Of Ballet and Belts

Today was Esther's last day of ballet in Michigan. It's been wonderful and we're sad to be leaving the Turning Pointe. *btw for any of you in Michigan looking for an AMAZING dance school, you should look into the Turning Pointe in Saint Clair Shores.* Esther has ALWAYS loved to dance, and I mean that literally. Before she was born we'd put music up to my stomach (as silly parents-to-be often do) and she would actually wiggle around to the general beat of whatever we played. When the music got slower or faster, she would follow.

This year she's been in her first ballet class. Unlike many other activities, her enthusiasm for dance has never waned, but actually grown. Every Tuesday is like her birthday. A lot of that has to do with her passion for dancing. A lot of it also has to do with Ms. Anne, her wonderful teacher, who is creative, fun, and instructional all at the same time. We will sure miss her!

And then, on our way home from ballet we had another adventure. Suddenly the power steering stopped working, the battery light came on, and the car started angrily dinging at me! This wasn't the regular, "you should get more gas soon," or "hey dummy, you left a door open," kind of ding. The van was TICKED OFF. So instead of driving Esther's friend and car-pool buddy home, we took a detour to Belle Tire. Hallie's mom picked up Hallie and Esther (and offered to take William too, but I decided not to prey on her generosity too much), and Will, Alex, and I hung around waiting to find out why our poor van was so upset. It turns out the serpentine belt fell off. It wasn't a very big deal to fix, and if we'd come in on a less busy day (Belle Tire gets a lot of business on snowy days) it wouldn't have taken the nearly three hours we were there. But I'm glad it happened today, instead of during our trip to Lincoln. Plus, William sure did have fun playing with the model struts!