"I Danced with Cinderella"

Getting my Ballerina Ready for Ballet

Hubby and his mini-me, Hanna

Two prissy girls.

Hanna and her BFF, Ju-Ju

Oops. Sorry Ms. Ballet Teacher

This is one of my family's VERY FAVORITE songs. Like everyone else we have been saddened by what happened to the Chapman family. My girls love to twirl around to this in our living room and even listen to it at night while they drift off to sleep.

On the note of dancing and princesses (Cinderella), my little dancing princess started her first day of ballet today. My oldest daughter took ballet for 2 years, then started playing soccer and fell in love with soccer. We have a rule where the kids can only do 1 activity per season (thanks Kevin Lehman), so she chose soccer. When Hanna (the youngest) was old enough she wanted to play soccer like her older sister. However, she played very differently than Ashley. Ashley is AWESOME at soccer. She is the kid the coaches want on their team. She is super fast and was actually nicknamed when she was 4 by a good friend of ours as "Super Star." We are HUGE soccer fans now because of Ashley. Well, last soccer season when Hanna played and the ball would come her way, I kid you not, she would run AWAY FROM THE BALL. No aggression whatsoever in this child. This summer comes and it is time to get ready to sign up for fall soccer. Hanna, for whatever reason I don't know, wants to sign up. I thought she would be more suited for a "prissy sport," so I suggested ballet. Nope, she would not have it. I tried and tried to convince her, but she was pretty set on wanting to play soccer. I guess maybe she didn't realize the object was to run to the ball and not away from it:) I told her we were going to try ballet until Christmas. If she didn't like it we could quit ballet and sign up for spring soccer. To be honest she really was not very excited about ballet until last week when I had been out shopping with my sister and I came home with her very own ballerina bag (being the youngest of 3 most of what she has is a hand-me-down). It was hers and all hers!!! This definitely put a pep in her step and she was been excited ever since.

Today was the big day. We decided which leotard and skirt she would wear. I pulled her sweet curls back into a bun, and off we went. She was precious in the ballet studio. I told my BFF, Tiff, that when my oldest was almost 5 I felt that he was so old and almost grown. But now that my baby is almost 5, I feel like she is still a baby. I feel like I can just rock her in my arms back and forth (in fact, I do). I still carry her to bed at night, rather than just walking along beside her. She looked so grown up today. I was so proud.

Just as much as my oldest daughter is me made over (aggression, personality, loves attention and people, the whole nine yards), Hanna is just as much my husband (reserved, shy, does not like attention called to himself at all, etc., etc). Thankfully my oldest son is a really good mixture of us. Jon (hubby) says that I have one that looks and acts like me (Ashley) and one who wants to be me (Hanna). Anyway, Jon and I were watching her dance and he waved at her. Her little eyes got big as if they were saying, "Please don't wave at me. Just go. Please stop." If that were Ashley, she would have been waving wildly and saying, "Hey Mom and Dad!!! Hey Ms. (ballet teacher) that is my mom and my dad, and they are this and that." The ballet teacher would have known everything about us by the end of class.

During the class I decided to sneak in a picture. Click, the flash goes off, and I hear Ms. ballet teacher say, "We are dancing." Oops!!! See what I mean, my hubby would have never done that!!!

After the class was over and the ballet teacher brought out her little ballerinas I ran and hugged Hanna Boo so tight. She whispered in my ear, "I think I want to take for a year." She LOVED it!!!! I told her we were going to put her in soccer. Nope, she is not having it. She rated the day a 10!! She had so much fun. To top the whole day off she is in there with her best bud, Ju-Ju. They had no idea they were going to be together and the surprise on their little faces when they saw one another was just precious!!! Three cheers for mom - Hip, Hip, Hooray! Hip, Hip, Hooray! Hip, Hip, Hooray!