First Haircut!

This last Friday we fnally took our little guy for his first hair cut. We like long hair, but it was a little too long now after two whole years of growth. We took him to Junior Junction in Leamngton where they have plenty of toys and a proper Small Person sized hairdressing chair.

He had a couple of inches trimmed off, so he's still got lovely long (and still a little curly!) locks, but now it's not frizzy and unruly. And maybe he wont get mistaken for a girl all the time. I do dress him like a boy you know....

He was very cooperative and not in the slightest bit bothered (pretty good considering every time we said "shall we get your hair cut today?" we got a loud, firm frowny "NO!"). He also got a sticker and a lollipop, so he may not mind going back when he needs a trim :)

(Sorry the photos aren't great - camera phone again. I'd have felt a bit silly walking into the hairdressers with a great big Nikon D700!)

Zachary's 2nd Birthday

We had an absolutely lovely day. Mr Bogert took the day off from work and we had just enough time in the orning before the Small Person had to catch the school bus for Zack to open some of his presents.

After the Small Person was off to school, we loaded up the car for toddler group. The Smaller Person wore his brand new dinosaur t-shirt and dinosaur hoodie which he loves (he likes putting the hood up nad being a dinosaur!). He had great fun playing with his Daddy and his friends, and he showed his Daddy how to make a Teddy Bear at the craft table.

We took some little chocolate cupcakes and mini gingerbread men for all of the children to eat at snack time, and once everyone was sitting eating them with a juice at the snack table, we all sang happy birthday to him which he seemed to love - he had ths big grin on his face and he was looking at everyone (especially the grown ups!) with a sort of "are you singing about me?" look.

We had to run an errand after group finished, but then we were back on routine and stopped at the village shop for a treat packet of chocolate buttons. Then straight on to Grandma and Grandpa's house, where we had lunch and Zack got to open more of his presents. He's really enjoyed unwrapping his gifts this time, and the cards. He opens them, then holds them up to one of us and says "read it". He has loved every gift he has opened. He had the crochet toys I made for him, some extra pieces to add to the wooden train set that he plays with that belongs to his big sister (so now they can share nicely because there's enough track to go around!), some lovely clothes, plenty of DVDs of his 3 favorite shows: Tom and Jerry, Thomas the Tank and Scooby Doo. And his Nanny bought him a portable DVD player (that can go in the car too) for him to play them on, and Grandma and Grandpa bought him his very own special set of headphones that are blue and yellow (as well as a DVD to add to the collection). He had a brand new night light called "Glowy" which should technically be called Glowy II because his sister had one before with the same name, but its little life came to an end when said Small Person hit it too hard to turn it off). He also had chocolate, money (which will go straight into his savings account), a couple of jigsaws, a new toy box, some ELC robot toys, a few books and the most amazing dinosaur wellies (so he can stop trying to 'borrow' his big sister's Minnie Mouse ones!).

He just had lots of fun playing with his new toys, watching his new DVDs, wearing his new headphones (not plugged in to anything!) and being a very lucky birthday boy. He loved having Mr Bogert at home and all to himself. Normally if Mr Bogert is home, it's a weekend which means he has to share his Daddy with his big sister.

My sister made him a lovely (huge!) birthday cake with a number 2 on top and lots of colourful Smarties. The slices of cake were so huge, even Mr Bogert couldn't finish it off properly!

In the afternoon we piled into the car and collected the Small Person from school, then we went straight out to Leamington for a special birthday pizza dinner. We were in luck as well because it was happy hour :) He just loved having this special treat - salad bowl, garlic bread, cheese and tomato pizza, apple juice then ice cream factory. He just thought the ice cream factory was amazing. He picked all chocolate toppings including the sauce. One very happy, chocco-ice cream filled, little birthday boy.

At home he opened his last few presents that were either from Alexandra, or from all three of us, and my Mum came up to bring presents from her and her partner, Brian  (she'd been at work all day), which just so happened to be those dino wellies and some Thomas the Tank clothes.

We also had a special message from Santa to wish Zack a very happy birthday (via his portable North Pole console) which after he'd seen it once, we had to reply about 10 times! :)

I think it was a lovely way to spend a second birthday. He seemed to really enjoy himself and didn't want to go to bed at bed time!

(But he did still have his special birthday party to look forward to...)

The Ultimate 'D' Dance Show

* EDIT - I've noticed people are finding this blog post by searching for the show gallery on Rob's web site, so I thought I'd edit to add a link for the images: www.twda.robertnewmanphotography.com Once there, click the 'Order Online' link under the brown notice to be taken through to the event selection page. Click on the twda thumbnail, and then the "Click here to enter" bar at the bottom will take you through to the entire show gallery*

I've mentioned plenty of times in the past, the Small Person has been attending dance classes at The Whiteman Dance Academy since she started school two years ago. She does ballet and tap on a Monday, and she does freestyle and musical theatre on a Saturday.
The Whiteman Dance Academy puts on a show every two years. We just missed the last one when she started, so this July was show time - Alexandra's first ever show. It was performed at the Spa Centre in Leamington Spa over two nights: Wednesday 18th July and Thursday 19th July, the last week of term (so, very sleepy children heading off to school those mornings). She looked very grown up with the inch thick make-up on her face! But she looked tiny on stage. Still my little baby.



(Sorry, these were taken on my phone so aren't great quality!)

I have held off posting about it until now because I was waiting for Mr Bogert to release the show photographs (which was his job for the event), but now they're done and out, I can tell you all about it.

She had some fantastic costumes that we had to purchase through the dance school. There was a point where each week a new little note would come home with the costume name and price on (it certainly adds up), then each little costume had a extra note in the bag detailing additional items to buy (white pumps, white ankle socks, pink ballet socks, blue/white/red trousers, blue/red/white hair accessories etc).

Alexandra was in one dance per class that she takes, and the finale, so five in total. She was in the opening number: Sugar Plum Fairies for ballet.

On the opening night, at one point after the lights had gone down and the audience had finished clapping (you know, that big bit of silence where everyone is waiting for the next number to start) there was this little voice that called out "Help! I can't see! Where am I going?!" - it was one of the tiny dancers coming off stage. That got a few laughs.

Alexndra was in Aladdin for musical theatre (and had an Arabian costume), which actually consisted of 3 songs performed by the group: A Friend Like Me, A Whole New World, and Price Ali. This was probably my proudest moment because she really puts emphasis into her acting and her facial expressions just crack me up, but even more proud as she had a solo line to sing in "Whole New World" and I could hear her loud and clear (and in tune!) and it didn't even seem to phase her that there was a big audience of strangers watching her.

She had a quick change for her next number (only one dance in between, and she was the only one with a quick change here) for "Singing the Blues" for tap. The dress rehearsal and the first night everything went smoothly, the last night, she was just a little late, and she came running on stage with a big grin on her face saying "I'm late". Everyone in the audience laughed, and I heard a few people say they thought it was part of the performance :) She said Singing the Blues was her favourite.

She got a little bit of a break then until the opening number of Act II which was called "The School Bell" and was with her freestyle class. Then there was a huge gap until the finale. The finale was in red, white and blue, with an Olympic theme and and appearance from 'The Queen'.

It was so much fun to watch and all of the dancers were wonderful. Sharyn and her team did a fantastic job.

I spent the dress rehearsal night in the dressing room with her trying to make sure it went into her head what she needed to do and when. It didn't go all that smoothly, and she asked if I could write it down, so I did a mini print out for her with a list of things to do for each cotsume change an things to ask for grown up help with (there were chaperones in the rooms), but I was still worried, so enlisted the help of my sister for opening night. I watched the performance on my own, my sister stayed with Alexandra in the dressing room. It really put my mind at ease. The next night, I think Ali had a bit more of an idea of what she was doing and when, so it all seemed to go OK (and we didn't lose any costume bits!).

She had a big smile on her face the whole time, and said how much fun she'd had. She didn't get whiney or tired, which considering she put in full days at school, came home, ate dinner and rushed off to the theatre until gone 10pm, for 3 days in a row, is quite an achievement in itself. We even gave her the chance to take one of the mornings off from school to catch up on sleep, but she was adamant she wanted to go into school on time.

She was just so excited after the whole thing. She loved every minute of it. I asked her if she felt nervous at all at any point, and she said "I think I did a little bit before we went on, but then I was just having fun so it went away." She also asked me if she keep dancing forever. I said she could keep dancing as long as she still thought it was fun. I'm so glad she had such a great time, I really enjoyed watching the show, and I can't wait to see the video when it's finished being edited.

As I said before, Mr Bogert was on photo duty and someone he knows did the professional video, so we'll have plenty to remember her first stage performance by.

She has another show coming up in August, but this time with Playbox Theatre who she goes to on a Friday. The show is called "Starry Nights" and has 150 children of varying ages in, but I haven't a clue what it is about. Rehearsals for that run from the Tuesday to the Thursday, 9am-4pm, and then part day on the Friday, of the week of the show. There are two performances on the Friday, one at 3pm and one at 7pm. She is so excited! I'll let you know how it goes.

But as for this very first performance: Good job Small Person!

Royal Pump Rooms - Leamington Spa - Saturday 28th July

We're trying to make the most of the Summer Holidays, and the most of the time we have together as a whole family, Mr Bogert included, so weekends are our best times.

We haven't been to the Royal Pump Rooms before, in fact, we don't really spend a lot of time in Leamington. I used to work there when I was a teenager, and that is pretty much the last time I used to spend any amount of time there.

I had seen the Art Gallery was running a children's art competition on this day, and as Alexandra loves drawing so much, I thought she might have fun. We had a look around the displays including a temporary sporting exhibtion called "Going for Gold". The Small Person chose an Olympic poster in this display as inspiration for her art work. She spent a lot of time just trying to get the wiggly water lines right. She was given a medal, a biscuit and a drink for taking part.



This is the Small Person Art Competition entry based on an olympic poster.

We've had more lovely weather this weekend, so we set out across the road from the gallery into Jephson Gardens, and sat with a picnic under a big tree (that the Small Person was convinced was just the right size for her to climb!). After eating, we had a little look around the hot house. They had Olympic inspired art work from the local schools on display.

Then it was across the bridge into the children's play area. The Smaller Person was convincedhe could do all of the things that his big sister was doing, and it took a bit of persausion to get him to stick to the smaller play things. He also wasn't entirely convinced by the tube slide. Another little girl had to show him it was OK before he would go down, then there was no stopping him.

We started to take a slow wander back to the art gallery for the anouncement of the art competition winnders. The Smaller Person loved the fact he was allowed to walk freely again. He spent some time talking to the pigeons and a goose by the water.

Back in the Art Gallery, The Small Person had just enough time to make a mask with one of their family activity craft packs, before the winners of the art competition were anounced.

The Small Person was so happy - she won second prize in the competition in her age category, and was given a certificate and a £15 voucher for WHSmith. She had her photograph taken with the other winners and the judges, and her art work is now on display in the gallery. She said "I just keep winning things!".