My dancers

Here are more pictures of my little dancers. See my previous post for some more explanation!

"Dance class today, mom?" For the last couple months Avery and Presley have frequently asked me that question. My good friend Kaedi Fahlberg (Garvin) lives in Durham right now with her family, and she told me about a dance teacher who teaches 2 year olds for 1/2 hour a week. Sydney, Kaedi's daughter has been dancing too. We have gone every week for two months and both girls are definitely going to be sad the next time I have to answer their question, because we went to dance class today for the last time (at least for a while anyway).
This was the scene the first few times: the coaxing of Presley by mom and teacher while everyone looked on. Eventually, she did decide things were too exciting to miss, and changed her attitude.
Avery (in purple) on the other hand, was enthusiastic from the first moment. She proved to be one of the best listeners and one of the most coordinated in the class!
Some of the activities included twirling and throwing stuffed animals into the air, leaping with magic wands and doing glorified actions to Itsy Bitsy Spider, Pop Goes the Weasel and Ring Around the Rosies. They even stirred and squished applesauce with their fingers and toes. In this picture they are painting the sky with their toes - they would take turns choosing a color and a subject matter and then lean back and go for it. Pink princesses, rainbow clouds, purple flowers...

This part was my favorite! They would all line up and wait their turn to "tiptoe" down the masking tape line, leap over the horizontal line, twirl in the square and do a leg lift on the cross at the end. It was so entertaining to watch each little person, especially when they did their leg lifting!
Avery twirling (and Presley waiting her turn with the others).
The best shot of a leg lift I could ever get...
Toward the end of the two months, they learned a little dance (or some actions) to the song "I'm Taking Home a Baby Bumble Bee." Avery and Sydney are holding the bumble bee and Presley has her buzzing wings out in this picture.

I'm so glad I put forth the effort to let them have this experience. Yes, they are only two and by no means did they really learn to dance, but the tutus, the music, the "great jobs!" and the looking forward to a 1/2 hour each week was priceless!

Berries and bugs

Strawberry picking! We didn't know what to expect...they were enormous and red and they did squish easily in little hands. There were rows and rows of big beautiful green plants. We took home three full buckets but didn't seem to make a dent in the harvest. In the end though, I think the lady bug stole the show!