Allie's Big Night

Allie at her 1st Recital on November 13, 2008. She was so pretty and so put together in her dress and pulled up hair.

At this recital, Allie played "Celebration Day" and "Ring the News". She did her own hair, the curls were beautiful (told me they were easy to do too). She asked me to clip on a dark red flower at the back because she needed just a "punch" of color since she was all in black and gray. She is going to be doing my hair when I'm old. She's just good at this kind of stuff. A fashionista by nature. Growing up too fast for my liking. Looking at the photos from the 1st recital, she now looks so much older and more mature. Time flies.

Allie and Collin both played at the same recital, but it being Collin's 1st, I thought I'd do a separate post for him. Like I mentioned, this was Allie's 2nd recital. She did great, but she wasn't happy that she didn't play her second song perfectly. We kept telling her those things happen sometimes, and we just have to move on and don't dwell so much on it, maybe concentrate more on how flawless she played the first song. I worry sometimes that she is a perfectionist like her Dad and me!

All the kids and their teacher, Miss Cindy at the recital

She and Collin decided they wanted to go to Pei Wei's for dinner after the recital. We told them beforehand they get to pick where they wanted to eat since it was a big night. Grandma and Pops came to the recital -- it is nice to live here now and actually have some extended family attend our recitals and special events! Thanks to Grandma and Pop for coming. It really meant a lot to us and the kids.

At Pei Wei's after the recital, we shared growing-up stories of how I forgot a whole section at an oration contest when I was in 3rd grade and how Kevin missed notes at a piano recital, etc., and other similar ones Grandma had experienced when she was little. That was fun.

Today was also Allie's 3rd Grade Music Performance at her school. Earlier at home she and her friend Kaitlyn were making fun of some of the songs they were going to sing so it was funny to see them do the actions that they didn't really think was "cool". They did great and sang all these fun songs, a lot of them I have not heard before. Grandma and Pops also came to that. They had an art show/exhibit set up in another room so we found Allie's flower art and took pictures for memories.

With Pop, Grandma and Maddie at school.

Us at the art exhibit