Dance Recital

 June 7th was Estelle & Léna's dance school recital.  It was held in a big theatre way on the outskirts of Nice.  Estelle was in 4 numbers, Léna in 2.  They were in one number together, the first one below:

 Estelle is in blue, and Léna is in the back row on the right.  You can see Louise in the middle row to the left of Estelle.

 Léna holds out her fan night and straight in the back row.

 The little girl below in the red costume like Estelle's is named Valerie.   We don't know her well as we only just met her this year at dance.  By coincidence, she too will be in Estelle's new class at the new music school in September. 

 

 Here Valerie is blocking Léna so you can't see her.

 Next number later on:  Estelle's hip hop group.  Estelle 4th from left.

 That's Estelle down front.

 Here Estelle gets into a pose/hold:

 She stayed like that for like a minute.  We were surprised!

 3rd number:  basket dance.

 Estelle's last number:   another hip hop dance:

 This was the closing number of the first act:  the littlest girls' group, all by themselves.  They all had these huge flowers.  I should add that this was all a surprise.  We didn't know about the tutus or the flowers. 

 Léna did a great job considering it was 9:30 p.m. and she'd had a full day at school.  Louise is born to be a star.  She was a riot!

 

Finale of 1st act:  everyone on stage:  there's Léna to the left of Louise (far right).

So, another year of dance behind us.  Estelle has made a lot of progress, it was amazing.

Masters 2

This paper doesn't look like much, but it finalizes a recent, and intense, chapter in my life.  Amen.

Mother's Day and other fun

Some photos to catch up in time over the past month!  French mother's day was May 26th, and Léna had made me a gift at school - she was VERY proud.

 This is what it was:  a little heart-shaped cake.

 That day we went to church, and it was a special day that is celebrated every year at our church in Nice, related to 1832 when cholera was killing everyone.  The leaders of the city (who were also/connected to the church) pledged to build a church if the city of Nice was spared.  Hence, our church.  The White Penitents and the Black Penitents come to this mass too.  Below:  the white ones.

Part of the pledge was that every year on the same weekend, there would be a special mass with the head of the church and the head of the city to express thanks to God for saving the city from cholera.  It was on Mother's Day this year.  So, there were a LOT of people, plus the mayor.  That's him below:

 The Bishop did the mass.  The children who go to Sunday school were up on the altar with the Bishop.  See Léna, on the bottom left with the ponytail?  Also behind him was a huge choir, and an organist.  All pretty impressive.  There was a brass band too.

 After there was some traditional Nicois dancing outside.

 Back at the ranch, I found this in Estelle's room.  Barbie party.

 Playing with a new game!

 Here's Léna wearing a dress that was mine when I was 4 years old, in 1974.

 She's holding the family photo that has me wearing this dress:

 She wore it all day, even to a birthday party.  It looked so cute!

 Here's Estelle & Léna wearing dance costumes that once belonged to their cousin Alexandra.

 And here's them getting ready for Eliott's birthday party, which had a "spy" theme. 

 The party, like all of Fransiska's parties, was truly a creative work of art, extremely clever and original with everything made homemade.  I wasn't there because I was typing typing typing, but I heard all about it!

Next up, photos of the dance recital which was Friday night....