Lily Catherine's First Ballet Class

This morning Lily Catherine had her very first ballet class. She is taking lessons at Ann Carroll School of Dance in Franklin which is where I took dance for 15 years. I even used to be the demonstrator with her teacher Miss Jeanne when I was in high school.

The two-year-old class is the Belle class (named for the Disney Princess), so all the girls wear yellow leotards, since Belle's princess dress is yellow. When I got Lily Catherine all dressed and ready to go this morning with her tights, leotard, and ballet shoes, I must admit that I got a little misty-eyed. But that soon passed as we raced to get everyone in the car and out the door to head to "dancin' school" as Lily Catherine calls it. We actually got there a little early and had time to meet some new dance friends before class began.

Outside the building, sitting on one of the benches.

Running down the hall to the studio after Miss Jeanne invited the class in.

Waiting for Class to begin.

Standing next to her dot on the floor.

Watching Miss Jeanne hand out "Belle" coloring pages at the end of the class.

Checking out her "Belle" coloring page after class.

While the class was going on, I sat with Charlotte in the lobby and got to know the other moms. The best thing was they have televisions in the lobby, and we could see the whole class. Lily Catherine was the first one start following Miss Jeanne as she danced around the room. She wasn't shy at all, but she also did a very good job of following all of the directions and doing exactly what Miss Jeanne was asking her to do.

Tonight when Lily Catherine said her prayers, she said thank you for Miss Jeanne 5 times, Ballet 1 time, and new friends 1 time, so I am pretty sure she loved it.

Greek Festival 2009

This past Saturday, we attended the Greek festival at the Greek Orthodox church in Nashville. Lily Catherine had a BLAST playing and dancing with her cousin Andrew while Charlotte slept soundly in the Ergo for almost the entire time we were there.

Lily Catherine had more fun dancing on the dance floor between the performances of the Greek Dancers. She also loved watching all of the dancers while we were eating dinner.

For dinner we got to have all of our favorite traditional Greek dishes including Pisticcio, Mousaka, Gyros, Loukoumades, and Baklava Sundays.

After dinner, Lily Catherine caught sight of all of the inflatable fun and we spent the rest of the evening playing on those.

Just before heading home, we went back inside the church to say good-bye to Great-Papou who was working at the Greek Grocery stand. Let's just say that Lily Catherine made out pretty well since just before we left Papou bought her a sweet "Love My Papou" shirt (which she put on immediately after we got home), and she convinced Randy to buy her a hotpink "jingle skirt" that is now her favorite thing to wear around the house.

Welcome Baby Charlotte!

On August 7, 2009 at 3:28AM

Charlotte Elizabeth Bury

joined our family weighing in a 8 lbs, 6 oz and measuring 19 3/4 inches.

I just had to share these!

The weekend before Charlotte was born, we took Lily Catherine to the park to do a quick two-year-old photo shoot. At 39 weeks pregnant (and in early August in Nashville!) it wasn't easy to chase her around, but I was determined to get some photos of her before the new one came along. I didn't want to miss out on those last days before she started to look more and more like a "big kid" than a baby. Let's just say that braving the heat was so worth it. I love the photos that I got!