The Nutcracker

This year, my mother-in-law invited us to attend The Nutcracker the day after we arrived in the U.S. When H woke up at 12:44 am that morning, I questioned my decision to say, "Yes." I would surely be too exhausted to enjoy it, as would K and AJ, who slept longer, but still woke up around 3am.
Later that morning, I managed to get all three kids down for a nap, which provided me with additional sleep as well.

When I woke AJ up from his nap, the first words out of his mouth were, "Is it time to go to the Nutcracker?" He was pretty excited to be included with the other big kids. After getting everyone ready, we loaded up in the cars for the ride downtown. The kids' cousins would also be attending the ballet, and the boys' and girls' outfits coordinated. K and AJ rode next to one of their cousins, and they sang their own version of  "Life is a Highway" the whole way there. It was fun to listen to them and see the joy on their faces as they just had fun.


AJ all decked out and enjoying the ride there




K and her cousin. They and their dolls all had matching jumpers.



My two cuties on the way.

Once there, I left my camera in the car, so I don't have any pictures after that. AJ sat next to me during the performance, and I thoroughly enjoyed his commentary filled with questions, expressions of awe, and remarks about the strength of the dancers. He also made it clear that he didn't like the portion of the ballet when Clara and the Nutcracker Prince visit the Sugar Plum Fairy because there was "too much pink." That didn't stop him from enjoying at least some of the dances, though.

Towards the end, AJ got really tired, but he couldn't settle down to go to sleep. He ended up falling asleep at the restaurant we visited after the Nutcracker was over. Timo and H met us there, and, thankfully, Timo's sister lent us her car so we could all leave early to get our kids (and ourselves) to bed, with visions of the Sugar Plum Fairy dancing in our heads. :)