Today....

.... well.... today this once 6lb baby of mine auditioned for the Royal Ballet School associate classes. The first of many ballet auditions of this nature, no doubt. And she doesn’t do things by halves so straight in with the Royal!

She’s had the most fabulous day. she woke up at 5.30 full of happies. A power breakfast of egg, bacon and beans followed by fruit. A soak in the tub, audition hair done. Uniform put on at the very last minute.

We drove to the station and met up with friends from ballet. It made the day so special to share it with some of her new buddies. I ended up having the three girls sat with me for the journey there. They were delightful the whole way, all bubbly and happy. When we got to Leeds, they had some photos being crazy on the amazing huge 3D letters in the station.

We spent an hour or so in the city centre, each child having a nervous wobble in their own individual way. Katie was a bit cross when I said no she couldn’t go to lush before the audition- but she takes great delight in being very messy and glittery in lush! We promised we would take them after though. We had a wander in Zara and got a Starbucks whilst the kids ate a bit of early lunch.

It was time to head over to the auditions, where we met another girl from her school and Bobbins. Katie and A had some happy time together while they all got ready and Katie & her ballet friends sent some photos to their teacher.

They were called to line up at Exactly the scheduled time before a little introduction to us all. Katie stood there smartly in her best first with a beaming grin, just as she’d been told to by her teacher. The associates programme leader saw her and laughed, told her just to relax. Then off they went....

They reappeared spot on an hour later (Royal precision every step of the way!). Katie had a massive smile and declared it amazing. She said the barre work was very standard, fairly basic, then they’d spent a while standing in / doing and holding various positions whilst the panel looked at and assesssed them all. They did corner work, a small amount of centre stuff and a very tiny bit of creative, but just the arms whilst sat on the floor. They did lots of stretches on the floor, none of which seemed to phase Katie- she loves that stuff. She loved the whole thing. It will be a long six weeks whilst we wait for the results now!

The mums had been chatting while we waited for them to come out of class and one had said “I bet the first words from E will be can we go to lush now”.... and it was exactly what she said. The girls skipped and danced through town with a lightness that definitely had been lacking beforehand!

They had a very fabulous half hour in lush where the staff spoilt them all rotten with samples, freebies and extras. Katie delighted in teaching her friends how a bathbomb can be used to colour ones skin and which ones have glitter that can be wiped over ones face. The mums laughed at how right I had been to not allow it until after! On Katie’s recommendation, all of them left with Dragon’s Egg bath bombs.

They had a marvellous time on the train home, delighted that they’d missed a day of school. They begged for a playdate to end the day! However, we had plans already. Granny and Grandad arrived just as we did ready to treat Katie to a takeout pizza tea to celebrate getting this far.

Six weeks to wait.... six weeks!

(Some extras today!)