oops-a-daisy girl

Today was glorious. We got to spend the majority of it outside. It actually felt like spring. I even let the kids put their bathing suits on. [Trust me, they couldn't believe I said yes either...] I'm one of those Mum's who ALWAYS has extra clothes on their kid. They're not allowed to take jackets off at the park. They can't wear sandals until it's a certain temperature outside. I'm kind of militant about it. So when they complained this afternoon of being SOOOOO HOOOOOT, I told them to head inside and put their suits on. The first water balloon fight of the season commenced, it was great fun.

I on the other hand, got all my plants put into the dirt. Feels great. Looks great too. This little girl, pretends to be girlie [check out her pink nails] But she likes worms... In fact, if she had her own car, she'd have a bumper sticker that said I brake for worms! Ewwww...

Madelyn: "Isn't he so cute Mummy? I'm going to call him Wormy" [she's very original with names] By the way, No Madelyn, I don't think he's cute. I think he's creepy...

Yesterday we had Madelyn's year end dance recital. A HUGE sigh of relief... I have been dragging this girl to tap dancing since the beginning of September. She has hated every minute of it. We definitely will not be signing up for dance lessons next year. But did she look cute? Well, we certainly think so.

There is something a bit unsettling about dressing your 6 year old daughter up, applying more make up than you, yourself wear, and sending her out of the house... It's surreal to look at her and see her 16 year old self...

This was make up the second time around... Why on earth would there have to be two applications you ask? Because the first time around I had to remove a tattoo off her arm and got this reaction:

What's there to say about this photo? She started to get sad about the tattoo coming off her arm, and I told her not to cry or she'd risk smudging her makeup. My mistake after all, I should know by now that she does the exact opposite of what I ask. A few minutes later she came down the hall and said, "I think I smudged my make up." Ummmmm, do ya think? So I had a few choice sentences for her, which is why she's out right crying in this picture... Then I did what all good Mum's do, I got my camera. [I can laugh at this right now... But in the moment, I was less than pleased]

Once we got that teeny, tiny little glitch worked out, things went smoothly. Here's a picture with her fancy hair:

Seriously, these Mum's go nuts about this stuff... I was told where to find curly hair for pete's sake... Another indication perhaps, that maybe dancing isn't for us.

Here's a not great picture of the finale, when all the dancers came on stage; lucky for us, she was in the first row right up in front!

And then of course, proud family shots:


When we went into the recital, it was over cast and grey, when we came out, it was bright and sunny, though the wind was chilly.

She got flowers from us, Ama & Baba and Auntie Pat. She'd asked me earlier that week, if I thought she'd get flowers this time. [Last year, being rookies, I was totally surprised to see 5 and 6 year old dancers receive flowers. Who knew?] So I said you bet you'll get flowers. Was she pleased with the flowers? Who knows. She didn't even look at them. But they do look lovely in a vase on our kitchen table.

It's certainly a relief to having dancing over for the year forever.