an orphan and a ballerina

saturday the girls both had performances at the surprise party (a holiday festival in surprise, az). ava has been taking ballet though the city and loves it. she got right up on the stage and gave us big waves and smiles, pretty much the entire performance :) she's so darn cute!

each season they pick one activity, lily also does dasies(girl scouts) all school year. this season lily chose musical theater. they are doing the musical annie and lily was cast as molly. she is the cutest molly ever, and quite the little actress. i never had a doubt. she is confident and loves being on stage. imagine that :) Here are a couple shots from saturday. they performed a few songs here but the musical is on friday.

here she is singing her little solo in "it's a hard knocks life".

Well, ya comin?

Where?
To the North Pole, of course! This is the Polar Express!

Friday was out third trip to the north pole. I procrastinated this year and ended up getting the tickets last minute on Craig's list. So now that we have a few trips under our belt I wanted to share some tips to help you out.

1. For best available dates purchase your tickets early. I'm talking like May early. By the end of summer all weekend are booked up. Seats C and D are best. They are on the side where you will see the north pole.
2. To stay or not to stay the night. We ended up doing a quick turn around since the girls had performances the next morning. We lucked out on the weather. The past two years there were snow storms. So.....if you don't stay your gambling on the weather. If you stay, we enjoy the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel. It's not fancy but it's nice to walk right over after get off the train.
3. The food...in my opinion, not so good. I would never do the package with the food again. It's not advertised, but you can get the hotel/train package without the food and it will save you $100, that just for diner and breakfast! We like to eat in flag on the way up. We haven't found anything great in town.
4. 6:30pm or 8pm departure. Depends on your kids. We have done both. There was no way Lily could have made it that late three years ago, but now they can all do it. If you want early you better book early.
5. Dress in layers! It's cold outside, but the train gets pretty warm. Don't forget to wear your jammies :)
6. Bring ribbon for the bells. Santa will board the train after you reach the north pole. He passes out bells to all the kiddos. Make a necklace with the ribbon to keep you from fetching the bell out from under the seats all the way back.
7. Bring your book. They will read the story on the way to the north pole. The girls love to have their own copy to follow along.
8. If it's snowing there are some great recreations areas around town. Did you know Williams has a Ski Area! They offer family tubing also.
9. For all you Canon Rebel users, bring along your point and shoot for night shots. Canon DSLR's are terrible at focusing in the dark. Did you ever try to get a shot at night and the on camera flash just keeps flickering, it's a Canon downfall (Nikon is superior in this area). You'll miss the shot or it may be blurry. I always take my p&s along.

I hope this helps someone! The kids love it every year and talk about it for months. Next year I'm getting my tickets early! We'll stay and hopefully it will snow! Please add a comment if you can think of anything else!