Ballet Class

The girls always like to pretend they're ballerinas, but they haven't ever been in a ballet class before. I took ballet for a little while when I was young, long enough to start to love it (or maybe I already did), but not long enough to gain any sort of proficiency. I don't think I ever was destined to become any good, and by junior high I was more interested in (and suited for!) distance running anyway, but I have never lost that interest in and love for watching ballet, at least! Someday in my resurrected body I'm going to become good at it myself. :)

Anyway, I didn't know if we'd be able to ever figure out a ballet class for the girls that would be close by and inexpensive and low-commitment enough to be worth the trouble (I try to be very vigilant against filling our schedule with too many extras!)—but the stars aligned and a darling college student was teaching an 8-week class in between semesters, so Daisy and Junie got to be in it! And Goldie—poor dear little Goldie dressed up in her leotard and ballet slippers every single week, and went with us to the class and sat patiently on the side of the room and watched every move the girls made. She never complained, but she just sat quietly with wide eyes, wishing she was among the dancers. Poor lamb. I probably should have just signed her up too! Maybe another time.

The girls had so much fun dressing in their leotards and going off to class with slippers in hand. I think they felt very important. Then they would come home and dance with Marigold the steps they'd learned. And on the last day of class, they did a little performance. Their older brothers (and Teddy, of course!) came to watch them, which made them feel even MORE important! They got to wear their tutus for the occasion. Goldie, watching raptly from the wings, wore hers too, of course!

Abe is not so sure about this

I think everyone is supposed to be doing the same thing here…

I love these little ballerini!

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Birthdays and Tram

The August birthdays came and went. They felt a bit anticlimactic this year because I had been anticipating Daisy and Sebby's ages early for some reason. It seemed like they were already seven and eleven, so the birthdays just seemed to echo an already-existing reality. I really almost felt they should be turning eight and twelve, in fact, so I didn't feel any extra nostalgia about the occasions. :)

Daisy has always been fun to watch when she's opening presents. This year she got several homemade things from brothers and sisters, plus a present from my mom, plus a present from us. And every single time she made some variation on this face:

This is the face she makes for cute, tiny things. And ALL of her presents were cute tiny things.

She's such a cutie.

Here's the 3D Maze Sebby made for her. He loves making that sort of thing.

For Seb's birthday, we went up to Snowbird and rode the tram. Seb has always loved trams, as you probably know by now. There was a time in his life when he categorized practically everything he saw as a "red tram" or a "blue tram." He'd see two people with colored shirts walking in a crowd. "Look Mommy! Red tram and blue tram!" Or two packages on the shelf at the store. "Red tram and blue tram!" That was after our trip to New Mexico where we rode the tram, I think.

Anyway, he still likes them, and so do we all, so that's what we did.

I call this series "Girls standing on ledges"

Teddy was super cute looking out at the scenery. He loved it. As long as Sam had him, that is.

Sailor girls

Birthday boy. Nice casual pose.

We let Abe and Seb ride the mountain roller coaster once as a special treat. My favorite part about this lower picture is that you can see Sam and the other kids in the lower left sitting on a bench watching—and Teddy toddling about trying to get things. 

Here's Daisy with her present: a tiny doll for her doll Rosie. She loves to have all three of them match whenever possible, of course!

Daisy says she "considers herself eight" already, so I guess next year will feel anticlimactic too!

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