The Nutcracker.

Olivia has been in ballet since September.

And she absolutely loves it.

So when she found out that she would get to be a snowflake in the studio's production of The Nutcracker, she completely freaked out.

And let's be honest, I did too, because how flipping cute is that?!

So, we practiced a lot at home, went to a dress rehearsal the weekend before, got our tickets, and planned how we were going to do her hair and makeup.

The night of her first performance arrived and I had put sponge curlers in her hair in the morning and planned to take them out right before we left.

Well as I did this I noticed that they were about as tight of curls as you can get. We're talking worse than Shirley Temple tight. Like little spirals completely smashed to her head tight. So when she first looked at herself in the mirror, her face was beyond priceless. She looked so confused and disgusted ha. And was like, "I don't like this." And that was when I completely lost it. I was laughing so hard I could barely get out the words to explain to Michael her reaction when she saw her hair. Being the sweet dad he is, he tried not to laugh so that it wouldn't make Olivia feel bad, but I was dying. And could not stop. But it's okay, because with a little gel we were able to pull them out and loosen them quite a bit. 

I did her makeup and she was so excited about this. She has watched her aunt's and mom put on their makeup and so she was so excited that she was finally getting a turn to wear it!

Her first performance went perfectly. She was as cute as can be.

Michael, me, and Clara all attended that night. I spent a lot of time out in the hall with Clara since I would get to see the performance again the following night. 

But I did sneak in at the end to catch Michael with tears in his eyes because he was so proud of Olivia.

It completely melted my heart.

So my mom drove all the way up here just to see her perform on the second night.

Olivia was beyond excited about this.

So we took our seats and when it came time for Olivia's turn to dance she did so good and literally curtseyed her way of the stage. 

And then at the end when all the performers bow and her little group came on she would not stop curtseying. When they tried to get her to sit down she would just stand back up and keep curtseying.
She probably curtseyed a grand total of 50 times.

My mom and I were dying because it reminded us so much of The Sound of Music.

Watching my Olivia perform was with out a doubt one of the cutest things I have ever seen.

I am so proud of her and so excited that she has found something that she loves to do.

We are looking forward to many more performances to come!

We ordered a dvd of her performance but still haven't gotten it yet, so hopefully within the next couple weeks I'll be able to post her actual performance!