What do you get when you add about 200 hours of volunteering, running, and rehearsals with tutus and twirling...you get the Nutcracker and a very happy little girl. After last year I told myself that I wasn't going to do that again...but somewhere in the course of the year I had forgotten how much work it was and instead remembered what a cute little baby mouse she made (even if I had no idea which baby mouse was actually her as they scurried around the stage). However, this year Makayla got to be a Sweetie, and there was so mistaking her on stage with her blond little buns. She also was chosen to give the principle dancers flowers at the end of the show, which Makayla later informed me made her a "flower sweetie".
Her friends from her Brownie troop came to she her and insisted that she was the star of the show (although I think the Sugarplum Fairy would disagree). Grandma and Grandpa Larsen flew in from Utah which was a huge help because long dress rehearsals and Evan do not go well together. While helping in the green room, I discovered I have a talent for ballet buns (basically I am really good at slicking hair back with gel so that there are "unsightly" fly aways)...so next year I am being put in charge of hair for all the little girls. And yes, there will be a next year...not only because being a flower sweetie was just "the best time of her life", but because she has her sights set on being an angel next year.
