Dancing with the Snowflakes

For the past week-or-so, in-between make-up classes (I’ll be traveling between November 23rd and December 9th) and “All Things New” rehearsals, the Training Division planned a surprise birthday party for our dear teacher, Miss Sara. Though her birthday is not for a couple of weeks yet, we all agreed that a party is too exciting to be put off, and we didn’t want Thanksgiving Break to interfere with anything. So, the 15th it was!

We all came to the conclusion that a winter-themed birthday celebration would be lovely, as Miss Sara just adores snow. We collected a variety of winter-themed decorations, treats and gifts and hid everything in crates in the lobby of the Training Center, disguised as Lost & Found. After ballet class, Miss Mimi agreed to stall our teacher with some VERY important questions. We bustled around the studio, hanging streamers and snowflakes and loading in the “Lost & Found” goodies. With a surprise visit from Emma, our whirlwind was complete, and we waited expectantly for Miss Sara to return from the main studio. When she entered the room, we screamed, “Happy birthday, Miss Sara!” and just about gave her a heart attack. She had NO idea what we were up to, which made everyone pretty darn proud.

We finished rehearsal and then dug into the gifts. It took Miss Sara 45 minutes to open bag after bag of tea, coffee, chocolate, lotion and all things fuzzy (“I know what I’m wearing next week!”). Abby and Elizabeth even managed to find her an iPad remote for her music! We laughed until we just about cried (“Who’s your ballet teacher?” – “Oh, just look for the one in the penguin hat.”) and made some truly wonderful memories. Here are some pictures, so that you can share in our fun… (credit to Moriah)!

After the party, Moriah and I stayed to help with clean-up, loading all of the left-overs into Abby and Elizabeth’s truck and dragging Miss Sara’s children (a.k.a. gifts) into her car. We waved good-bye and headed back to my house, where I sit now.

Happy birthday, Miss Sara! You are SUCH a huge blessing to me and all of the students at our studio! We love you! Elizabeth, thank you SO much for bringing all of this together! You’re amazing! I don’t know what we’d do without you!