Nov 26 - The Saturday after Thanksgiving, I took
Rylee to the Nutcracker Ballet on a special date! I have wanted to start this tradition for a long time, but I didn't think
Rylee was old enough. This year was perfect since she is so into dance right now. She was so excited about our special girl day and to meet REAL ballerinas. It was a lot of fun! I think this will be a new yearly tradition and maybe Avery can join us in a couple years.
I was so mad because I didn't want to take my big camera so I just grabbed my little one, but when I pulled it out when we got there, the battery was dead. :( Luckily, I could use my phone, but the pictures weren't very good. To go to a performance, you have to be 5, but they allowed younger kids at the Saturday matinee, so we went to that one. They also hosted a Sugar Plum Tea Party before, and since anything "Tea Party" is SO
Rylee, we had to go to that! This is her just before going in. She looked so cute all dressed up. She actually did have a different dress on, but she tore it before we left. It was the first time she had worn it, too, so I was so sad! It didn't even make it out of the house! Luckily, we had something else pretty to wear.
Ry enjoying her Tea Party treats. All of the little ballerinas walked around and talked to the girls.
Rylee was SO shy but she loved when they talked to her! She loved hearing what parts they were and when they came out on stage during the performance, she would whisper "I met her!" She especially liked meeting Clara since we read the story before we went. She said she wants to be a ballerina someday.
Ry and her little Nutcracker mint
Mommy and Ry - What a special girls' day out! I love doing this kind of stuff with her.
We also paid to have a picture with the Sugar Plum Fairy and
Cavalier. She was so shy with them, too, but she thought it was pretty neat!
A big group of girls from our neighborhood actually all got tickets together. We took up a whole row between the girls and the moms. After the tea party, we went over and got lunch at the Bluebird before the big performance.
Rylee had such a fun time! L to R:
Rylee,
Shaylee, Felicity, Rachael, Kylie, Melody and Nikki-
Rylee's good friend Savanna also joined us at the performance.
At the performance! I was a little worried if Ry would sit through the whole thing, but she did great. She got pretty
fidgety for the last 20 minutes, but other than that, she was really into the whole thing. She loved the beginning of the story with all the little kids and Clara and then really liked when all the different kinds of dancers danced in the second half. Her favorite part was the big mother with the skirt that all the little kids came out of. She thought that was so funny! It was a great day out. I love that I have a little buddy to go to the ballet and do
girly things with me!
She was so happy when she spotted us up in the crowd! 
I wish we would have gotten better pictures of her dancing! I did get it all on video. 
Getting her groove on
This was the end of the dance. They each struck a different pose. Rylee was pretty proud of the pose she chose and would demonstrate it for us all the time at home. She looks so cute! 
After the halftime performance, we went and picked her up from the cheerleaders and she sat with us for the second half. But, first we snapped a couple pics. 
Her famous pose. 
We love our cute little cheerleader! Way to go Rylee!!!
