planned to buy the DVD of the entire recital. However, due to some unforeseen drama at Infiniti, that might not happen. Sounds juicy, right? Trust me, you don't wanna know.

She's Crafty, Part 2

The girls started going to Mother's Day Out in January, and soon therafter, the art projects started coming home. Our fridge was covered, a look we don't particularly care for. I don't like clutter; Geoff hates it. I wanted to come up with a way to display the kids' art in our home, so I started looking online. There were lots of different ideas. I decided I wanted to hang empty frames in a group and somehow attach the artwork to the frames. One website suggested replacing the glass in the frame with wood and affixing small clothespins or other clips to it to hold the art. I almost went with that, but two of the frames I was using (they were hanging out unused in our guest room closet) were rather large and capable of holding two pieces at once, so I didn't want to limit my configurations. I decided magnets were the way to go.

I started by painting the frames themselves. I painted those black.

Then, I painted the glass with magnetic paint. I believe I used four coats. I should have used a couple of more coats of paint to make the magnets stick a little better, but I was impatient to see my finished product. Whenever I run my stick vac in the kitchen, I have to take all the artwork off the frames. Otherwise, the wind generated by the vacuum blows the pictures off and the magnets fly all over the place.

That brings me to the magnets. While the above pieces were drying, I assembled my magnets. I bought two packages of high-powered magnets and some acrylic jewels.

Then, I used my glue gun to attach the jewels to the magnets.

Please excuse my need for a nail job in this photo.

Just a helpful tip. You have to place these magnets far far away from each other. Otherwise, they attract each other and when they connect, they will fly across the room.

After the magnetic paint on the glass was dry, I painted over it with acrylic paint.

I used four different colors to match my kitchen.

I needed to do several coats to cover the black of the magnetic paint.

Once those were dry, I assembled the frames, hung them on the wall, and attached the artwork to them. I was very proud of myself.

Now, as new artwork comes home from school, I can rotate the old stuff out.

Kathleen loves helping me change out her masterpieces.

As you can see, I did this project back in March. Hence, the shamrock picture.

This project cost me a little over $30. I had frames already, so those were free. The magnetic paint was $20, the package of acrylic jewels was about $1, the magnets were $3 or $4 per package of four. The bottles of acrylic paint were $1 each, but I think I already had the yellow paint on hand.