Dancing and Flying High

When the school year started, our dancer girl auditioned for a dance company at Pepperdine, Dance in Flight. 

"DIF" has been in existence for 22 years. Apparently, it is one of the largest, most beloved, and well-attended events at Pepperdine. :-) The performance spotlights Pepperdine students, of all majors and backgrounds, performing a variety of dance principles from jazz, hip hop, tap, ballet, modern, theatrical, ballroom and world dance.

I suppose that all of those years hanging out at the barre paid off. After two long days of auditions, Liesey made the cut from 90 to 30 dancers. She then spent September through January dancing and rehearsing. 

This photo was taken during one of the rehearsals.  Love those smiles; one more than the others.

The cover of the school paper was graced with DIF dancers. My favorite is next to the "C" in Graphic.

Obviously, they are having a ball.

On the cover of the program, the letter "D" is brought to you by my daughter.
(I just realized that where DIF is concerned, Liesey is all about the Cs and Ds -- good thing her academic grades are nowhere near these letters!) :-P

The stage is all set. The artwork is ready to come to life. Let the dancing begin.

The DIF performances were held the weekend of Valentine's Day, and I would have LOVED to have been there. Thankfully, my seester arranged to be in Malibu for one of the shows. What a good auntie!

When the auditions roll around this fall, I know of a dancer who plans to be there for tryouts. If our ballerina girl makes it "in" again, I will be booking my flight for Dance in Flight plenty early.

Feeling the Love

Valentine's Day looked pretty lovely at our house. 

I always try to do seasonal chalkboard art. This one was simple, but the message is sweet... Awwww.

My sweet neighbor girlie has a "Cookie of the Month" club, so I had to buy February's extra-special, extra-soft, heart-shaped, extra-sugary, sugar cookies. Never mind the gluten and all that sugar. That girl can bake! And with free, home delivery, I couldn't let this deal pass by.

Jemima is posing with our collection of decorative Valentine's Day boxes. These relics are from homeschool parties from a realllly long time ago -- back when we used to have contests for the best decorated box. I'm sure there's at least one winner in the mix. I just didn't have the heart to toss them in the trash. I'm a sentimental fool... I wish that I would have kept some of the V-day boxes that my mother made for me when I was in elementary school. There were some classic ones. I was always very proud to "show off" her creativity.

Bart has his own V-day box and a purrty pink ribbon 'round his neck. As you can imagine, this was not his idea.

I cannot believe that a pair of Bart and Jemima's Instagram kitty friends sent them a card and cat toys for the special day. Riley and Eli are two classy cats from Atlanta. 

My husband and I did not exchange v-day cards, but my cats are receiving messages of love (and gifts) from their friends. Wow. Is this a crazy world, or what?!

Our youngest went shopping to get her baseball playing beau a bear. Meet Bearron the Bear. Kinda catchy... considering B's last name is Barron. And he's a catcher; B's a catcher, that is, not the bear! And B's got quite a catch when it comes to girlfriends, in my humble and oh, so honest opinion. :-) 

Platitudinous V-Day PUNishment

There's just something about vintage Valentine's Day cards from the 1950s-60s that I enjoy. It must be my love of the pun that makes these classic cards so near and dear to my heart. I don't care if these are hackneyed old sayings that are "so old they've got whiskers," there is an innocence that goes along with the much simpler time period in which these types of cards were produced. 

Cupid can draw back his bow and shoot puns at me any time. Here are a few of my favs.

 Out of the frying pan and into the fire?

These two are sunny side up?

They have egg on their face?

I'm cracking up at these bad yolks...Not really.

 Food puns are always in good taste.

Cats and puns make fur a good pairing.

Is this one is a bit edgy? Hmmm... 

I think it was a much more wholesome era when this card would have been sold. Call me naïve, I'm going with the "age of innocence" thing here. This kind of card certainly would not be sold to elementary aged children today. I'm sure some people would be "fit to be tied" over this kind of message. 

I could see myself giving out this kind of card. It's a-maize-ing.

And if everything went accordion to plan, this would be the card for my beloved to give to me. I'll end it here, before we hit a sour note.