Party in the Park

Dorothy's twirling class performed at a community "Party in the Park" event, put on by the park district where her lessons are run through.  She did another solo and did a great job.  It's pretty long, but here it is.  Since I was taking a video, I didn't get any still pictures of her performance.

 It was hot sitting in the sun to watch the other girls perform and both kids ended up sitting to the side of the stage in the shade.  Probably a very smart choice.

 After the show, all the girls went back up on stage for a final bow and pictures.  Dorothy was not amused.


 Once her group was all done performing, we bought the kids a few tickets and let them choose which carnival activities they wanted to do.  They both wanted face painting as their first thing. 

 It was a really long wait, but they finally got their turns.

 Malcolm, the vampire.

 Dorothy is a unicorn.  I didn't get a good picture of just her, but her paint is in the next several pictures.  Kevin and I each took a kid to what they wanted to do.  Malcolm loved the games, and Dorothy was all about the animals.

I should note that I tried to bring her a change of clothes for after her performance, but she refused.  I did bring her swimming cover-up, but she refused to wear it because she wanted to show off her costume to everyone.

 We went over to do the pony rides, but right as we got there, the ponies went on a break, so she chose the petting zoo instead.  I wasn't sure I would ever get her out of there.  She loved this donkey and fed him lots of grass.

 Llama, llama.

 She was pulling up handfuls of grass to feed the animals.

 There were several times that she was completely surrounded by sheep.  As I was watching her and taking some pictures, a sheep nuzzled up against my leg, which I thought was sweet, until he peed on my shoe.  I asked the nice ladies at the main tent if there was a hose anywhere and when I told them why, they took pity on me and gave me a bottle of water so I could at least rinse off my foot and shoe.  Luckily I was wearing sandals that can get wet/be washed.

 This poor little calf was so sleepy.

 Once we were done at the petting zoo, the ponies were running again, and I had a very happy little girl.

 What?  Don't you always ride a pony in a sequined leotard with your face painted like a unicorn?  Somehow, this is the epitome of being a four year old girl.

 There were some folks there with some really cool birds of prey, but she could not have cared less because she couldn't feed or pet them.  Here she is with a great horned owl.

She's looking at a little screech owl, and just behind her pig-tail is a Kestrel falcon.

They both had a great time at the Party in the Park, and she said it was fun twirling on a stage.  Her teacher has invited her to join the team for the upcoming year.  We haven't decided yet, but Dorothy says she wants to try it.  I don't want her to do too much too fast, but I'm happy she is having fun with it so far.