THE LAST OF THE RED HOT BALLERINAS

As of 4 days ago, our ballerina Lauren graduated from High School and the Professional Ballet school. She has lived with us the past 3 years. 

And she is the last of the red hot ballerinas

For the past 12 years, we have had young dancers attending the Quinte Ballet school billet with us. 

Bottom line, I've raised a LOT of teenagers.  But it's time to stop washing leotards and body suits and hunker down to the Empty Nest we should have had about 6 years ago. 

So this Blog is in honour of all our extra kids we raised alongside of our own. I don't have pics of them all, but most of them.

First up was Elise 

She was in the same grade as our daughter and eased us into billeting. Elise was bright and beautiful and is now working at Air Canada!

Next came Shannon

The quintessential ballerina in every way, she married an Aussie and worked with a professional Ballet Company in Australia until quite recently. 

We decided to double up for a while and had Natayu and Victoria at the same time.

These two were always in fits of giggles together and both are still in the dance world. Victoria does a lot of teaching and Natayu runs the gamut from Circus work to contemporary. Around this time we had Ben as well but I don't have pic of him, he only stayed with us a short time. 

Then came Kelly!

With a school average running at about 98% (and that was not good enough for Kelly), this girl was absolutely brilliant. She moved on to study Chemical Engineering which she no doubt aced. 

Then came Rachel

On our recent trip out to B.C. to visit Adrian and Carolyn, we were able to have dinner with Rachel who was just finishing up her degree in Nursing!

Here's Nami!

Straight from Japan and unable to speak hardly a word of English, Nami was sweet and hardworking but our conversations were not much more than two or three word simple sentences!  After graduation, Nami headed back to Japan to study, believe it or not, English. She's pretty darn good at it now!

And lastly, there was Lauren

This one's a real fire cracker so all I can say is look out World...here she comes! I expect to see her on the big screen in no time.

So that's it kids. I've loved all the energy and youth and passion for your dancing that you have all brought. But I'm hoping to see some grand babies soon. 

Who knows. Maybe one of them will be dance crazy and I will have to eat my words about the last of the Red Hot Ballerinas!