Nutcracker!!

I am happy to report that Nutcracker came off without incident this year. There were no temper tantrums or vomiting -- and the girls did well, too (ha, ha!) Lizzie and Hannah were both angels. Additionally Hannah played a little mouse and one of the Chinese dancers and Lizzie was a little boy in the party scene (which takes up much of the 1st act!) It was a lot of work and a lot of dancing, but (in my humble and totally correct opinion) they were STARS! Here they are in their angel garb. If you go back to last year's Nutcracker post, you'll see that they changed the halos this year and these were much better!

Here is Hannah in her Chinese costume. As you will notice she is ON POINTE!! We were originally told that they wouldn't be (because Hannah's never taken any pointe classes -- since they aren't recommended until a girl is 11) but I guess on thing led to another and before we new it, Hannah was dancing on her toes. She was very good at it, too!

Here's Lizzie in her Little Boy costume. She was also selected to hand out programs to the audience as they entered the theater. I've always thought she was a gorgeous girl, but she makes an adorable boy, too, doesn't she?

And here's the whole costume for Lizzie:

Hannah was a Little Mouse:

Here  they both are together in their Act I costumes in the wonderful lighting of the backstage stairwell!

Aunt Terry and Shelby came to the Saturday night show and gave the girls gorgeous flowers:

And then it was time for the Cast Party. The dance company does the cast party on Saturday night, which makes it VERY hard to get up on Sunday and do another performance, but it's so much fun that I let the girls stay. This year we got home around 11 p.m. and all three of us made it to CCD that morning!

Here's Lizzie with her friend Nina. Nina's mom and I lead the brownie troop together and Nina was an angel for the first time this year!

And here's Hannah signing an autograph at the cast party. The program leaves space for autographs and both girls signed their name a lot. They LOVED that!

 The Sunday performance went well, and we had lots of family there to see it. After the show was over there was time for a few more autographs...

The Kevins came and brought with them a gazillion birthday gifts for part of the never-ending birthday. Aunt Tina and Uncle T.A. and Aunt Ann also brought gifts, and then there were also NUTCRACKER congratulations gifts. Seriously, it was probably better than Christmas with all the loot! Here's big Kevin taking a picture of Lizzie opening some of the gazillion gifts:

Here's Hannah and Kevin playing with the hamsters:

Here's Kevin sharing a moment with Sunshine, just before he realized that Sunshine had left a "deposit" in his pocket:

The Rasmussens were there, too, looking very festive:

One of the presents they got were these short range texting toys where you could text someone in the next room. Lizzie wants to give one of hers (they come in pairs) to her best friend Keira so they can text during the school day since they aren't in the same class anymore. I'm sure the teachers would really appreciate that. ;)

Here are the younger Garritys and little Kevin admiring some of the gifts. Little Kevin was beyond thrilled when he saw Tommy (who is a year younger than him) and new he had someone to play with!

Here are the girls and Little Kevin. I'm not surprised by how much they look alike, but I am always amazed at how much they ACT alike, since they aren't being raised together. The whole nature vs. nurture thing is fascinating:

So, we wrap up another year of Nutcracker. Auditions for next year are in January, so time keeps marching forward!: