Ahnalin and I got to go to the
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.
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!
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
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
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
