New Maid and The Nutcracker

Not sure if I told anyone about my new maid. I figured with Paul getting a new FSU CFA, I could afford a maid! I'm not sure if taking a photo of a maid is normal or not, but since I scrap, I figured I should show case a clean house. Goodness knows it's not clean when I'm done! LOL! It reminded me of the Friends episode where Monica is going crazy with her new maid, thinking she stole some jeans. I don't think I'll have to worry about the new maid stealing stuff! I had to giggle when my DD came down dressed that way to vacuum the floor, which is one of her new chores. Such a funny picture! She added the apron, which is a smock for art projects!

Anyhow the dance went super well today! Gabi did so well with both shows. Even have to commend Trey, who had to suffer the whole day at the recital! He did so well too! We where there from about 12 to after 7:30, Gabi and I were there until after 8. Long day for both of them. It's harder on Trey because he doesn't have a bunch of guy friends floating around to play with while he was waiting for his sister to get done, but he did manage to keep himself fairly busy with a few boys and girls here or there. A friend of mine helped keep an eye on him while I was running back and forth tending to Gabi's costume changes. I sent him home with Daddy after he came in to see Gabi's part of the show two, and than they headed out while I watched the end of the show and the bows.

Only drama we had to deal with was over Gabi's wings. Gabi's wings were made of a material like hose. She accidentally got caught on a door latch last night, and tore it. Momma wasn't happy about that. Another mom fixed it up for her. Thankfully, no tears tonight, and the wings made it thru the evening! All four of the angels in her group tore their wings, either last night or tonight. Three of them got caught on the door latch.

We had happy surprise tonight because her best friend came in on a whim with her Aunt to see the show. She was a wonderful surprise for Gabi, and she was excited to learn Gabi was dancing in the production.

The dance studio owner is friends with a gentleman who took over a struggling dance company locally, he moved from TX or Ohio. Aren't I good with details?! For the last two years, they've flown him in to set the routines, but this year he lived locally, so they worked it out and brought in professional dancers to be guest stars at our production. Gabi had a sweet part in the dance where she walked out with the Sugar Plum fairy, the one dressed in pink as they were greeting Clara in the arrival scene. I don't think she understands how cool it was to dance with a professional ballerina, let alone get to hold her hand as they walked on stage!

The dance company was sweet enough to host a little Tea Party for the girls if they wanted to drop in for photos and sweets. I snapped some photos for Gabi with the Sugar Plum fairy and Snowflake Princess, or Snowflake Queen. Aren't their costumes so pretty? These ladies danced so gracefully. Both men were so gentle with them as they were flipping them in the air and helping them with their spins. The one in white is married to the ballerina dude, sounds funny together, who did the setting of the dances. The other male ballerina was in with the ladies and even had on pants for the tea party! (I'm sure that made all the young girls happy, as it turned out it was much the chatter behind the stage doors amongst all the 9-12 year old girls! As Gabi told me last night, there were kids there for goodness sakes, he needed to put on some pants!) I let her know that he was dressed correctly for being a male dancer doing a ballet. Handsome chap he was too!

Lastly, one quick card for the day. I made this to go with one of Gabi's teacher's gifts. I used Basic Grey paper, TAC's Joy of Christmas, palette ink pad, cranberry crisp SU paper, Martha Stewart double scallop punch, and ribbon from Michaels. The card came together quickly, but I felt it really turned out pretty. That Christmas line from Basic Grey is so pretty! All the card needed was stickles, which I forgot to add, and by the time I realized it, I didn't have time to add it before giving the card away.