Brooke's First Dance Performance

The girls had a dance performance at the mall last week. It was Brooke's first dance performance and boy was she excited! Brooke's class is called "Blossoms" and so they had them dressed as flowers. Sooooo cute!

 

  Aren't they just adorable?! There is one more girl in her class, but I guess she wasn't up to performing. I love that it's a small class.

Brooke & Aubrey's classes were at the end of the show and the waiting was hard for Brooke. After every dance she would ask, "Is it my turn yet?" It's finally her turn! Here she is walking on stage.

They start off asleep (like little seeds).

Then they wake up and stretch their petals.

 

Jump Brooke Jump!

For some reason after her dance was over and everyone was complimenting her she just started crying. I'm not sure if she was disappointed that it was over or if she was feeling shy from all the attention or if all the excitement had just overwhelmed her. But she sure did look cute even with mascara running down her face. I was glad that the next morning she excitedly told me that she had gotten to dance the night before. So I know that she enjoyed it. I hope for the end of term concert she can feel better after it's over.

Here's her little dance. It cracks me up how concerned she is that she is standing right on her circle. Such a cute little blossom she is!

Aubrey of course was thrilled to be in another dance show. She just loves to perform!

What a beautiful little ballerina she is!

I was happy with Aubrey's improvement in dancing with the tempo and not hurrying through all of her memorized moves. I thought she did really well keeping on time with her teacher. (Yes that is Brooke crying all through her dance :( )

I sure do love watching my little ladies dance!

Swim Class

 The girls started swim class last week and they couldn't have been more excited! They've been asking all Fall and Winter when we would be able to go swimming again, so when I told them it was swim class day that's all they could talk about!

 Although I loved the survival swim class they took last year, it just couldn't fit into our budget this year. Since Brooke is now old enough for the city classes we just went that route this year.

Yay - class is about to begin!

My two cute little fish just jumped right in and weren't at all nervous! Usually after it's been awhile they are a little timid in the water. Not this year. They both had no trouble going all the way under the water and trying to do everything their teachers asked!

By the end of the second class, Aubrey was jumping under the water and swimming a little. I'd be surprised if she isn't swimming across the pool by the end. Here's hoping at least!

Brooke's class takes it slower, so I'm hoping she'll remember her back floating and pick up front floating by the end.

Ice Skating

 For Family Home Evening a couple of weeks ago we took the girls ice skating. The girls had recently watched a Barbie movie in which Barbie ice skates. They were dying to try out ice skating themselves. I love to take my girls to try new things. However, I was a little worried this time because I don't know how to skate. But, I couldn't let my girls down, so I told them that Daddy was going to teach us all how to skate! Thankfully they have these little walker things for little kids to push around the ice and that saved the day for me. I just held on to one of those with the girls and was able to make it around the ice with them!

Here the girls are all ready  and super excited to take the ice!

Aubrey going around the first time. Both girls were such troupers. They weren't scared at all. They got right on the ice and even though they fell several times they just got up and kept trying!

Here's Brookie going around with Daddy!

Me and my cute little skaters!

By the end Aubrey was able to skate with just holding on to one of Daddy's hands. Me and Brookie took it slow with the walker most of the time. She did go around once with Daddy holding on to his hands though. While we were leaving Aubrey said, "Can we go ice skating again tomorrow?!" I think Daddy will have to take her on a Daddy Daughter date to the ice rink sometime soon!

Teach Me to Walk in the Light

 On Sunday April 15th, my girls and I got to sing the musical number at church with our friends Rachel and Zoe. The three girls sang the first verse together (it was darling and I immediately started crying :( ), Rachel and I sang the second verse (really I just cried through it - so embarrassing.) & we all sang the third verse. All the girls did such an amazing job singing their parts. After we were finished and sat back down, Brooke said, "Do we get to go up and sing 'Teach me to Walk' again Mommy?"

 The cute little singers.

 The girls were so excited to sing at church, especially Brooke because it was her first time. She has had to watch from the pews during Primary & choir numbers. And lately she has not at all been happy about that. She was so excited to, "Get to sing on the big stage at church!" It was such a big deal to her that the Friday night before she had a nightmare about not getting to sing. She woke up crying hard and saying, "I want to sing too. I don't want to sit down here with Daddy. . ." She was saying that over and over again while balling. I finally woke her up and Jeff and I had to explain for several minutes that it was just a bad dream and that she really was going to get to go up and sing this time.

Aubrey of course is always happy to have the spotlight!

Lately Brooke likes to be shy for the camera. Silly girl.

And Aubrey likes to make funny faces.

Aubrey was so proud of these wristbands she made in primary that she wanted a picture of them too!

I'm so glad to be able to give my girls opportunities to perform and do potentially scary things. I'm hoping it will help them avoid stage fright in the future. (I've always had a pretty bad case of performance anxiety and I'm hoping to not pass that on to my girls! Their daddy does too, so they have it coming from both directions!) They both love to perform so I hope to give them enough experience with it that it will stay fun for them!

Bike Riding

 Last week I picked up a second hand two wheeler for Aubrey. She was so excited! (After I got it home I realized it was in pretty bad shape, so I should have waited until I found a better one. Oh well, live and learn!) Hopefully it will be in good enough condition for Aubrey to ride it a little this Spring and Summer.

 Brooke was so excited that now the Princess trike was hers! She now calls it her new bike. I love that so far Brooke has no problem with hand me downs and gets just as excited about them as she does new things!

 

I'm hoping that with some practice Brooke will be able to ride the trike and Aubrey the two wheeler soon!