Leia's First Ballet Recital

Today the Ballet School of Chapel Hill presented "In Kensington Gardens" as the small-children edition to their "Mary Poppins" ballet recital. Leia Rose was a "Merry-Go-Round Pony" in the program. (Even though we were told it was called "In Kensington Park" and she was going to be a "Carousel Pony." ; ) Our lives have been all about ballet recital practice the last few days, . . . and nothing else. All for this one shining, special moment! Here is Leia Rose posed by the "Rose Cabinet" at her request.
She was feeling so special and proud in her costume and makeup! This is the first time Leia Rose has ever really worn any makeup, actually (although she adores all of her flavored lip gloss that Santa brought). Today she wore lip stain, lip gloss, gel blush, body glitter (above her eyes), and mascara. And here is our special little Carousel Pony up on stage for the very first time! Leia was SO in her element, remembering to smile for the ENTIRE time and doing all the moves ever so nicely! (It really helped to practice at home!) And Mamma was especially proud because it was the very first time Leia Rose remembered to get into a proper place in her "line" (like in the picture above) AND she remembered to curtsy properly at the end. She had never done that before. Not even in dress rehearsal. She even noted when a child left too large of a space between them and filled the gap, . . . while she was going pony moves! I was just so proud of her! And she told me today that, "Mamma I am going to do ballet for my whole LIFE! That's it. I'm not going to be a paleontologist. I'm going to be a ballet teacher!" I told her she could still do both. ; )

I know she doesn't quite look it in this picture, but Annie was ENTHRALLED by the whole performance. I kept billing it as "the dancing show." And she just LOVED seeing all of the different costumes and being told what the little "creatures" were. Annie spent her time alternating between cuddling with me and sucking her thumb and shouting the names of the "creatures" be it a bluebird or cardinal or duckling or ladybug or butterfly or bee, . . . or pony. And of course, once Annie figured out that Leia Rose was up there she yelled out Leia's name two times! : ) She sat there happily for the whole hour, . . . and I only had to bring out the cereal bar right at the very end. What a good girl!
We were also so blessed to have such special guests at the recital! Here is Grandma with Leia Rose at the end of the recital when the children were allowed to come and sit with parents. And, of course, Grandpa was there, too! Everyone cares about Leia Rose so very much! It makes a Mamma feel so special and loved! Look at the friends who came too: Kevin Faulkner came (along with his Mom and Dad)!!! This is even while they were in the midst of intense preparation for their journey to Vietnam next week to adopt Aria & Kein! (And Kevin brought Leia Rose such beautiful roses, and even plucked a few outside for little Annie!!!) Here he is waiting for Leia's recital to start, and excited to give her these special flowers that he picked out himself. Wow!!!
Leia with the Faulkner family of 3, . . . soon to be 5!!! The McNeils Came!!! (Minus 1, of course. Eric is in Scotland on IBM business.) But it is always hard for Laurie to travel out with all three boys, . . . and she came just for us! Wow!

I would like to say here that yesterday, after the dress rehersal, Leia Rose was grumpy and sad all the way home. And when I asked her why she said, ". . . I just wish Oma and Papa could sell their house." : ( No doubt about who ELSE she wished could have been here today. : ( But luckily, they had a wonderful phone conversation about the performance AND they'll be the first to see the full recital video in a week or two!!! : ) Poor Oma and Papa, we all love you!!!

And I am told that when Kevin first saw Leia Rose in the performance, he said, "I hope the other children are nice to Leia! I don't want her to get hurt!" What a sweet boy! Speaking of which, don't they look like a couple in this picture? Ha!

Here is Leia Rose's ballet teacher, Miss Megan. Megan has really taken to Leia Rose, . . . especially seeing her dedication of practicing at home! Megan always says that "Leia helps me keep the class in line!" which always makes Leia Rose laugh and laugh.
Here is Leia Rose with her best "school friend," Jessica Oberlies. Jessica was an "Ice Lolly" in the performance. An Ice Lolly, I am told, is the English term for popsicle. : )
And here is Leia Rose holding all of her flower bouquets! : ) Mamma and Daddy gave Leia exactly five roses: one for each year of her life. Grandma and Grandpa did the same. And, of course, there is the beautiful large bouquet that Kevin gave her. : ) We have arranged the flowers in a beautiful vase (pic in the next post) that Leia will keep up in her room until they are ready to be dried. Then we are going to dry them and make a dried arrangement for her, . . . and add one flower for every year holding a dance recital. What a great memory!

And as a special present from Mamma, I gave Leia Rose three special nightgowns (which are VERY hard to find, I might add). This one says "ballerina girl." Very appropriate! Her favorite, though, had Ariel on it under some blue netting that made Ariel look like she was underwater!

Ah, and here after eating her celebratory lunch at Panera Bread, is another silly gift from Mamma: a bag full of green skittles, . . . given for SMILING THE ENTIRE PERFORMANCE. Ha! (You didn't think she'd do that of her own volition, did you?) ; ) Can you believe, though, that GREEN is her favorite!?! Like father like daughter. ; )

And we finally traveled back to the ballet school one more time this year for a few sentimental shots. Here are the resulting pictures:

I let her take a "silly" shot, too. : )

Congratulations my Leia Rose Carousel Pony! You are a TRUE ballerina now!!! How does it feel?!!!?

Here are a couple bits of (bad quality) video: Leia is always in the center of the screen.