Friday, March 13, 2009

A Ballerina Birthday



For months Sophie has been talking about all the things she'll be able to do when she turns 4. Her day finally came a couple of weeks ago and she celebrated in style with a ballet themed birthday party.


Given that I have no ballet skills of my own, I turned things over to "Miss Meridith", who is Sophie's ballet teacher at pre-school. Seeing as how we had been building up to this for quite some time and it was pretty much all Sophie talked about for weeks, Grammy found an adorable leotard/tutu that Sophie could wear for her special day. She was joined by about 12 other little girls for a short ballet lesson, a story reading of "Angelina Ballerina," a fairy wand craft, and of course a pink ballerina cake.


The girls had a great time and it was a great opportunity for those who had never tried ballet to give it a chance. My friend Crystal's daughter Kylie was one of the newbies, and she proved to be a natural ballerina. Check out how cute she looks...


While Jack has been "sacheting" around the house for months, he chose to snack on pb&j sandwiches most of the time while bringing to my attention the reason why he has never seemed to enjoy sandwiches at home. For the party I made the sandwiches crustless, and Jack inhaled them. Lesson learned!



Needless to say, Sophie had a great time and is still talking about her party. And she (and we) are truly realizing all of the things she can do now that she's 4. It's hard to believe we've come this far and that she has gained so much independence already. Cutting her own hair was apparently on her list of "Things I can do when I turn 4", so we did need to have a little chat to get us on the same page regarding scissor privileges, and fortunately the self-imposed haircut was not too severe. But in all seriousness, 4 really does seem different than 3.
While I rejoice at the milestones my children reach as they get older, it is a little bittersweet to experience what seems to be an always increasing rate of time passing. Living in the moment is something I have had to work on throughout most of my life, and watching my children grow so quickly is a great reminder that I need to keep working on relishing each moment, even when some of those moments are more challenging than others.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Love the photos, esp the one of you and Sophie! So sad to miss out on the fun. Have to share- Julia has been deciding on a party theme and I think seeing your pics has just pushed her from a "Princesses and Princes Party" to a "Ballerina Princesses and Princes Party!" :)

Crystal said...

oh my gosh - I MUST have that picture of Kylie - too cute! Thanks for sharing!

Unknown said...

Move over Makrova!!! Sophie is just adorable!!! I'm glad you're doing such a great job keeping the memories beautiful; your blog spot is wonderful!!!

Joy, Lee