Mommy-Daughter Date with Miss Audrey Kea

So it's late, but Audrey and I just got home from our first official mommy-daughter date and I have to have to HAVE TO blog about it while it's still fresh in my mind!  It was such a great time for us!  I can probably count on one hand the amount of times I've been alone with Audrey since Hannah was born almost a year ago.  And I don't think that's bad, that's how it should be, because siblings are a great and important part of life that I want each of my kids to experience (obviously).  But another great and important part of life is parent-child relationships and so I really believe that each kid needs personal time with each parent every now and then.  So this was the first of many mommy-daugther dates.
The main event of the evening was the BYU Alice in Wonderland Ballet!  (I don't know if there will be a lot of sentences without exclamation marks in this post).  Audrey's been talking a little bit about ballerinas recently and she was mesmerized by the dancers when they first came on the stage, especially Alice.  I've always LOVED musical productions of any kind and so this was a magical little experience for me to be sharing with my daughter.  It was a little long for a two year old to be sitting but with a bag of candy, one bathroom break, and a lot of whispering we made it through to the end pretty cheerfully.  We met some of the cast afterwards and were able to take pictures with them!  Audrey, who had been talking about them excitedly and said she wanted to see them, of course got very straight-faced and silent when they were actually talking to her.  They were all so wonderful in their dancing and in their attitudes.  They helped me in trying to coax her to stand with them and they were always smiling, obliging this slightly camera happy mom.

the stage.  we had great seats! and we were on the end of a row so that was nice with having a toddler

posing for the camera 

the cards! they also played the flowers (which were our favorites) and the birds

this girl was the caterpillar! i loved seeing the costume interpretations of the characters

the lovely alice. audrey has a great poker face. on the inside she was just dying but on the outside she looks like she could care less!  she really really loved the ballerinas.

this one shows the nervous excitement in her face a little better.  she was just so speechless i guess!

the white rabbit

one of the water birds

see, this is how she really felt about it all!

When we walked out into the snow Audrey was complaining a little about not wanting to go home when she suddenly gasped and said, "OLAF?"  I turned to look and sure enough there was Olaf!  Somebody had built a legit Olaf snowman right there on BYU campus!

After Olaf we just took our sweet time getting to the car.  We "ice skated" to the next building to get warm and just moseyed along the hallways.  The last major event of the evening- we crashed a dance!  BYU was having their Valentines dance and when we went to have a peek we somehow ended up on the dance floor twirling around crazy amid all the couples.  A lot of the couples looked at us and smiled and laughed and we saw some friends from our ward.  After having a ourselves a dance or two we finally headed out to the car, "ice skating" the whole way there again.  We played a game of not knowing where our car was (it really was a game!) and then we thought of names for our car the whole way home with Audrey cracking up at every name I suggested.  When we got home we showed Daddy pictures and promptly got ready for bed as it was already ten.  As I put Audrey's jammies on she put her head down on my lap and said "I like you, Mom.  I love you, Mom."
Some of the most beautiful words I ever have or will hear in my life!!

crashing the dance!

It was one of the best evenings of my life and I love that we were able to do it.  Andrew and Hannah had a quiet little evening at home of playing, snacking, and bedtime.  My day was just all around wonderful because this morning I was able to go to a Relief Society activity that I've been looking forward to, which was also everything I hoped it would be.  As our time here in Provo is coming to an end I'm more appreciative of what we've had here.  That'll be a post for another day once we get closer to moving.
I love experiencing the good things.  I love watching dancers and musicals, and I love dancing and singing myself.  I love being in the snow with my daughter, making her laugh her little two year old laugh.  I love being uplifted and inspired and slightly spontaneous.

What an amazing day I've had.