-
Her First Dance Recital
This Saturday was Bug’s first dance recital. It was so awesome. Her performance itself was not awesome at all but we weren’t expecting much. She got up there on stage and smiled and looked cute in her adorable costume and that’s all we could ask for. That’s her teacher above. I love her so much. I’m really sad that she’s going to be Sleeping Beauty for Disney Tokyo in Japan and won’t be teaching ballet anymore. But it was really cool while it lasted. Bug is going to miss her.
Anyway, you want to see her performance right? It should load below if the internet is cooperating with me.
Yeah, stupid me. I didn’t make sure my camera was in focus before I started filming and then half the time I wasn’t even paying attention to the camera and let it list off to the side. I’m sorry about that. But you’ll have to forgive me. I was going bananas because my little itty bitty girl was up on stage!!! Oh, it was so cute. I may have cried a little bit.
I wasn’t even supposed to be filming. This is contraband footage you’re looking at. Although, between you and me, every single parent there was filming with their iphones and spy cameras. The theatre didn’t want us to film because they sell a super expensive dvd of the whole production at the end but Toby and I weren’t about to shell out money to the man.
That is until we sat through the entire production and had our socks blown off by how good it was. The little girls were so cute and the big girls were so amazing. I fell in love with dance all over again. And I’ve never even danced (outside of that one class I took in college where I kicked everyone accidentally.)
As soon as the curtain fell, Toby beelined it for the dvd sales desk. He was sold. Which is really cool because before this recital he was talking about having Bug drop out of ballet. He just never really thought it was that important. And since he is the one who pays for her to have gymnastics and ballet lessons (it’s part of our co-parenting deal), that’s kind of a bad thing for Bug and I who happen to LOVE ballet. Toby won’t admit it but I think he has ideas that Bug is going to be in the Olympics or something (not gonna happen thanks to my genes unfortunately) and he’s pretty competitive when it comes to how Bug does in sports. He’s a little hard on her. Before you worry though, don’t. I’m really easy on her so it evens out. She needs a little chiding here and there.
So anyway, ballet lessons have not been chopped from the budget! Whoooeeeeeee!!! All thanks to the most wonderful ballet recital production ever. I wish I had filmed the whole thing but it would have been too big of a file to put up here anyway and then I’d really get busted by the theatre company.
-
Apricots!
We’d been yelling at the kids to stop knocking the apricots out of the trees for what seemed like months. Finally, it became apparent that the kids weren’t knocking the apricots out of the trees anymore. The birds were and the apricots were soft and ripe when they landed on the ground which means it’s picking time! (Yes, that chair is totally busted.)
Hooray! I didn’t spend all spring paying that water bill for nothing. It was time for me to cash in on some yummy orange fruit!
While I went to the store for canning supplies, the kids picked whatever they could reach and Rapunzel, my oldest niece, got a ladder out of the shed and picked the higher-up ones. They left some yellowy-green ones for later.
You can’t just let these babies sit around and draw fruit flies. Nope. They have to be canned, into apricot jam specifically.
This is the face you make when you know you’ve got a big ugly mess ahead of you. It’s canning day.
My mom did most the cooking. I just cut up the apricots. Boy, did they smell good.
I love the smell of fresh hot jam.
We made 29 jars of jam which is a lot. Four batches. There are more apricots left too but I think I’m done with jam. My mom’s talking about dehydrating the rest but I’m going to let her do that at her house.
I’m done with messiness for a while. Phew!
It was worth it though. TWENTY-NINE JARS! Christmas presents, DONE. Now I just need to design some kind of cool label for them and maybe invest in some kind of big round paper-punch. There’s no way I’m cutting out 29 circle stickers like I did for the Marmalade. No way.
I did make some scones with some of the leftover cut-up apricots though. I just used my lemon scone recipe and added apricots instead of zest except I added a lot more than 2 tablespoons. They turned out super dense. Kind of like an apple fritter without the glaze. Pretty tasty really. You might want to stop by if you’re in the neighborhood.
I’m really digging this rural living. What’s next? Tomatoes, I think. Salsa anyone?
