A Belle Birthday Party and A Girl's Weekend

The weekend after Olivia's dance recital, Brooke and I had planned to go to Lincoln City with the girls for a night for a girl's weekend.  The girls had so much fun last year that we decided to go again this year.  Olivia got invited to her friend Kennedy's birthday party the morning we were going to leave so we went to her birthday party and then I was going to pick Brooke and Addie up and we were going to head to the beach right after the party.  

Kennedy's birthday party was at Play Boutique in Lake Oswego.  Her mom had rented out the entire place and had brunch type food.  Kennedy had a surprise too-Belle came to visit her and spent a whole hour with the girls telling them a story, painting their faces,  and then was there when Kennedy got sung Happy Birthday.  Olivia loved seeing Belle and spending time with her friends from Rocking Horse.  It was a really fun birthday party.

Meeting Belle! 

 Belle telling the kids a story

Olivia got her face painted by Belle

Cupcakes and next to the birthday girl Kennedy

Olivia and Belle

After the birthday party, we headed over and picked up Brooke and Addie.  Then we all rode together to Lincoln City.  We packed the girls a lunch and they ate in the car.  We headed to the outlet mall first on our way in and had a lot of fun at Carters, Gymboree, and Ann Taylor Loft.  The girls were getting tired of shopping and hungry so we had a early dinner at Rusty Truck Brewery and after dinner we checked into the hotel.  We stayed at Surf Tides this time since they had rooms with an extra bedroom so we could stay up later and scrapbook and they had a indoor pool and were right on the ocean.  The only bummer thing is that they did not allow the kids into the hot tub and were super strict about it and there was no free breakfast.  The kids did get little toys when checking in and it was super nice to be able to walk down to the beach.  Our room also overlooked the ocean.  We took the girls down to the beach and played on the beach for a bit.  Then we headed back to our hotel and the girls changed into their swim suits to go swimming.  The swimming pool was nice and warm at least.  The girls had fun swimming and then we headed back to the room to get ready for bed.  I read to the girls both Uni the Unicorn books which they enjoyed and then they actually went to sleep pretty quickly.  Brooke and I got a few hours to scrapbook which was nice.

Beer sampler at Rusty Truck

Running at the coast

Our hotel is in the background

Olivia and Addie best friends

Brooke and I best friends for 21 years now!

Beautiful setting with the sun going down and the girls playing at the beach

Pool time!

View from out our hotel balcony

All snuggled up ready for bed

The next day Olivia slept in until 9:00 AM!  It was awesome!  I think she was tired from all the late night with the dancing.  We went to Starbucks for breakfast and then came back and the girls went swimming before we had to check out.  We drove down to the Christmas Cottage and the girls had a blast picking out matching beach ornaments.  Brooke and I love that place, so cute and festive even in June.  We then headed back towards our hotel and went to the beach at our hotel for a while.  The girls had playing in the sand and then we got some lunch on our way out of town.  We stopped off at Sokol Blosser where we are wine club members on our way back and enjoyed some wine tasting.  The girls had fun coloring.  Then we dropped Addie and Brooke off at home.  It was a really fun weekend, with a lot packed in.  Maybe next year we need to do 2 nights!

Being all diva like and ready to go swimming

Morning swimming

Out in front of the Christmas Cottage

Having fun digging in sand 

Running from the waves-we got lucky with the weather

Coloring while the mommies do wine flights

Olivia's first dance recital

Just before her dress rehearsal performance 

Olivia did dance class this year for the first time.  She did a 3's and 4's Tap, Jazz, Tumble class.  She took classes at the same place where she does gymnastics, Westside Dance and Gymnastics and had classes on Thursday mornings usually before my mom got into town.  I would take Olivia to class and then my mom would meet us there and we would switch cars and she would watch Olivia (and Brandon after school).  At first, Olivia did not like her dance class very much and I thought we would only last a month.  But then she got more used to her class and made friends and really liked her teacher, teacher Jessica.  At the end of the year to celebrate all of their hard work, Westside held recitals where each class got to perform.  The recital was at the Newmark Theater in downtown Portland on a full stage with very nice theater seats and lighting.  It was quite fancy!  Olivia's class did a tap dance routine to the Jake and the Neverland Pirates song "Awe Coconuts."  It was a catchy and cute song.  Anyways, the girls practiced really hard for the last several months leading up to the recital.

The day before her recital, Olivia's class had their dress rehearsal on Thursday around noon.  My mom was watching the kids for the day so she got to come and watch her do her dress rehearsal which was perfect.  It was amazing watching the older girls' dance teams do their routines.  They were so talented.  Addie also had her dress rehearsal with her class after Olivia so we got to stay and watch that.  It was good that they got to practice as Olivia's class is quite large (9 girls) and it was good for stage positioning.  Olivia did great during her rehearsal.  After, Olivia and Addie ran around the theater and we got some cute pictures of them.  They both looked really cute in their costumes.

All ready to go for her dress rehearsal

On stage!

Tapping away

Smiling in the theater

Being silly

With Addie on the giant statute 

Olivia sitting on the giant statute

The girls together on the statue

Exploring the fun theater

Portland sign in the background

Poising and being silly

Walking outside the theater with CiCi

Running through the streets of Portland together

Awe coconuts!

Olivia's real performance was the next day on Friday at 6:30 PM.  Sean's mother came up from Eugene to go to the performance.  We bought her tickets as a Mother's Day present.  I was volunteering at Brandon's school on the morning of the recital purchasing day and forgot my phone at home.  Luckily my watch was synced and warned me to buy the tickets.  I ran back home and was only about 45 minutes late in purchasing them and we still got pretty good tickets in the 3rd row.  We had a light dinner before we left and I got Olivia all ready.  She was excited she got to wear a little make up for performance.  We left the house 45 minutes early and it was good since the traffic was bad on our way there.  We arrived with 10 minutes to spare and was one of the earliest ones to arrive!  We checked Olivia in with her teacher and had her go to the bathroom.  Then she got to play and color backstage until it was her time to go.  We got to leave and enjoy watching the show.  They also had some good wine to purchase!

Looking super old outside our house ready to perform

All ready to go perform! 

Out in front of the theater

Poising at the check in 

Coloring with her bud Addie

Olivia's dance was the 7th in from the program.  The first few dances were the older girls and they did a couple amazing dances that lasted a while.  Finally it was Olivia's turn to dance.  I was really nervous for her but she did so awesome!  Even better than during the dress rehearsal.  She looked relaxed on stage and was smiling a lot and appeared to be having fun despite all the people watching her.  It was really fun to watch her perform and I was really proud of her.  Addie's group went a few dances after Olivia's and did a ballet dance.  Olivia got to watch Addie perform which was fun.  I went and got Olivia during the intermission and she got to sit on my lap and watch the rest of the dancers.  It was fun to watch the older kids perform but there were a lot of seniors performing and it did go a bit long.  Olivia got a wiggly but we were all done by around 9:00 at least.  We headed home and had to pick Brandon up at Brooke's house (Brooke's dad was watching him, Logan and Luke) and then we all headed to bed.

Just before performing

Up on stage performing

Leading the group

Tapping away

The girls on stage

Twirling around on stage 

Ending their dance!