The Nutcracker Ballet

On Wednesday we read the story of the Nutcracker. On Thursday, K and I saw it performed at a beautiful theater with other moms & daughters from our co-op. It was done by professional dancers who belong to a professional ballet company, but they involved a few children in it, too. It was fun to see them introduced and find out two of them are homeschoolers, too!

This is just inside the theater entrance looking up...it's a beautiful, ornate theater.

We rode together with K's friend C and her mom. Here are the girls on the steps inside the theater...
And here they are waiting patiently for ballet to begin...they both take ballet lessons and are in tap lessons together...
Because it was pouring snow that morning & everything was a slushy, snowy mess, I opted to be practical and dress us both in jeans & boots. I could tell K was a bit disappointed when we met C and her mom to ride with them and they were dressed in "fancy" clothes. I told K when we go to another ballet, we'll dress up! :o)

K & I on the steps in the theater...
I asked K what her favorite part of the ballet was and she said, "All of it, except the Mouse King." The guy who danced as the Mouse King wore a hideous, large mouse mask. They introduced the characters at the beginning (as the performance we saw was part of the educational series) and K just about jumped out of my lap when he came on the stage. She spent the first few minutes of Act 1 asking me if the Mouse King was coming out. I assured her he would come out later so she relaxed a bit.

On the way home, we ate lunch at Red Robin with C and her mom...a special treat! We shared a freckled lemonade (strawberry lemonade that is soooooo good!) and I let K order dessert after she saw the picture of the tiny cupcakes and asked to have one. She chose a pink lemonade cupcake, of course!
After we returned home, K came upstairs dancing in a pink dress telling me she was "young Clara" from the Nutcracker. A few minutes later she changed into a white dress and told me she was "older Clara." She loves ballet! It's fun to see her pretending to be the dancers she saw on the stage...she told me the other day she wants to dance on a big stage someday. Maybe she will...