At The Ballet

Ahnalin and I got to go to the 

San Francisco Ballet on Tuesday night!

I can't even tell you how wonderful it was!!

Truly amazing and elegant and gorgeous

and incredible!

The tickets were a gift from another 

designer friend of mine.

Aria Clements,
of Aria Couture

 a gown designer who now lives

in the Los Angeles area,

won the tickets to the ballet and then

was unable to use them.

She graciously sent them to me on Sunday night!

(You can click on the link and go to her Etsy store

and see the beautiful gowns she makes!)

When Aria posted to my facebook page,

she asked me if I was available on Tuesday

and if I could make Ahnalin a special dress

quickly enough! 

Why, yes!

Yes!

Ahnalin adores ballet and wants to be a ballerina

when she grows up.

And the ballet was "The Little Mermaid"

which is one of my favorite stories,

so that made it even more special!

So, I went stash diving and remembered

this fabric!

My friend, smocking genius Janet Gilbert

had sent it to me a few years ago

because her darling daughter

no longer liked these kinds of prints.

Lucky me!

There was only 34 inches of this darling print

and I knew that Ahnalin was going to 

want to twirl like the ballerinas!

So I dug deeper and found

a half-yard remnant of this pink swirly print

that blended reasonably well,

and started to work!

I machine embroidered the word

"Ballet" on the bodice piece and

cut it to the shape of Ahnalin's favorite style.

The rest of the dress is just rectangles.

I did manage to figure out a way to add tulle,

because this was a dress for a ballerina!

Ahnalin HATES tulle.

She takes one look and starts itching!

Every time!

But I wanted it for this dress.

So I sewed up the petticoat to 

attach inside the dress,

and sandwiched the tulle between the lining

and the skirt fabric.

She was skeptical, but

now loves it.

So, on Tuesday, right after school,

I quickly finished

the dress (well, I sewed her into it

 just like I did for this dress.)

And we headed down to San Francisco.

Don't laugh too hard at me, 

but this was the first time I drove across the 

Golden Gate Bridge myself. 

I was VERY nervous but I made it.

We met our dear friend Ryan,

who treated us to dinner

at Max's Opera Cafe.

She then she pulled up 

Hans Christian Andersen's 

"The Little Mermaid" on her Kindle,

so that Ahnalin could read the story.

Because this was different than the Disney version

and the SF Ballet had posted on their website

that it was not recommended for children,

we wanted her to be prepared.

Ahnalin started to get sleepy so I let her take 

Bunny into the War Memorial Opera House 

with us.

When I got this shot, 

I was shocked at how grown up she looked!

My 6 year old all of a sudden looked so mature!

Oh my!

Wait! Did she sneak my lipstick???

This was the stage.

The blurry blog at the bottom is a giant shell.

She was SO EXCITED!!!

She looked around and realized

that she was the ONLY CHILD THERE!

Oh my! 

I reminded her that everyone else there

was accustomed to sitting still 

and that this was a HUGE GROWN UP TREAT!

So, she needed to sit still and not talk during 

the performance.

We then heard an announcement

stating that the performance

was being filmed for 

PBS Great Performances,

so there would be 2 intermissions 

instead of 3! 

Perfect for us!

We were also told to put away all cameras, 

so I couldn't take any more pictures until after

the performance.

 This is Ahnalin after the performance. 

She was totally enthralled!

She behaved PERFECTLY!

And I don't mean perfectly for 

a busy kid with Sensory Processing Disorder!

I mean, she sat still the whole time,

staring at the dancers,

totally swept away into the beauty

of the ballet!

This photo shows her dreamy, yet sleepy

expression after the ballet ended. 

The whole experience 

was a beautiful dream come true!

The ballet was a gift.

Thank you Aria and Janet and Ryan!

Ahnalin wore her dress again 

this morning when her school

had "Moms and Muffins"

to celebrate Mother's Day.

Five minutes after this picture was taken,

she was chasing after a "SO CUTE!!" boy

and slammed into my coffee cup.

She now is wearing her pink ballet

dress, covered in coffee. 

Sigh. Oh well.

She loves her dress and she may as well enjoy it!

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In other news,

India got a concussion at work the other day

and now is trying to heal from that.

She is in pain and struggling

and I want to be with her.

And we are also continuing to deal with the 

fallout from having our accounts hacked.

I just want that all to go away, 

but our bank is doing ridiculous 

things to us, and we were the victims,

not the perpetrators.

I know that somehow this will

all work out, 

and we will survive it.

But it hurts and is embarrassing,

and makes us look like flaky, 

irresponsible people,

in addition to costing us money.

We would appreciate any prayers you could

send our way.

Thank you so much.

Sivje