"Miracle on Main Street"

On Sunday, the Kidsing Praise Network, performed "Miracle on Main Street." The basic story is that the mayor (along with some townspeople) no longer want the Christmas pageant performed in the Main Street square. The kids decide they need to save Christmas & set about making it happen. Of course, the kids were successful.

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The preschoolers opened the show &

oh how I wish you could've heard them.

They were a R-I-O-T!!! ☺

"I Hate to Wait for Christmas"

The hippies that didn't want the

Christmas pageant to be performed

in Main Street square.

"I Believe"

The Nativity Scene

Winter Choir Concert - 2009

Here are a bunch of pictures (with descriptions right on them) of Calob's latest choir concert. They performed on Tuesday night & did a great job. It's always my favorite concert of the year.

Recital Nights 1 & 2 ... "The Nutcracker" - 2009

We made it through yet another recital weekend. Whew! There's nothing like recitals to make you go a little crazy, especially at this time of year. I can't imagine Callie NOT having the chance to dance on the stage though. She loves it. She soaks up the energy ... and pours her heart out on the stage. It truly is a beautiful thing to watch ... and that's saying a LOT since I don't like ballet. Callie did a terrific job as a rat & as a Spanish dancer. She now has 3 weeks off until the next session of dance starts & she's beside herself not knowing what to do. Poor girl just needs to dance ... all the time! Here are assorted pictures from the 2 recital nights.

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FRIDAY NIGHT PICTURES

Makenna & Callie

Fellow rats & "Clara" (aka Taylor) Callie with flowers from Oskar
Callie & Oskar exchanged Christmas presents for the first time this year. It was fun to help her shop for him & find just the right gift.
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Callie is totally blurry in this picture
but I just LOVE the look of anticipation on
Oskar's face ... LOVE IT!!!
Oskar bought Callie sweet pea perfume
Callie bought Oskar a funny shirt
So cute!

On Saturday nights I help backstage ... so I'm also known as a "helper mom." It's a whole different perspective on recitals but can be fun ... at times ... you never can tell. ☺

SATURDAY NIGHT PICTURES

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Oskar (dressed as Fritz) and Callie

Callie as a rat & the rats w/Clara

before dancing onstage

Callie the rat

More rat dancing

Spanish dance & curtain call

Oskar (dressed as The Nutcracker) & Callie and Oskar (wearing the shirt Callie gave him the night before) and Callie.

In case you're wondering, the shirts says "Don't play with duct tape." Kind of an inside thing related to D.I. ☺

Winter Recital - 2009

The ballet studio where Callie dances had their winter recital dress rehearsal on Wednesday night. They are having "The Nutcracker" as their production again this year. You might remember last year ... here and here ... when Callie danced the part of Clara (such good memories for her). This year, Callie moved up to Ballet 4 and therefore was unable to dance the part of Clara again. She was SUPER excited to find out she'd be dancing as a rat. Yep, my daughter the rat. If you don't know the story of "The Nutcracker" at all, the rats are ultimately out to get Clara & she is protected by the dolls & eventually saved by "The Nutracker" (danced again by Oskar, Callie's "special" friend). Here are some rat pictures.

That's a doll behind her ... as the rats are circling Clara The other dance she was in was the Spanish dance. (She was in the Russian & Chinese dances last year). It's a short dance (about a minute) but pretty & fun to watch.

Totally blurry but I like this picture.

The color is really good & it shows

her "in motion" ... groovy

So pretty!

Thanks to our friends that came to watch Callie (and others) on dress rehearsal night. Sharon & Emily, Andrea & Kelsey and even Jerrie came this year. Thanks ladies, Callie (and I) very much appreciate the support!

Fall Choir Concert

Calob is, once again, participating in choir. He is now a freshman & is in 2 different choirs at his school. The before-school advanced choir and 4th period choir. He enjoys them both but they are pretty different. The before-school choir is small ... which is good for an advanced choir with only 2 boys. The 4th period choir is one that anyone can join ... MUCH bigger but still only 2 boys. I'm glad that Gio has stuck with choir as well, or else Calob might not be able to at all. I'm not sure 1 guy can carry all the guy parts in any choir.

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Mrs. White introducing the before-school choir

4th period choir

Worship Dance @ V.B.S.

Callie & her friend Makenna have been attending Vacation Bible School each evening this week. It's not a church any of us attend (although Jenny does, "Hi Jenny!") but they offered a totally new & fun program this year. They had a huge list of activities the kids could do. They then chose 8 things and ranked them 1-8, with #1 being the thing they most wanted to do. Then we found out the 4 things they got to do when we took them for the first night. Monday night they did Digital Photography. Tuesday night they did Worship Dance. Last night was Beaded Jewelry. Tonight is Cake Decorating. It's such a huge array of things but so much fun to try new things. As it happened, the Worship Dance that Callie did was taught be her very own ballet teacher, Miss Heather. I wasn't able to see them perform their dance at the end of the night but Terence made sure to record it for me. They did a GREAT job - especially considering they had about 90 minutes to learn the dance. Beautiful for sure!!!

Just in case you didn't know, Callie is the one in black
leggings & the purple and blue shirt.

Spring 2009 Recital Night

This first picture was taken by Calob at the dress rehearsal. I like how Callie is kinda going to the side ... a funky shot.

The rest of the pictures were taken Saturday night, when I was a helper mom backstage & my mom was a helper grandmother.

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The girls before they danced

Taylor, Callie, Lindsey, Anna, Elea & Kaarina

Proper ballerinas??

My mom took this one ... sorry about the redeye
This is the start of Callie's dance on Saturday night. The lighting was incredible! They didn't light it like this on the night of the dress rehearsal so when we watched (from the audience) Friday night it was really a great surprise. It just fit with the music, the dance ... everything. These 2 pictures were taken from the wings, backstage ... so they aren't great.

Callie & Oskar
Oskar & Callie :)

Callie & Me

Grandma Judy & Callie

2009 Spring Dress Rehearsal

2 weeks ago Callie's spring dress rehearsal was held. The girls in Callie's class (all 6 of them) really shined for the dress rehearsal. They've come SO far since they started dancing & were truly beautiful to watch. I think it's definitely the best I've seen the class dance ... I was quite proud!!!

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Kaarina & Callie before they danced

The beginning of their dance

(Callie is front left)
The end of the dance

As usual, I couldn't narrow down the pictures I wanted to post as there were so many good ones. I did a few mosaics so I could post more without burning your eyes ... you are welcome! lol