Dancing in the rain

Here are our happy dancers after the big show this Saturday. Tired, a little sweaty and proud of themselves for giving it their all. It always amazes me, how the chaos of dress rehearsal turns into the beauty of their recital. Small forgot some of his steps and was a bit mesmerized by the lights, this being his first recital. Medium and Large, however, remembered their dances perfectly and even smiled!

At the dress rehearsal, I was sure Small wasn't going to go on the stage. He hated the cat ears, had to wear socks on his hands because of his eczema and generally was in super clingy mode. I reminded him, not so gently, that his Grandma and Aunt and Uncle were coming to the big show and they wanted to see him perform. He reluctantly went on stage, but didn't move unless prodded. By the time of his dance on Saturday, and especially by the time of the bows, he was in great form!

Our dance teacher is kind and wonderful. Her show is set up so the really little kids (like Small) are in one short show, the little kids have a slightly longer show, the middle sized kids (like Large and Medium) have a long show - three dances each, 1 1/2 hours in length - and then the advanced show is later. That way parents and grandparents don't have to sit through hours and hours of production. It meant going to the theater twice, but we had a nice long break in between. Small made friends with all the girls backstage for the later show and we got to watch Medium and Large on the video monitor.

All in all, it was a great day. We planned to go back for the advanced show, but the kids were all too tired. We visited with family and all had a good night's sleep.

Next morning a huge storm blew in. Huge. Dark, black, menacing clouds and much wind. It blew a rather large branch off our 80 foot maple in front, leaving it perilously dangling between our house and the one next door. Right over the neighbor's van. He was packing up to leave for vacation with his family. We called him to move the van, he parked it on the street and then came up on the porch to survey the damage to the tree. As we were chatting, the branch cracked in two and fell to the driveway. Right where his van had been.

When the rain lessened and the worst had blown over, friends and neighbors came by to help saw off branches, one with a chainsaw and ladder came over to take down another dangling branch, and a great pile was amassed on the parkway. A day later, the chainsaw friend returned and we sawed it into firewood. Except for the remaining sawdust, you'd never know anything happened. The village came buy and picked up the many branches and logs and trees thrust on the parkways, their trucks were laden with fresh limbs for making chips. It was an amazing event or nature and community and made us happy all over again for living in such a friendly place.