Bollywood

Emily made her mainstage debut back in March at the Commodore Sloat Elementary School talent show. When auditions were announced, she was desperate to be in it. But not by herself. Luckily after a little convincing and coordination we got 3 other girls from her class to join forces in a Bollywood hula hooping act.

Although Em was super excited about the show, I really thought there was a chance she's get stage fright and not do it. We talked beforehand about nervous butterflies, and she insisted the crowd would only fuel her energy and excitement. Turns out she was right!

We knew this show was a pretty big deal because they had a daytime and an evening show. The evening one was intended for families, but Matt and I still snuck away from work to watch the daytime show. For some reason that first one seemed more special. And holy-moly was it worth it. She was absolutely beaming up there. On stage. In front of the entire school. It was incredible. I was late to a pretty important conference call with my new boss that afternoon, but the risk of a little reprimand was totally worth it.

Aunt Beca came to watch the family performance that evening and brought Em a sweet little bouquet of ranunculus. To celebrate such a big day, we treated everyone to ice cream & hot chocolate afterwards. Weeks later we found out that this was the first year the school allowed kindergarteners to audition and participate in the show. So glad they did!

Here's the video link! This is the entire evening show, so skip ahead to 9:30 to see the girls :)

Valentine's, 2016

I'm trying to get into the swing of posting again, and figured the holiday was a good time to jump back in.

The girls (especially Charlotte) had fun decorating valentines for their friends at school which we started weeks ago. And I had fun sewing their dresses the night before. Last minute as usual. Still wondering when they'll begin to protest wearing homemade creations... Emily did say that my dresses don't look like the ones from stores, but she assured me she was ok with that :)

These past few months we've seen a new, less girly, side to Em - she actually opted out of the red & gold heart fabric, in favor of the navy blue arrows. I was thrilled! Charlotte still went for the hearts. It was fun having them in different prints.

Friday morning I was in a rush finishing the dress straps and didn't have time for pics with both girls. This one's of Charlotte outside Polka Dot. If you look closely can see her purple heart nails. Emily's were red.


Charlotte picked out googly-eyed rings to give to her buddies, and we taped them onto doilies. She wrote "Charlotte" on each one - which she's getting really good at! Holidays always provide a great opportunity to practice writing, without seeming like practice.

Funny story: Charlotte was having a tough time shaping her C's so we started making dots for her to connect. But then she started writing her C's with dots, instead of one fluid line. So for a few weeks all her papers from school came home with dotted C's. That's our Charlotte :)

Emily gave hearts & arrows bracelets to her buds, which I made with a little cutting assist from Matt. These were based on an old Pinterest pin that I've been wanting to try. I think it went over ok with her friends. At least Em was happy with them.

The day of the Valentine's celebration at school was a big day for Em: her group auditioned and got into the school's talent show AND she lost her first tooth!! (Photo evidence to come.)

And of course they donned their dresses again on the actual Valentine's day, so I could snap some pics!