Nutcracker 2011!

It has been a looooooooooooong few days in our house because Ava just got finished with her first ever Nutcracker ballet!  This year Ava was a little boy in the party scene.  She was THRILLED in October  when she was chosen to be a kid (at that point she didn't know if she would be a boy or a girl)  and I will never forget her jumping up and down on Main Street when she found out she got the part she wanted. 

Ava had  5 performances over 4 days.  She got to miss two days of school because during the day last Thursday and Friday they did performances for the elementary schools. 

Here is Ava in the middle with some of the other kids. They line the kids up in height order and then they are paired up boy/girl according to height.  Ava was one of the tallest :)  I am SO happy she was a boy because she just had to wear her hair in a bun and she can do that herself.  The girls wore their hair in spiral curls.  Ava has been practicing doing spiral curls in case she gets to be a girl next year.     

Here is Ava with her friend Elizabeth another boy. 

Here is Ava with her partner Rose. 

Ava and me backstage. 

Ava with her BFF Anika who was a soldier. 

Anika (we call her my second daughter) and me.  I love the makeup the soldiers wore.  They looked so cute!

Ava started ballet when she was 3 and at her first ballet recital they paired each 3 year old with an older

girl before the recital. The older girls helped the little girls backstage.   Ava got paired with Amber.  Amber is now in her second year of college and she was an Arabian in the Nutcracker.  This year Ava is going to get to take care of a 3 year old ballerina at the recital.   She has already informed her teacher that she wants Eliza (my friend Sabrina's daughter). 

   

Ava's friend Maria came to see the show.  These girls were best friends in daycare and took ballet together when they were little. 

It was a fun (and exhausting!) Ava had a great time and is already talking about doing it again next year!    Tonight we are going to make cut out sugar cookies and we're going to go out and look at the Christmas lights.  I love this time of year and I want us to enjoy every minute of it!