Spring Stroll

Family Night at New Ballet

Last night was family night at New Ballet Ensemble, and I love that they don't do recitals. I think it's nice that we all just show up and watch the kids dance in the big studio. Beautiful kids, beautiful dancing - neutron blue tutus not required. Honestly, Meredith would probably love to be in a recital and would love everything about a neutron blue tutu. But for the parents, I think this is preferable.

Mer's class did their nursery rhyme "brain dances" (they're all about core-distal and cross lateral--what?!) and then their "flamingo" dance. I need to apologize to Meredith, because when she talked about class in the preceding weeks--and wanted to practice at home--I corrected her and said "flamenco, honey." Wrong. Oh well, we still had fun dancing to the Gipsy Kings in the living room.

I mostly saw Mer's back, so I took a few pics of some other dancers...

Big Kid School

Everybody starts school in April, right? Mer started Tue/Thur CLUE at Downtown Elementary this morning. There are about 5 weeks of school left, and she's only 4, so it's not as if it was terribly important to squeeze this learning opportunity into her young life. But. She is Meredith. And I've never seen her so excited about anything, in such a sustained and persistent way. When I talked to her about it and tried to assess how she would handle being the "new kid" and only knowing a few kids, she promptly reminded me: "Mom, I really like to meet new people." Right, babe.

Our church meets at Downtown Elementary, so the building will be familiar. Walt and Adam and Abby-from-ballet are in her class, so that will be good. Daddy is taking her to school, which I think ranks as high or higher as going to school at all. But frankly, I think I'm the only one who needed these reassurances. Thank goodness.

That's my girl - smiling so big she can't keep her eyes open.

After the Rain

This looks like a place for some rock and roll, right? It's true.

Saturday was a windy, stormy, dark, sunshiny, clear, cool, sparkling day.

Luckily the storm was the morning part of the day and the sparkling part was just in time for Rock-N-Romp. The Dixon gardens weathered the storm beautifully and we followed the sounds of rock and roll down a narrow brick path through dripping trees and drooping azalea blooms. Not a bad way to start the afternoon.


First shout out goes to the amazing board of Rock-N-Romp who continue to put together incredible events. Next shout out goes to the 14 year olds who absolutely rocked - The Motions, they were called. Additional shout out to Glorie - Jeff (blue shirt) and Chris both play for Midtown Soccer Club. Speaking of which, that soccer club could practically be a band. Chris could play the tambourine... But I digress. Hope Clayburn wrapped up the rocking - Meredith and Nora were dancing quite a bit by this point. Meredith especially enjoyed the sax.


Meredith also loved the Dixon's craft offerings. She and Nora made great magnets.


Madeline enjoyed soothing her incoming molar by chewing on her finger. She also enjoyed sitting in exactly the same spot for about 3 hours, good, sweet girl. In keeping with the theme, we'll call that a Tom Petty mullet.

As I'm sure you've noticed, all of these pictures are in focus, were taken with a camera that has a clean lens, and are well composed. That's because I didn't take them - my friend Chip Chockley did. If you're looking for a fabulous photographer in Memphis check his site.

Yes Ma'am

Mer just walked into the room with a bag - apologized for being late. Asked where she could change and who would be her dance teacher. I said it would be "Mary," hoping she would go imagine on her own - she said "No, I saw on the web page that it's going to be you, when you get off that computer." Fair enough. As you might imagine, I taught the dance lesson.

My Big Back Yard, Again

Meredith's school went on a field trip to the Botanic Gardens yesterday - specifically, to My Big Backyard. They learned all about bees, ate some honey, picnicked in the most perfect picnic spot imaginable, and then ran around for an hour like happy banshees.


Also, as you may have seen in the slide show, Madi is quite the stander-upper these days.

Classic Madi

This is one of her favorite games. She can barely reach, but she tries to hit the keys. But the best part - and the part that really requires video - is that while she's randomly plinking away, she's also dancing. It's intermittent, to match the "music," but it's definitely dancing. HILarious.