Nutcracker Ballet weekend

It was an exciting, exhausting, eye-opening weekend.  After months of spending several hours each Saturday at rehearsals, the Nutcracker weekend was finally here.  It started with a Friday night dress rehearsal.  Serafina was so excited.  She was also nervous.  

Everything was a thrill, like seeing all the costumes hung up in the dressing room.  

And seeing the big stage.

There was a lot of waiting around but then the dancers needed to get in to costume.

She had three costume changes in the show.  Two costumes required black legs with black tights.  One needed pink legs and tights.  That's why she's wearing tights over tights.  

First dance was the battle scene between the mice and the toy soliders.  Serafina was a "little mouse" which means she only came out for part of the dance.  

Mice ready to go.

She was upset after the mouse dance at rehearsal because it didn't go well.  She is hard on herself and wanted to get it right.  

Next dance was Angels. 

The Snow Queen is a professional dancer and an incredible ballerina.  She was so sweet to the little girls and wanted her picture taken with the Angels.  

Then the Snow King wanted in on the fun.  

The last dance Serafina performed was Chinese Tea.  She was one of the Chinese Dolls.  This was her favorite dance and it is a very fun one.

Dress rehearsal didn't wrap up until after 10pm so I had a very tired little dancer on my hands.

We were back the next day for two performances.  Here are the girls stretching in the back of the theater while the pros and ballerinas on pointe warm up on stage.

One of Serafina's favorite parts of performing is getting to wear make up.  

The Saturday matinee brought out the largest fan support for Serafina.  Nana, Leo, Tom and I all watched the performance.  

Three of our friends brought their daughters too so it was a great turn out.  

After two performances on Saturday, we were back at it for two on Sunday.  Here's Serafina and her new friend Isabella watching the warm ups.  

The fact that I got Serafina's hair into a bun for rehearsal and performances is nothing short of a miracle.  

Sunday matinee brought out even more friends.

And the Sunday evening show was a date for Tom and I so we could watch our little girl and enjoy her performance.

She is already talking about doing the Nutcracker again.  She told me on Sunday morning that she wished that she could perform it 10 more times instead of two.  She absolutely loves performing and it really is great to watch her do her thing.  This wasn't easy on her or me, but I'm glad we did it.  I do think I may need to take next year off.