On First Recitals

Margaret started ballet lessons this year and after Christmas she was bumped up into the big girl Level I class that got to dance in the end of year showcase.  She was really excited, except for all the days that she had to actually drive to ballet class and get ready to dance.  Then she was significantly less excited.  She always loved dancing once she got going but I'm not sure it was worth the headache for me trying to get her there and then get her very particular ballet bun--which involved a lot of hair gel, hairspray, bobby pins, and a hair net--in. 

She did really enjoy dancing in the showcase though and she did not disappoint as the youngest dancer on stage, giving the audience a taste of some very spastic ribbon twirling as well as some really great binocular eyes every time she danced past the front of the stage as she attempted to see through the theater lights to find us. 

The boys enjoyed the performance immensely and Christopher in particular keeps asking when we can go back to the recital again. 

We'll see if I can work up the endurance to find a new studio in Virginia and let her dance again in the fall knowing that she will most likely alternate between being a grumpy bear who hates dancing and a lovely pirouetting mouse who lives for ballet.  Oh my little ballerina.  At least she's cute :)

On the Beginnings of Summer

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It's officially June here and I've just today taken down all the winter coats to wash and put away until next year.  Vermont Spring is intense.  The kids still need pretty hefty sweatshirts to make it through the mornings and evenings but I can't keep the winter coats out into June.  I just can't. 

School's been over at our house for the past few weeks so we've had plenty of time for tree climbing, bouquet gathering, standing in the street with ropes tied around us (?!?), and outdoor quilting so that's been refreshing to our frozen spirits, even if it's still a mite chilly when the sun's not shining.  Our kids never seem to be at a loss for finding ways to amuse themselves, even if I'm never quite sure what exactly they're playing at. 

Along with emerging from our winter hibernation, we've been out indulging in our newest passion:  shopping estate sales.  I always imagined estate sales as a scary, high anxiety, bidding situation taking place inside strangers houses.  In reality it's pretty much a giant garage sale where the person in charge of pricing has zero emotional attachment to the goods and at the end of the day just wants the house to be completely empty.  It's so fun. 

We've gotten some really great finds for so, so cheap including an antique slant top writing desk for David that just screams "New England" and also, "ha! You can't stack detritus all over me, I guess you'll just have to put all those random papers, books, and craft supplies back where they actually belong!" (you know, because of the slanted top).  He has no idea what's coming when we set it up in his new room.  I'm diabolical.  We also went to Donald Hall's estate sale, the author of the Ox-Cart Man (affiliate link).  He had a prolific library, as you can probably imagine, and I came home with his collection of Evelyn Waugh and most of his Russian literature.  He had a lot of Tolstoy stories that I had never heard of.  Five books for a dollar!  If he hadn't been the type of man who throws away all of his dust jackets it would have been perfect.  As it was, I left with more books than was probably strictly necessary.  I can't help myself, I have a compulsion to save all the books!  What if they were sending all the unclaimed ones to be recycled?  Let's not even think about such things. 

The one downside to going to estate sales is that it ruins other types of bargain shopping, like flea markets.  We drove down to Brimfield last month which has been a life goal of mine ever since I first heard of it and we didn't buy a single thing.  The prices were so high!  Probably because all the vendors were bringing in all of their estate sale finds and selling them at a mark up to turn a profit.  It's just all ruined.  We can't bring ourselves to pay flea market prices for estate sale finds.  Plus it's not as fun when someone else is doing all the treasure hunting for you.  Oh well :) 

Now I'm trying to balance playing outside with the kids and being a fun summer mom with getting our next home school year planned and preparing for our move later this summer.  Hopefully this is the last move for a while--this will be three in three years--and I wouldn't mind a bit of a break from setting up new homes.  It takes a lot of mental energy and somehow I don't have much of that to spare.  I've got all the school books ordered already and I just need to make all our new checklists and schedules now, which is the most draining part so I keep putting it off.

I think I'll bake blueberry muffins in the morning.  Fun summer moms bake blueberry muffins for breakfast right?  Then maybe I'll get back to the home school planning.  Perhaps.  Or perhaps I'll sit outside and work on my quilt while the kids play strange rope games. 

It's hard to predict these things.



PS David bought that rope for himself at an estate sale.  There's no limit to what you can find to delight even the most particular shopper :)