Ballet and Beach Day

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​Betsy performed in her first ballet recital. She has been asking a couple times per day for the last week and many times before that, "How many more days until my ballet performance?!" I did her hair up in a ballet bun and lots of hairspray. She looked so grown up with her hair and then the cute blue costume and hair bow. Her classmates were all so thrilled. I love her teacher, Ms. Nicole, who says Betsy is the sweetest girl. Ms. Nicole also always gives a sticker to Ruby after classes. 

When her class came out on stage they were darling. The lead person only made it out about halfway and all of the girls stood so close to each other - they were squished. Then they were stunned and slowly did a few movements over and over, skipping a few parts of the choreography, but it was wonderful. At one point Betsy got a few girls to hold hands for a certain part. I loved seeing this development in Betsy over the last year. It was so neat as the mom to be watching Betsy from far away show her talents. Betsy was so excited, too. I will see if Betsy wants to keep doing ballet in the future, but I'm sure Ruby will want to. She has spent the year watching Betsy wear a pink leotard and dance around to cute music. Sometimes she has called it "her" ballet class when we go. So, she needs a turn to try it out. Ruby, Gabriel, and Abby were at the Coehlos.

We know we only have about 37 days left until we move from Palo Alto. I'm not sad, except for missing friends for me and our kids and the school teachers (they were the best this year - Ms. Bhalla and Ms. Tamar). We do want to take advantage of living in this "awesome place" because of all the things around here. We dedicated this afternoon and evening to the beach in Capitola. 

As with most things we do here, we are one of thousands with the same idea. It was stop and go traffic to Santa Cruz and the beach was crowded, but still plenty of space. Gavin is in Utah right now, but all of the other kids had a blast with the sand and water. Nature is the best playground for them and the ocean is so relaxing for me. Even Abby was absorbed and happy touching the sand for a few hours. She didn't love the water when Chris took her in and Ruby cried when he did. She cried, "Get Abby! Don't let her in the water! Come back!" Gabriel jumped some waves with Chris and had his first experience of getting tossed by a wave. He was boogie boarding and somehow flipped over and his face went into the sand. When I was talking to him tonight about his day, he said that was his low. The girls chased seagulls. Betsy loved being by the water, but running away from the wave as it came in. We ate at Pizza My Heart and then walked around Capitola looking at window displays of beach items and artsy-craftsy stuff. The kids got ice cream cones. Gabriel chose mint chocolate chip and both girls chose rainbow sherbet. Betsy saw it first and ran to Ruby to ask if she wanted that one. 

We facetimed with Gavin and found out he had swam a lot with cousins today and was watching a Batman and Superman Lego show. This is a priceless experience for Gavin to get one-on-one time with grandparents. They are such an important influence on them and we are not around them enough. And it's interesting to have them separated. Gabriel went last week.