Camryn the Kalidah!


This was Camryn's 3rd performance with Treasure Valley Ballet Academy. She has done ballet there now for about a year and a half. She loves it! She is such a graceful little girl and she loves all things beautiful so a ballerina fits in with that perfectly. Her teacher Ms. Hannah is a wonderful teacher and is so good with the students as well as teaching them their choreography. I really don't know how she does it!


When Camryn and I found out she was going to be in a performance of Wizard of Oz we figured it was time to show her the movie, Wizard of Oz. I was a little worried she would be afraid of the wicked witch but I told her she could close her eyes at those parts. By the end of the movie her and Britton were laughing at the witch and weren't scared at all. Unfortunately we also learned that the kalidah's are not in the movie version of Wizard of Oz.


After learning they were not in the movie we resorted to the book. I found it at our local library and we started reading it right away. Right off the bat we were hooked! I think me more so than Camryn but she also really liked it and we finished it in a couple days. To my surprise it was a little violent in some of the chapters when the wicked witch would send some of the creatures to take out Dorothy, the Tin Woodsman, Lion, and Scarecrow. Camryn didn't mind so we kept reading on and we were both so excited when we got to the part of the kalidah's though we learned they suffer an unfortunate fate.


What I loved about the book was that you really get the back story of all the characters. I loved learning about each one of them as well as really seeing the characters develop and witness how smart the scarecrow was, how brave the lion was, and how caring and kind the tin woodsman was. I loved the book so much that I would definitely read it again in the future and I will be excited to read in to Britton too. If you haven't read it, do yourself a favor and check it out. Despite it being a very old book it holds up well. There is so much creativity in it and possibly a little inspiration for Harry Potter too?


Camryn's performance was in Caldwell at a new middle school with an awesome performing arts center. We got great seats and were able to see her when she was on stage. Every show we've gone to we are all so impressed with how talented and what great dancers the ballerinas in the show are. If Camryn chooses to stick with ballet it will be fun to see her progression over time. We could already see with this performance how much better she is getting at remembering what to do in each dance. There's nothing much more cute than watching little kids dance on stage and beam with pride. Every time I see Camryn on stage I get a tear in my eye because I can't even believe I am so privileged to be her mom. She is our ray of sunshine and seeing her pour out her light on stage makes me smile from ear to ear.