Ballet Observation

We had observation once again at ballet tonight, a yearly sort of thing where the parents are invited to come into class and watch a routine class in action.  This year, things were a little different.  For one, we were in the bigger ballet room, where there was much more space for the dancers to move (with us still in the room).  Secondly, look who came along to observe!

Nana and Ba-Ba were here from Florida, so why not drop by and watch Madison dance for ninety minutes.  It wasn't exactly a thrill-a-minute sort of performance, of course.  This class was made up of plenty of exercises of routines and the learning of shape and forms. 

This was our first time watching Mrs. Dianne in action as a teacher.  She of course is the founder of the ballet company, and Madison has been in her class this year for the first time.  She's enjoying it, and as evidenced by her movements and grace tonight, she's been learning a bit as well.  She has rhythm a bit more down, and she definitely has the mechanics down.  There are some things that are a bit of math, counting, and memorization.  With that, she has no problem.

She's having a good time in ballet this year, but we're approaching a big decision soon.  She'll have to decide if she wants to do more, and audition for the company.  This is a big step up, a commitment for more time practicing, and of course more money from Mommy and Daddy.  We don't want to push her in either direction.  If this is truly in her heart, we'll let her move in that way.  Otherwise, there are other directions she can go, including karate, another musical instrument, or even other things at school like band or various clubs.  Whatever she wants.  We've been happy to see her dance, of course.

Soon enough, she'll be auditioning for a part in a version of "Frozen," that will take place in March or so.  It'll be nice, and Madison is wanting to be a part of that.  She's wondering what she'll be - a troll? A snowflake?  A villager?  We'll see soon enough, of course.  That's all coming January, and with it a bunch of practices and all the bells and whistles of the ballet production season.  We've not had to worry about that of late, due to the fact that she was taking a break from "The Nutcracker."  We'll return to all that soon enough, and it won't be a terrible thing at all.  Looking forward to it, in fact.  We love seeing her dance, and seeing her enjoy herself on stage.  She said she's not at all nervous like she used to be, and that's great.

The rest of today was school, a return to it.  Daddy and Mommy were doing a bit of clean-up from the party yesterday, including a new bleaching of the pumpkins process that Daddy was trying out.  Hopefully the pumpkins will last a bit longer, but we'll see how it all turns out.  Usually they are gone within a week.  This new process is supposed to help them last a little bit longer, so you'll see the results here as we talk about it.  Daddy submerged Madison's pumpkin, his pumpkin, Pastor Lance's pumpkin and Kellan's Spider-Man pumpkin.  The other two we'll return to their owners tomorrow, and we'll see how they all do the following week.

It stormed today.  Heavy rain came this morning, which was something new and remarkable.  It's only rained here the past two months because of two hurricanes.  So this was the first non-hurricane related rain we've had in over two months.  It's hard to be grateful to a hurricane, but there's at least one reason.  The other remarkable thing about this rain is that it came this morning, and not yesterday, during our Pumpkin Carving Party.  Also, it didn't come during the Fall Festival at the church this upcoming Wednesday night.  

It was an odd rainstorm, because it was so heavy and so long-lasting.  And then, suddenly, the light came out.  There was nothing gradual about this storm.  It was there, and it was there hard.  And then it wasn't there at all.

Tonight we opened another sparkling Pumpkin Cider.  Madison loves those.  We went over some spelling bee words.  Tomorrow, she's in another spelling bee, and Daddy is probably more worried than she is.  Again, we're incredibly proud of her no matter what.  She didn't have time to study the seventh and eighth grade words, which were all rather complicated.  Some of these words Mommy and Daddy didn't even know how to spell.  And others, we don't even use.  I mean, who uses the word "daunted" anymore?  I know we use "undaunted" from time to time.  Or "clodhopper?"  What is that even supposed to be?  I'm guessing it's an insult to a person.  Okay, I just looked it up:

clod·hop·per

ˈklädˌhäpər/

noun

1. 1. 

   a large, heavy shoe.
2. 2. 

   informal

   a foolish, awkward, or clumsy person.

Anyway, this is one of the simpler words on the list.  We did a lot of words tonight, and Madison did really well spelling most of them right.  Then, it was time for prayers of thanksgiving, and a bit of reading from the devotional.  Daddy read from that, and a quick chapter from the latest Nancy Drew book about a mysterious mansion.  We'll have to see what's up with that as the days go by.  It seems creepy enough...