A Girl's Day Out at Shen Yun

When I was little my mom often took me to plays and the symphony.  We would get all dressed up and have a fancy dinner before and then enjoy an amazing evening of culture and art.  Recently my mom heard about a traveling production called Shen Yun.  It tells stories of the ancient Chinese culture through music and Chinese dance with beautiful flowing costumes.  Mom thought Rachel would love it so she bought us tickets to attend.  Isn't that amazing?

Rachel talked about it for days before the show and kept reminding me of the countdown of days until we would go.  The day finally came and we got all dressed up.

The performance was at 1:00 but on our way we stopped at the Omni Mandalay Hotel in Las Colinas to have a fancy breakfast buffet.  Rachel kept talking about how fancy the hotel was and how she couldn't imagine staying at such a beautiful place.

The restaurant in the hotel is called Trevi's.  I had never been there before but I wanted a nice place to dine that was along our way to the Music Hall at Fair Park where Shen Yun was performing.  Trevi's turned out to be perfect for what I was looking for.

There was a wide selection of warm foods like oatmeal, pancakes, french toast, chorizo with eggs, scrambled eggs, bacon, and two types of sausage.

Rachel loved all of the fresh fruit options for her pancake.

There was also a a wide choice of cold cereals and granola.  Rachel chose Fruit Loops!  I never buy them because they have a lot of sugar in them so it was a real treat for her to have some.

She was just dazed by how elegant her breakfast was and she loved being able to go back to the buffet for more yummy things.

I enjoyed a made to order omelette.  Rachel wants to be a chef someday so she enjoyed watching the chef make it right in front of us.

There was also a wide selection of pastries, bagels, and fresh bread along with several choices of toppings.  There were just too many choices to be able to try everything.  I guess we will have to come back sometime soon.

We made it the Music Hall at Fair Park and found our seats easily.  We were on the 5th row and Rachel just couldn't wait for the show to begin.

Photography of the show is not allowed.  It always makes me sad when performances say that because I wish I could share the beauty of the performance with you.  Needless to say, Rachel was in awe the whole time.  She loved it and would love to go back again next year.

Getting Ready for her Dance Recital

Rachel has loved taking a jazz class at Footlights this year.   She took ballet and tap lessons a couple of years ago at a different dance studio but she didn't seem to really get into it.  This is her first year at Footlights and she loves it.  Her teacher is amazing and fun.

They are gearing up for their big end of the year recital and I caught some videos of them practicing in class.  I can't wait for the actual performance! She's pretty excited too because she loves their pink costume!


Here is a quick video of a dance leap she did.  She loves doing those!

The girls were able to get professional pictures taken in their costumes.  I snapped this cute picture of her while she was waiting for her turn.

I took a few pictures while Rachel was posing for the photographer.  She loved feeling like a model!

 

Way to go, Rachel!  I can't wait to see it all come together at the recital!

Our Little Dancer's Year End Recital

Rachel loves taking dance classes.  She especially loves recital time because she gets her hair curled and she gets a new sparkly dance costume to wear.  Fortunately I had grabbed her curlers and costume when we were packing up to move into the hotel!

Daddy and Nicholas went to get a bouquet of flowers to give her after the recital while Rachel and I stayed in the hotel room getting her ready for the show.  She looks so grown up in this picture (well, except for the chocolate milk moustache!)

 

Daddy and his little princess walking into the building.

 

Rachel just loves being all dressed up.  She informed us that she is the most beautiful girl ever when she is wearing her costume.  I would have to agree but I don't think the costume is the reason.

Although Stuart bought me a new "tough" camera at Christmas, we were disappointed with the video quality and returned it.  Unfortunately, I haven't replaced it with something else so the only camera we have right now is the big D90 or our cell phones.  We recorded the dance with the D90 but it made for still pictures and has only a rudimentary video function which doesn't include auto focus!  It is quite a challenge to use so just bear with us.  I've ordered the professionally made DVD of the recital but here you can see the videos that we made.  

Here is Rachel's ballet dance... 



And her tap dance....


Don't forget the finale!  There are always lots of squeals when the curtains finally close :)
After the recital, Daddy gave Rachel a sweet bouquet of flowers.

After the recital, Rachel got to pick where we went for dinner.  She wanted crab legs at Joe's Crab Shack.  We don't usually eat there because it is kind of expensive but went since it was her special day.

She insisted on cracking the crab legs herself and she did a great job.  

Free Ice Cream Cone (and a silly girl)

Earlier today Rachel found my box of party supplies that I keep stored in her closet.  She found this paper pirate hat from a previous pirate party for Nicholas.  She has worn it ALL. DAY. LONG.  She even insisted on wearing it in dance class.  She's just the cutest pirate ballerina I've ever seen!

After dinner tonight we headed out for some ice cream.  We go to Ben and Jerry's for ice cream every year on this day.

And when we do there is always a line across the courtyard!

Why might you ask?  Because April 8th is the anniversary date for the first Ben and Jerry's ice cream shop.  Since 1979, when they celebrated their one year anniversary, April 8th has been known as Ben and Jerry's customer appreciation day and they give everyone a FREE ice cream cone!  Woo hoo!

We even got to see their cute cow mascot in person!

Rachel picked Mint Chocolate ice cream and Nicholas got Strawberry.  

Of course, I picked Chunky Monkey which is the best banana ice cream around complete with fudge chunks and walnuts!

Daddy got Triple Caramel Chunk which is caramel ice cream with a swirl of caramel and fudge covered caramel chunks.  Wow!  Doesn't that sound AMAZING!

After our indulgent dessert we stopped by Party City on the way home.  Nicholas needed some balloons because tomorrow he is going to be making balloon animals at the homeschool craft show.  As we were leaving, Rachel ran up to this picture in the window and squealed, "Look she's just like me!"  She was referring to the ribbon pin that the girl in the picture was wearing.  As I mentioned earlier, Rachel dug out some of my party supplies and found a blue ribbon pin which she wore all day.  She asked me to get a picture of her with the giant picture!

Every day is fun and crazy with these kids!

Recital Time is Coming!

Rachel is super excited because she got to try on her costume for her upcoming dance recital. We had the girls just put the costume on over their leotards so they look a little funny like this but we were just trying to make sure the fit was right and didn't want to take the time to have all the girls completely change out of their leotards. The girls were so excited to wear their fancy costumes. They were flitting and leaping all over the room.

The girls were excited to practice their tap dance in their costumes!  Check out this cute video below :)

Our Little Dancer

I had to wake Rachel up extra early this morning to get ready for her dress rehearsal for her big dance recital later today.  I was a little worried that she would be whiny and fussy since she doesn't like to be woken up from sleep, especially 2 hours before she usually wakes up.  But she did fine.

She is such a sweet sleeper, cuddling her pink blanket.  I had to snap this pic before I woke the sleeping beauty.

We had a tight schedule since I had to get her hair curled and in full costume to be at the auditorium for 8:30.  She was kind of bouncy as I was trying to put curlers in her hair.  We were in her room so she kept trying to reach for a toy or dance around.  It was getting a bit stressful for me trying to curl a moving target.

I suddenly remembered my mom curling my hair when I was little (I now can appreciate what a challenge it is!)  I remembered that she would let me watch TV while she worked on my hair so I scuttled Rachel downstairs and we tried that. Genius!!!  Her head stayed still and looked straight ahead the whole time.  

She felt pretty special with curlers in her hair!  What sass!

She ate breakfast and got her costume on and then we styled her hair.  Whew!  Everything was going fine.  Now just to get to the auditorium.  I'm not familiar with that area of town so I was a little worried about finding it.  But GPS gave me a clear shot there.

We were almost to the auditorium for the dress rehearsal and we were right on time.  I was feeling pretty good.  Then Rachel said from the back seat, "Oh no, this is bad.  This is really bad."  I wish I had gotten a picture of what I saw but I'll just have to say that her pink tights were completely torn up along the front of one leg.  It was very obvious but I figured I could at least turn them around so that the tear was on the back side of her leg instead of the front.  Not ideal but what else could I do?  Who knew I needed to have an extra pair of tights with me!

Fortunately her dance teacher is awesome and prepared for anything so she whipped out an extra pair of tights for Rachel.  I got her changed and on stage just in time for their tap dance rehearsal.  

Since it is just the rehearsal and not the real show, they let moms get right up to the stage to take pictures and videos.

Here is her tap dance performance.  Their teacher is off to the side doing the dance with them to help keep them in step so you'll see them all looking over at her throughout the performance.

(If you are reading this post on email, you will need to click on the title of the post to go to the actual blog post to see the video of her tap dance.)

After the tap dance rehearsal, Rachel was able to come out into the audience and watch some of the other girls perform.  She kicked back and relaxed without a care in the world.

Here is the ballet dance.  I would have liked to have edited out a little practice run at the beginning of this clip but I'm too impatient to wait for Stuart to re-install the software I need to do it so you'll have to watch the whole thing until I can fix it later.

(Again, if you are reading this in email, you'll have to go to the actual blog to see the video.)

Great dancing Rachel!

We made it home and as we were getting out of the car, a florist van drove up.  The lady said she had a delivery for Rachel.  Rachel wasn't quite sure what to think but a little smile started to creep across her face when she realized the flowers were sent from Grandmother and Grandfather C. The lady knelt down and showed Rachel all the pretty pink flowers and the little pink bird in the bouquet.

She even let Rachel be the big girl and sign for the delivery.  Rachel loved that!

Beautiful flowers for a beautiful dancer.

Rachel, you are such a delight in our lives.  We are so proud of you and can't wait to see your big performance on stage this afternoon!