School Performances

Yesterday was a big day for Julia at school: her Music class had its performance of "The Nutcracker."  Julia has been counting down the days until the performance, and once I was there in the audience I could see why.  The music teacher choreographed dances to a few of the musical pieces from the ballet, and Julia got to spend a lot of the ballet skipping and galloping in a line or circle with the other dancers.  Her own personal Gallop Time at school!  How could she NOT love it?

Julia also had a speaking part, which was what she had wanted most of all in the performance.  Apparently, the kids were given the opportunity to list three possible parts they would most want to have.  Julia went straight for a narrator part, not bothering to opt for Clara or the Sugar Plum Fairy or any of the major roles.  She was completely confident behind the microphone as she narrated the upcoming scene, then got to jump right back into the mix of dancers:





Today was Madeleine's day to shine, as her school had its traditional Christmas play and sing-along.  Madeleine got to play the role of Mary:

Is she just the very picture of the beatific virginal mother of God or what?

Because I was in charge of leading the sing-along, being the music teacher at Madeleine's school and all, I didn't get a chance to video the performance, but never fear: I got Madeleine's own personal performance of one of the pageant songs on video before we headed off to school:



During the pageant, Madeleine was absolutely delighted to see Daddy in the audience, which for some inexplicable reason made her decide to yell "Poop Dog, Daddy!" in between songs.  And as if that wasn't enough, Madeleine then felt the need to loudly whisper to me, as I began the count-down to the next song, "Mama!  I said 'Poop Dog' to Daddy!"

Madeleine truly knows how to be the embodiment of the Virgin Mary.

After the show was finished, the kids and their families got to sit down for a pizza party lunch.  Madeleine's best friend took a seat beside her at our table, and the best friend's little sister, who is currently obsessed with Madeleine and I, climbed into my lap to eat her pizza.  Best friend's mom came over to apologize to me for the fact that her youngest daughter is so attached to me.

Um, I'll take a sweet little 2-year-old on my lap any day!

But Madeleine felt the need to set things straight and dispense a little parenting advice to her best friend's mom.

MADELEINE: Um, can I tell you this?  You should just try SNUGGLING her more and THEN she'll get more attached to YOU.

That's right, Madeleine.  You have all the world's wisdom inside you.  Especially because you're the Mother of God and all.

Now that our girls have both had their exciting performances, we are looking forward to a Christmassy weekend with Nana and Gramps!