Sunday, May 07, 2017



We were at our granddaughters' dance recital yesterday afternoon.  This was Jo-Ann's last year as she will be going off to college next year.  She said it was really sad to leave the group - she has made some good friends there in the 8 years she has attended.  It doesn't seem possible this was the 8th time we've been to her recital. She was only 10 when she arrived here from Namibia, and signed up for dance lessons right away.  This is the second year her sister, Tangeni, has taken dance lessons - she started when she was 4.  Tangeni and Alyssa Rafuse (Garey and Jane Larrabee's granddaughter) are in the same tap and jazz classes.  Tangeni also took ballet this year.  


The top picture is of the first tap number - all older students.  Jo-Ann is barely in the picture on the far left.  The crowd loves when the girls do the synchronized kicks like the Rockettes.  It always gets applause.  The next two pictures are Tangeni in her ballet number - she's on the far right in the first picture and in the middle in the next one.   There was only one hip-hop number by boys this year.  They are fun to watch - lots of energy doing street-dance moves.  The picture shows them at the end of the number.

The next picture is one of Jo-Ann's numbers - I think Jo-Ann is on the far right, but it's hard to tell.  There were lots of other numbers and performers, and I really did try to get pictures of them, but the camera we have now does not do well on closeups, and even though it has the stabilizer feature, I seem to get more blurrs than images.  Fred does much better than I, and next time I'll turn the camera over to him for the duration.  The good shots we got were his, not mine.

We got some fair shots of the girls getting their awards.  Tangeni was very pleased with hers and was very proud that she also got a medal.  She's busy reading her award certificate in this picture - and then when Jo-Ann got hers soon afterwards (the nine graduates were last to receive awards) I noticed she concentrated on reading her certificate, too.  One of the girls was very emotional, and they all seemed to be having a little trouble holding back the tears.  This has been a great experience for them and I'm sure they'll all miss the friends they made here.  Hopefully some, at least, will continue to pursue dance as they move on to college.That's Jo-Ann in red, middle picture here, and the last picture is of all nine graduates.   

It was a very nice program and we enjoyed it a lot.  We'll miss watching JoAnn in it next year, but Tangeni promises to carry on the dance tradition.  

Today we decided to try to forget the cold, wet, dismal weather, so we went to lunch at Three Ponds.  Diane Rossi and Henretta Splain joined us and we had a really nice time.  It wasn't crowded, but there was a steady flow of people in and out.  Again, the food was delicious, served promptly and hot (or cold) as needed. Chicken and biscuits was on the menu, and that pleased Fred; I had a green salad and beef stew.  I have to say, I enjoyed both very much.  The stew was a little different than I'm used to - it had a lot more seasoning than I'm used to, but I ate every bit of it, even though I'm usually not a fan of peppery foods.  And yes, I'd order it again.  We were too full for dessert, but they had some nice looking pastry on display.  Next time.

Now that the day is nearly over, the sun is out.  Just a few minutes ago we had a downpour.  That's the sort of weather we can expect for the next week, according to the forecast, mixed with an occasional snowflake "in the higher elevations."  Of course.  We're totally used to that. 
















 

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