The Aftermath

My sister was able to attend the final performance with Karate Kid.  I'm not sure how Karate Kid got out of being in the picture.  I'll try to find one of her later today.

This is what the girls did while waiting between performances.  The Kennedy Center didn't mind one bit that 81 children and their moms all camped out in the hallways all weekend.

OJ gearing up for her final performance.  She has been bitten by the performance bug and is already talking about what she might do next.

You'd have thought these two spent their entire week at the Kennedy Center.  Do you see a future Clara and Fritz?

This is what your hair looks like after spending 5 days in the same hair do.  You read that right. I did not redo her hair each day.  I just added more hair spray.  There was no way I was going to repeat four french braids all week!  Her hair turned a completely dingy gray color and I won't even describe to you how it felt.  Ewwwwww!

It is finally over.  I am relieved and yet it was bittersweet to leave the Kennedy Center and the whole Nutcracker experience.  No tears were shed, unless you count the proud tears of my sister who was so overwhelmed by the whole production: being at the Kennedy Center, the live orchestra, a professionally produced Nutcracker, and seeing her nieces in a dream-come-true spectacle.  It truly was amazing.  I can't promise this will be the last Nutcracker post.  We made some incredible new friends and there are promises of more photos in the near future.  I've heard there are photos of my girls in costume and I will definitely post those here when I get them.  In the meantime you can read about and see a video of a special little girl that was involved in this year's Nutcracker at this webpage from the Washington Post.  If you look carefully you will see OJ in the background several times.