Festival of Trees recital

Is it worth putting a 4-year-old in a dance class? A few months ago I would say no, but not anymore. It is absolutely worth it! Erin has had so much fun and she dances constantly (hence a dozen of "dancing Erin" videos from the past few months that I took). Dancing is definitely enhancing her world!

At the end of the term Pooky and her class got to perform at the Festival of Trees (a Christmas money drive for Children's' Primary Hospital where you can bid on a variety of Christmas trees, decor and many other fun things). Andrew and I had a good laugh seeing this happy bunch attempt to do their routine. Enjoy!

Only from the third attempt the correct music was turned on and off they went. It was adorable! Erin definitely enjoyed being on the stage and was not intimidated by the crowd! Andrew took the video and asked me to pass along that "blame the poor quality on him laughing or trying hard not to". Danny and I sat in the audience. He followed the older girls dance, but showed no interest in the little ones. He seemed to have had fun just being in the crowd, seeing pretty lights, trees and munching on his cookie (indeedo! I bribed my son).

Here is Erin with her friends and Mrs. Erin, her fabulous teacher. The silly girls would not stay still for a photo shoot. Pooky's best friend Aliyah is also in the class, but she got sick and had to miss the recital. That was sad.

After Erin's recital we wandered around the festival looking at some amazing trees. Majority of merchandise had been already sold by that point (not like we could have afforded $200- infinity decor) and it looks like the hospital will be getting a neat Christmas check. Children's' Primary is an amazing and for many sacred place! Almost every one of the trees had a photo of a child that was a patient there, some are not here anymore to enjoy Christmases, but they are still loved and memories of them are cherished.

So...I am extremely happy that Erin was dancing and not playing an instrument. We made it to the other stage at the Festival that was not for dancing recitals, but for music ones. Ehm! A string orchestra of kids 7-12 years of age was bravely performing Christmas songs. Erin insisted on sitting down to listen. At first Andrew and I were wondering why were the kids tuning their instruments for so long until it occurred to us that they were actually playing a tune. Yeah! We left only after a few minutes as we could not take it any longer. Scrap water-boarding! Put a 7-year-old violinist next to a suspected terrorist. He will crack in a few hours. Only parents and grandparents can take it, strangers like us can not, so we left. Sorry kids! I am sure you tried your best and kudos to you for that!

Merry Christmas Season to you all!

Ta ta for now!