A couple of months ago my Dance Connection boss contacted all of us Dance Teachers letting us know that as part of our Christmas present she was getting us tickets to go see The Nutcracker. She also said that if we wanted to take our kids or a spouse then we needed to get our tickets online and she would reimburse us for our ticket. I have always wanted to see the Nutcracker live and was really excited for this opportunity. I knew my girls would enjoy it and so I bought tickets for them to go with me. I asked Kefford and Ryker if they wanted to go and they both said absolutely not! Oh boys! hahaha
The Ballet company that was putting this on also does a Clara's Tea Party for a small additional fee that you can attend before the ballet. I knew my girls would enjoy that so I signed us up for that as well.
The Ballet was put on by the Eugene Ballet Company and performed at The College of Western Idaho. I have never been to this College in Caldwell or to Caldwell for that matter and was really unsure on the directions. After going to the wrong building and asking for help from a person we saw in that building we managed to make our way over to the correct place. As we were parking I rolled down Kenedys window to talk to the parking attendant and after we came out of the ballet and got in the car we realized I never rolled her window back up :/, oops. Good thing nobody noticed and my purse, which I left in the car, was still there when we got back.
The Tea party was different then what we all were expecting but it was still a lot of fun. The girls were announced as they walked through the doors and that was pretty cute. Kenedy opted out of being announced :). They got to wear their new Christmas dresses and all three of my girls looked beautiful!
Once inside we found that there were different stations set up upstairs and downstairs with activities for the kids to do. We took the girls first to the nail art station where they got to get an accent nail done with festive Jamberry nails, the rest of their nails painted and then they each got a beautiful glitter tattoo. I am not a fan of the fake tattoos at all and rarely let my kids have access to them. Since this was a special event and the tattoos were elegant and glittery I let them have one each but only on their arms.
Clara made a brief appearance but had to leave to get ready for the ballet. We were able to visit with her for a few seconds and get a picture which was fun.
Avy and Rylee made cute little Gingerbread men and we all ate the refreshments. We had cake, gingersnaps and cheese and crackers. We did not get to eat dinner before we had to leave and so we were feasting on those cheese and crackers, yum!
In October I entered a giveaway on Instagram sponsored by Annie's Forget Me Knots and ShabbyApple for Breast Cancer awareness. I had to comment on the post by tagging three friends and then hash tagging ShabbyApple, the winner would get a free pink dress. Every Hashtag they got they donated money to Breast Cancer research and I could comment as many times as I wanted. I commented the perfect amount because a week later I got a message telling me that I won! I was so excited!! I have always wanted a ShabbyApple dress but could never justify spending the money one of their dresses cost. So it was just way too exciting that I actually won one. I was sent an email with about 25 thumbnails of different pink items I could choose from. I narrowed it down to two and then had Kenedy tell me which one I should get because I really loved both of them and could not decide.
The day I got the dress in the mail was a very happy day. After trying it on I realized it was more of a party dress and not really one to wear to church, I hung it up in the closet with the intentions of wearing it to the Ballet. The dress I chose is called "The Nutcracker Dress' so it was so perfect that the first time I wore it was to see the Nutcracker. I felt beautiful and that is how it should be anytime we put on something to wear. I cannot wait for more special occasions to wear this dress to.
We all loved the Ballet! Rylee's favorite part were the mice, she thought they were hysterical, and the rest of us chose the Russian Dancers as our favorite. I loved the way their legs moved when they danced and how in control they were. Avy and Kenedy liked the middle dancer and how happy he looked throughout the dance. It was a fun night with my girls and a perfect way to kick off the holiday season!
