Ballet exams 2015

Finally, ballet exam day arrived. Rachel's exam was before lunch, so we had to leave by 11. We had originally planned for Brendon to take a half day off, but he ended up taking 2 1/2 days off the whole week due to sickness. So because he wasn't feeling well, I suggested I take Hannah with too. That way he only had the 2 younger ones to look after, and Asher would sleep after lunch anyway (so he could get some sleep himself).
Ruth was so thoughtful and brought some loom band things with and taught Hannah how to make something.

Rachel is now Ruth's offical "bun maker". I wasn't sure I fully agreed with how she was putting the bun net on, but after trying myself, I realized how very hard it was.
She has so much hair that the bun is HUGE!!! The "pony" itself needs to be done in two and the two joined, as there is just too much hair.
Well done Rachel. You do a great job with it.

And then posing for photos. Ruth copying Rachel's pose to start.
They are both so lovely.
We knew Rachel's exam went well as she came in flushed and smiling. Mrs Vink had told her the examiner didn't smile easily, so she would have to work for smiles. I think this was just what Rachel needed to motivate her to smile, and she proudly told us she got quite a few smiles. :-)
We don't get to watch the exams, so we look forward to getting the girls results in a few weeks. I am sure both girls have done really well.

Then we had a few hours to spend before the Medal Tests started later in the afternoon. So we got some shopping done, visited the library (Rachel was thrilled to pick up some new books to read) and then headed to the park.
Ruth always loves starting the car for me, so today I said she could hop in the front with me to drive up the drive way (100m from the park to the hall). You can see how thrilled she was. :-)

Ruth has ended up doing the same grade for 2 years now (just how the classes ended up being available on Tuesdays). Last year she did the medal test, so this year we thought it was good for her to work harder and do the full exam. I felt bad that she didn't get to join the other girls with the medal test though. It's expensive to do both, and so Rachel paid for her own medal test. Ruth would have only done one dance, so it really was not worth it. At least Rachel and the older girls got to do two dances for their medal test. Rachel did really well. And I wished there was not such a big cost involved, as it would have been wonderful to watch Ruth too. She also dances so beautifully.
Well done girls.
Another result of the day was that Hannah just loved watching the girls warm up and was copying the younger ones. She told me she wished she had not stopped ballet. So I chatted to the teacher and she said that Hannah was more than welcome to join now. So Hannah was thrilled.