white water rafting.

Kurtis and I rarely leave Clara with anyone when we're not working.  We figure that we miss seeing her for 40 hours a week, so our evenings and weekends are pretty precious.  But we got an offer we couldn't refuse!  My good friend Lee, who is finishing up her exchange teaching year (she's from Scotland) invited us to raft the main Payette with her.  We knew it would be cold, but we had wetsuits to wear, and we had a fabulous time!

Thank you Lee for the invitation!  It was such a fun day!

another recital.

Clara had another practice recital at a nursing home.  This time, they dressed in their outfits for the song, "It's a Small World".  She is a little Dutch girl, and couldn't be cuter!

 She's always checking that she's standing on her spot!  There are stickers for the girls to stand on so they stay spread out!

 She's got one signature move...here it is...

 and here it is again!  She forgets to watch her teacher, and just does this a lot of the time.  Oh well!

She was pretty happy at this recital!  This is surprising, considering just a day and a half later, we were battling the pukes, fever, congestion, and headaches!  I just hope we didn't pass our germs along to the residents!  I promise, the dance posts are almost over!

recital at nursing home.

Clara had a recital at a nearby nursing home recently.  She did pretty well.

Here she is prepping for the show!

 She didn't like the spider in her hair!  The 2-3 year olds are dancing to "Itsy Bitsy Spider".

 Kurtis is a total stage dad!

 She honestly stood facing sideways and picked her nose for the first half of her first song.  But then she saw us in the audience and livened right up!

 This was when the applause started!  Hilarious!  She was so proud!

It was pretty great!  She is the youngest in her class, but she did surprisingly well...besides the nose picking!

dance practice.

The costume is just too cute not to share!

Clara loves one particular friend at dance.  From the very first day of class, they were fast friends.  They hold hands a lot of the time.  And they always bring snacks to share with each other.  Here they are in their costumes.

 A few times after dance, we've gone out for a special treat.  Clara loved getting her first ice cream cone.  She thought it was pretty cool to eat one all by herself.  Daddy was happy because he got to clean up all her drips and eat a lot of the cone himself!

 love this!

 And here are Clara and her little buddy on picture day!  Clara just hugs her buddy!

practicing dance hair.

So, as you can see, Clara thoroughly enjoyed practicing her dance hair do...

 loving it!

She's a little Dutch girl for the recital, so we've been working on wreath braiding her hair.  I never thought I'd have a child in dance, but the title of the class through community ed included tumbling, and it was the only thing offered for 2 year olds in the evening.  So I was sucked in!  And I have to say, it has been a great experience for her.  She listens to her teacher, she's made some friends, and she can is learning to follow directions.  Stay tuned for more dance pictures!