Hansel and Gretal - May 31, 2008

The weekend of the ballet performance of Hansel and Gretal was both fun and exhausting! It started on Thursday evening with Megan's school music concert. They call it the POPS Cafe' and served deserts and had several performances with the school band, choir and Jazz band. When we got home, Fred and Brenda had arrived from the airport to spend the weekend with us and see the ballet. Friday morning Heather enlisted the help of Fred and Brenda to finish packing up the moving POD. Then after lunch they helped move the props for the ballet performance over to the theatre. I am sure they were not expecting to do so much physical labor on their little trip. Friday at 5pm we started final dress rehearsal for the ballet. Josh,Grandma, and Grandpa Yost spent the evening together eating pizza and playing arcade games while the rest of us spent the evening at the theatre trying to work out the kinks. It was quite a long, frustrating experience. To top it off, Tracy's costume did not fit in any way shape or form (we won't go into the fact that it was the first time he finally got to try it on). To tell the truth I had my doubts about this performance actually coming together on time.

Saturday we got up early for Erica's last soccer game (which started at 6:50 AM!). Then we were off to the theater to get ready for the matinee performance of the ballet. Tracy still did not have a costume and he didn't know what he might end up wearing. I jumped in to help the seamstress literally pin the costumes onto several of the men folk dancers while she madly worked on salvaging Tracy's pants. Amazingly Tracy finally got his costume on about 15 minutes before we had to be on stage. They were a little tight, but if he was careful he might not rip out the back seam during his dance.

Looking back I still can not figure out how it all came together. The ballet turned out wonderful! It was fun to finally watch Megan perform the whole show and see how all the characters interacted with each other. Erica was the cutest bunny and Gum drop. It was very fun!! Tracy and I survived the folk dance and enjoyed sharing in the experience with Erica and Megan.

Megan (Hansel) getting ready for the show.

Erica (the bunny) and the Woodland animals.

Tracy and Heather after surviving our first ballet performance.

Erica (Gumdrop) and her Papa!