Saturday was Laina's dance recital. Let me just say this...."a star is born"! Laina did a super job! During the rehearsals she only did part of the dance moves but when the real show began, and the curtain went up, let me tell you...she was in the zone! She did all the little moves to her song, "The Body Rock". She was adorable as were all the little girls in her class. I got to stand back stage and off to the side and Joe was out in the audience watching. The recital was at The Merrill Auditorium in Portland which is a big beautiful venue where Joe and I have seen various concerts, musicals, etc. The place was packed! Every seat in the house was filled.
When I signed us up for this cute little "mommy & me" dance class I really had NO idea what a production this whole thing was. We've had class once a week for a number of weeks and then we've had 2 in studio rehearsals, a full dress rehearsal at The Merrill and then the actual performance on Saturday. When we got there, Laina and I went to the dressing area downstairs to get her in her dress and wow...the place was crawling with little girls and boys in adorable little outfits and backstage moms galore....makeup, tights, tutu's, ballet slippers, props, hairspray...just incredible. I felt like I was in the middle of some Broadway production. It was surreal. They had the whole show simulcast in the dressing area so that the kids that were waiting to go on could watch the other performers. I really think Laina had a great time. She loved being in her dress which she calls "her beautiful blue dress". And she was just beaming after the performance.
Here are a few shots of Laina in her dress. We were not allowed to take photos at the show itself but we did purchase the DVD so we'll be able to watch that soon. All in all a very very fun time.
Later Saturday afternoon we decided to surprise Laina with her very first "big girl bike"! She's mastered the tricycle and already seems too tall for it so we went to the local bike shop and purchased her first bike. She LOVES it! She calls it her "purple bike" which she pronounces "paah-pull bike". It took her about 3 minutes to get used to the new angle of pushing the pedals and she was off! Here's a picture of Laina on her bike and also a cute shot of she and Joe on the swingset in the backyard.
Then.....On Sunday afternoon we had friends over for a cookout in the backyard. Joe works with Rick who is also a criminal defense attorney. Rick, his wife Kim and their two children MacKay (age 4) and Gannon (age 11 months) came over in the late afternoon. The girls had a wonderful time playing on the swing set and we pulled out the new sprinkler. MacKay loved the sprinkler...Laina was a bit uncertain about the whole thing, and baby Gannon was just fearless, crawling right into the spray! We had a great cookout dinner complete with potato salad, pasta salad, hot dogs, hamburgers, tossed salad, fruit salad and an ice cream pie for dessert!Here are a few pictures of the festivities!
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