A fun, busy day

Never let it be said that we don't make the most of our weekends around here. Today's cavalcade of activity began with Rachel's swim lesson at the local community center. She's made quite a lot of progress -- from being afraid to put her face in the water at all to doing it and blowing bubbles while she's waiting her turn on the paddleboard or something, just to show me she can. Don't know if she's ready for the next level yet (Otter, I believe; she's a Penguin now), but she's definitely ahead of where I was at her age.

Then, after a quick trip to the snack bar for a reasonably healthful snack (today a Cinnamon Toast Crunch bar -- not my first choice but better than cheddar goldfish crackers), it was down to ballet school. Today Rachel had not just her regular lesson but following that a full-on rehearsal for the "Nutcracker Sweet Suite" she and the other younger dancers will be performing two weeks from today. Rachel and the other three girls in her class will be Chinese fortune cookies, meaning they dressed in pink or blue satiny Chinese-style tunics and lined up to dance together as a dragon. They looked utterly adorable, and Rachel loved watching all the other girls in their costumes run through their parts.

After a bagel, an orange and some mango juice, I dropped off Rachel at her old friend Lila Anne's house for a playdate. Lila used to go to St. James with Rachel; she switched schools awhile ago, but the two girls get on so well we try to get them together every so often. Today was a special treat: Elliott, a friend of Lila's from her new school, had invited her to a gingerbread house-making party, and generously extended the invitation to Rachel as well. Suzanne, Lila's mom, took them both to the party, which gave me a chance to hit the gym for a much-needed workout.

When I went to Elliott's house to fetch Rachel, the three girls were running around, pretending to hide from me, shrieking with laughter and generally having a great time. The gingerbread houses looked yummy and very cute (I of course brought Rachel's home, where it will become dessert fodder after being photographically immortalized), and the girls of course didn't want to leave. But we had yet another stop to make: the video store, where I had told Rachel she could pick a video for our pizza/popcorn/movie night. It ended up being another Barbie movie, of course: "Barbie as Rapunzel," which was not nearly as eye-rollingly unbearable as that title might lead you to think. Rachel spent much of the evening curled up against me, munching pizza and popcorn and covering her eyes during the scary parts; as the end-credits music played, she jumped up and said "Let's dance!" So we danced until it was time to get her ready for bed.

Now she's in bed, and I think I'm going to unwind while watching "Cowboys & Aliens" on On Demand. Tomorrow: haircuts and groceries!