My Tiny Dancer!

Kylie danced in The Nutcracker this weekend.  It was put on by her dance studio, Curtain Call Dance Academy.  This was their 5th year.  Kylie had two parts - she was a mouse in the Battle Scene and a nymph in the Lemonade Sea. 
Practice started in September and was nearly every Saturday for several hours.  Kylie really put a lot of time into it but never complained.  She seemed to love every minute of it.  And it showed in her performance. 
I was working backstage during the second show and wearing headphones which allowed me to get directions from the director and stage hands.  While Kylie was finishing her Battle Scene, I heard the owner of the company who was working in the sound booth tell the director how cute Kylie was.  And the director said "Yes, she is.  And she's a good listener and hard worker.  She's the perfect triple play."  So nice to hear other people talk about how great your kid is!

I think Kylie's eyes were really opened to how much goes into putting on a show like this.  On our way home, she remarked that the dancers are just a little part of the show, that the director, backstage crew, parents, sound and lighting people do so much too.  It was nice to see her start to understand the bigger picture and appreciate what others are doing to make it such a good show. 
Well, enought writing about it, here are the videos!

Battle Scene

Lemonade Sea

Nutcracker Finale

Age Group Awards for me AND mom!!

Yup, couldn't be more proud of my mom. She started running this summer to lose weight and improve her cardio health.  She got hooked and let me talk her into running this small 5k today. 126 people ran/walked/rolled it (it was a fundraiser for the Indianapolis wheelchair rugby team).

Weather was perfect, low 50's and sunny. Mom took my advice and wore short sleeves and capris but was complaining at the start that she was cold. I kept assuring her that she would warm up fast. Countdown started and we were off. She wanted me to run my race and then double back to bring her in. So I did that. I can tell that I have raced in months because I was struggling pretty fast at my normal 5k RP of 7:30. So I slowed it down to 8:00 and held on to that. Finished with my worst 5k time ever, 25:18. Oh well, not bad for only putting in about 20 miles TOTAL since my marathon in September.

I turned around and jogged back up the course to find mom. Found her about 1/2 mile away and ran back with her. She was hold on to a steady pace but was working really hard, didn't want to chat at all! She finished strong with a time of 39:30! Her goal was to break 45:00!

We cooled down and enjoyed some post race apples and cookies while we waited for the awards to start. I figured I was out of awards contention since I bonked so bad and saw a few ladies pass me. Last year I had a 3rd place overall finish here and the year before won my age group so I was feeling a little bummed. But I knew there was a chance that mom could pull out an award.

So I was surprised when they called my name for 2nd place in my AG (got a key chain). But the thrill of my day was when they called my mom's name! She was so shocked that she actually jumped out of her seat. She won a pumpkin pie. But the huge smile on her face was the prize for us all.

As we were walking through the parking lot, mom was proudly holding her pie. And she asked me "Do they have 5k's in December?? Because I want to do another one right away." So I think we're doing a Jingle Bell run next month together. She's hooked.

Proud of you mom!!!

brightroom event photography

brightroom event photography

Here are pictures from our marathon.