Shopping with Girls and Dancing an Irish Jig

This weekend while daddy was running the Marathon relay style with his school the girls and I explored a country store. I'd been there years and years and years ago... first married, no kids kind of years ago. But I recently drove by it last week on the way home from a newborn photo shoot. Instead of stopping by myself on that way home I decided it would be much more fun to explore it with my girls. I knew they would love it; and they did.



With just my 50mm it was impossible to capture the scenery.  The huge lake, the trees... fall picturesque. 

And the store... it was a huge old barn, all cozy and separated into different rooms that wound around and around.  Charming! 



And one little girl who made me take this picture of her.  And she arranged her hair "just so" and put on this silly fake smile. 



And there's the seasonal harvest tree that I want.  I've always admired Billie Jo's seasonal tree.  I love how it's up all year and she just changes the ornaments for every holiday.  So when I walked in and saw this beauty I told Anna, "let's buy this and take it home."  She walked over and said, "do we have to add up all of the ornaments to buy it?"  :)  Sooo I think I spyed a much smaller undecorated country tree there.  I'll keep my eye on it and already know just the spot for it (year round) in my house.  At least I know now where to get seasonal ornaments!  (I'm getting closer, Billie Jo!) 

It really was a lovely shop, and the girls and I could have stayed there forever looking at all of the treasures.  But as you know there's only so long I can keep little six year old hands from breaking something. 



And then on Sunday after teaching my first graders we headed, quickly, to Abigail's Irish Step Feis. So exciting!

Getting her gillies on



Walking on to perform with her only compettion for the beginners group. We don't take the compettion seriously. We really only did this so that Abigail could have a special afternoon doing something she loves to do. So we made it clear that this was all for fun.



I quickly found out that I was quite possibly the only Mom in the place to felt that way. Some serious Moms there... even in the beginners group. While I could have cared less if Abigail just went out and did the same tap~kick over and over and forgot the rest, these other Moms... well they were on the edge of their seats if they weren't in their seats making their daughters cry while they pulled back their hair and put on the funniest Irish Step wigs. For some of these Moms it was part beauty pagent, part dance competition. Phew! Not for us.

Some of them wore full wigs (see the girl in the bleachers), and most of them wore "bun wigs" like the girl next to her and the teen helper.



Poor Abigail showed up with just a pony tail so I fished through my purse and found a little red flower clip.

 Looking a little like "what did I get myself into?"



Okay, you gotta love this one. Her 'competition' is all in position with a smile on her face. Abigial is asking that teen something like, "so what's the first step to the Irish Jig?"


But off she goes... to the live music. I was so proud of her for just getting up there and dancing. (check out that kick from her 'competition'... wow!) 



And as soon as the dancing was over they had to approach the judges table. She has no idea what this was about.



But was thrilled to way away with two trophies!



We were all thrilled for her!





It was fun doing something new; something we'd never done before as a family. It was fun cheering her on and watching her beam when it was all over! But it was even better when we found this on the way home!