Days with the Dorans

Ali is on the far left in the skirt.  So this year Ali has quite a few more dance classes (NINE to be exact).  That may sound like a lot (and it IS), but she is having a blast and not only keeping up in school but reading and writing for fun too. She is taking Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Tumbling, Hip Hop, Cecchetti (a graded ballet), Turns, Dazzling Starts and Advanced Dazzling Stars.  The Dazzling Stars groups are mini-competition type groups before it gets REALLY busy.  The girls (and one boy) have learned their dances and this was the first opportunity to perform them.  They played only four nursing homes this year (sadly, Great-Nan's had something booked that weekend so the one that I REALLY wanted her to dance at, she didn't).  They had to plan for the venue and make adaptations for absent dancers.  They did a great job. It was a fun weekend and I got to get to know some new moms and the joys of false eyelashes!! Why haven't I heard of the...

 This weekend Ali's dance studio did the Senior Tour (that's what I called it anyway... ).  They performed at a lot of nursing homes and independent living places.  On Saturday we drove with Amber and her her mom and in between locations we hit a restaurant with other dancers and moms for brunch.  It is so nice to get to know more people since I don't do a lot of the fundraising things the other moms do (mostly because I don't have enough hours in the day).  While I LOVE watching Ali dance, I found that I also LOVED watching the audience.  Of all the performances that these girls do, I doubt that any other brings such joy to their audiences!  At one location, I actually tried to take pictures of the people.  One man had such a smile on his face that I just wanted to capture it.  I added it in a video that I made, but it doesn't do justice to how happy he really was! Ali really did well and I am amazed at how much she seems to grow ...

 Ali was invited to join the "Dazzling Stars" group at her dance studio and she has had a blast. This was their first weekend of performances and they started out on the 'Old People Circuit' (as I call it) and the best was that their first show was for my FAVORITE old person!!  They went to where my Nan lives!  She had a front row seat and I absolutely LOVED being able to watch the show with her.  The girls at Al's studio are all so talented and many brought me to tears but those tears would turn to laughter when I'd hear my Nan talk out loud, "WOW!"  "She's amazing!"  "Look at that!" during the performances.  I knew that others around her were equally excited (because I could hear them)!  The whole weekend was full of performances and in all we went to four different locations (two on Saturday and two on Sunday).  After watching the dancers in the first show, I found myself watching the audiences in th...