Our Weekend - The One with Olivia’s First Ballet Recital and Providence Canyon

*This post may contain affiliate links, which means at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through or make a purchase.

Whew, what a weekend!  We now officially have soccer and dance behind us for the season and it feels so good! 

Friday evening, Olivia had rehearsal for her big ballet and tap recital on Sunday.  We rushed home right after school, had snacks, and started getting her ready.  She had to be at the theater in full makeup and hair by 5, so I was stressing a little bit.  I may have long hair, but I’ve never been good at styling hair and I have been worrying nonstop for months about being responsible for her ballet bun for her production.  I am just terrible at hair stuff.  Well, I bought this kit from Amazon (Mommas with little ballerinas... GET THIS!  It has everything you need to make the perfect ballerina bun!), watched a YouTube video, and I’ll be danged if her bun didn’t come out AWESOME.  I was tooting my horn all night.  Haha.

We made it to the theater right on time, got settled in, and then B came and grabbed Jacob so he didn’t have to suffer through hours of rehearsals.  

Olivia’s dance school has students from age 3 all the way through high school, so their production each year is HUGE.  It’s held at the biggest theater in town, and it usually sells out since they open the box office to the public.  This year, they put on Cinderella, plus they had a tribute to the last 50 years of music and dance since they are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year.  The show has one intermission and runs a little over three hours from start to finish.  Whew.  It’s a long one.  Therefore, the rehearsals can run verrrry long. 

Fortunately, both of Olivia’s numbers were before intermission this year, so we only ended up staying for about three hours.  And since this production is open to the general public each year, they don’t allow parents to take pictures or videos during the actual productions, so we had to do all of our picture-taking and videoing during rehearsals.  Some of our friends from school go to the same dance school so we sat with them while we were waiting to get started, and they filled us in about how the evening was going to go.

For rehearsals the moms were able to go backstage to get the girls ready for their tap number as well as get them changed into their second costume for their ballet number.  Then on show day they had a “room mom” who had to get them into their ballet costumes since they didn’t want all of the parents coming and going a lot and disrupting the audience during the actual production.

Olivia was in Acts 5 and 16, so we were shown to our dressing room early in the evening.  I got her changed into her “Bluebird” costume for her tap number and she was ready to go!  Once the girls had been lead towards the stage area, all of us moms were able to go back out into the theater to film them and take pictures.  They were absolutely precious.  Since they’re all four and five years old, naturally, they all forgot some of their moves and steps at times, but Olivia did so great overall.  I was BEAMING with pride.  They tapped to Rockin’ Robin and it was just the cutest thing.  (She's third from the left on stage in the picture below.)

Once her tap number was over, all of us moms rushed back to the dressing room to get our little ladies ready for their ballet performance.  Ballet is where Olivia really shines, and she was thrilled to finally get to wear her ballet costume on stage.  For her ballet performance, she was a “Sunbeam” (she kept calling it a submarine.  LOL) and she danced to “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles.  She did so great again and wasn’t the least bit worried or shy about being on stage.  She is not her mother’s child.  Haha.

Once she had rehearsed her part, we were allowed to leave, so she and I headed straight for the Chick-Fil-A drive through because we were both starving.  By then it was already after 8 PM and we’re used to eating dinner at 6ish, so it was way overdue.  My parents just so happened to be leaving Cracker Barrel next door, so we pulled in the parking lot at CFA because Olivia wanted them to see her “pretty hair and makeup.”  Good Lawd, that child was just as excited about getting to wear makeup as she was getting on stage!

Olivia was starving so she ate in the car on the way home, and we were back home by 8:30 to join the boys who were finishing up watching one of the Star Wars movies.  Snooooze.  Hehe.

B and I ended the evening with Blizzards from DQ that he and Jacob had picked up earlier in the evening, and we watched a couple of episodes of Big Little Lies. 

Saturday we had planned to take a little road trip to Providence Canyon, and fortunately, it was a beautiful day, so we hit the road bright and early to beat the heat.  I had never been to Providence Canyon so I didn’t know what to expect, but since I have been to the Grand Canyon, my expectations were pretty low. 

We ended up walking/hiking for a good two hours taking in all of the views, and it was pretty neat despite the fact that I had already seen the Grand Canyon.  The kids found a playground since it’s in a state park, so we stopped there for snacks and to let them play for a bit, and then we finished our walk/hike.

After we left the canyon, we ate a late lunch at Panera, and then we headed home to have a couple of hours of downtime before church.

We headed to our usual 5:30 mass, followed by dinner at one of our favorite pubs with my mom, dad, grandmother, aunt, and uncle, and then B and I watched two more episodes of Big Little Lies.  It’s getting really good now and I’m hooked!

Sunday was bussssy because it was recital day… the day that Olivia has literally been waiting on for ten months!  Seriously, she has probably asked about 100 times since August when she was going to be able to dance on the stage.  Not even exaggerating.  Lol.

I was up slightly earlier than usual to make homemade waffles with girly sprinkles for the girl of the day, and then I was off to get ready and pick up flowers to give to our tiny dancer after her performance. 

We all choked down a super fast lunch, and then it was time to see if I could duplicate Olivia’s awesome ballet bun or to realize it had all been a fluke the first time.  I’m happy to say, I did just as great of a job on Sunday, and it took less time the second time around!  I guess practice does really make perfect, eh?  And I guess I need to start doing her hair like that more often now. 

After hair and makeup, we gathered our 500 bags of stuff and headed to the theater.  Olivia and I had to be dropped off at the back stage door and then B and Jacob went in through the public entrance to go find seats for us.  I told Olivia she was a VIP for the day since she got to enter through the stage door.  ;o)  We also had to stop by the step and repeat for some pictures there, too.  :o)

We were the first ones in our dressing room, so she and I took a few pictures together and then it was time to get her into her bluebird costume.  All of the other girls from her class came trickling in shortly after, and her teacher and teacher’s assistant both came by to drop off the sweetest little goodies for the girls and to tell them good luck.  Her head teacher and the teaching assistant were both in the production, too, so they weren’t able to stay.

All of us moms got the girls ready and then we helped them practice, and then it was time to say goodbye and head to our seats.  Our room mom ended up being super late arriving, so I finally made it to my seat only about two minutes before show time.  EEKS! 

The production was fabulous – all of the details were perfect – and the kids all did a great job.  Olivia’s class is one of the youngest classes, so when they came out, the audience all starting oohing and aahing about how tiny they were.  And when a few of the girls struggled with their steps and waved to their mommas and made up their own dances everyone started cracking up.  It was just the cutest thing!  Olivia did really great and I had tears in my eyes the entire time.  I am just so proud of her!

I had worried about not being able to be the one to get her into her ballet costume, but the room mom did a great job!  She was wearing all of the correct items and her hair stayed in place.  #Whew  And all of the girls were just darling for their second act as sunbeams.

Once her ballet performance was over, I snuck out to go grab her from the back, as they wanted all of the moms to come and get them since they were done for the production.  By the time I got to her, she was already back in her street clothes, and we packed up her little ballet bag and headed back to the audience together.  She was able to watch the next hour and a half of the production with us and she was just enamored the entire time.

At intermission, we all went out in the lobby so she could say hello to all of her grandparents who had come to watch her.  We gave her flowers and took pictures, and we all told her what a great job she did.  There was still another 45 minutes in the production after intermission, but Olivia was exhausted, so we all decided to go ahead and make our exit.  We’ll get a professional DVD of the whole thing, so we can see what we missed when that arrives.

By the time we left, it was dinner time, so we let the girl of the hour pick the restaurant, and she chose Mexican – LOL.  What else?  So my parents and the four of us headed to our favorite Mexican place near our house for margs and cheese dip and tacos.  Yum yum. 

Sunday evening, B and I crashed on the couch to watch American Idol (and later, Game of Thrones, for him) and I was soooo mad that Alejandro didn’t win Idol!  It’s probably best for him that he didn’t, though, because now he’ll have the freedom to make whatever kind of album he wants and not have to adhere to American Idol’s rules.  And I’ll be the first person in line to buy it!!!!  Seriously, he is so incredibly talented.

It was just the best weekend and as fun as it was, I’m also incredibly relieved to have it all behind us.  Only 3.5 more days AND WE’RE OUT OF SCHOOL FOR THE SUMMER! 

Happy Tuesday, y’all!