The Fallons: fiesta

For the first time in three years I was on the other side of Fiesta and it was awesome! I cherish those years that I had my little flamenco dancer but Sam's interests changed (this sport, that sport, another sport, sports?!) and while I think I probably could have convinced her to do one more year, I am happy to say that we made the right decision. Although, just being at a few performances made me miss it and Sam too!

We attended the late night show at Soho to watch the "older" Linda Vega dancers. It was amazing and Sofia was so SO good!

I am 100% confident that Sofia will be the Spirit of Fiesta one day!

Every single dancer was phenomenal and Samantha was beaming to watch all her friends on stage.

We miss Linda so much!

Ole' Sofia!

Video: Linda Vega Dance Studio at Soho

We couldn't miss the younger dancers and of course, Lila! AND Lila WILL be a Junior Spirt of Fiesta one day for sure!

Sam never took her eyes off the stage. Thatcher, on the other hand, was exactly like he was when Sam was dancing — bored out of his mind.

I do think that Thatcher had a better summer without having to attend so many flamenco practices and shows, that is for sure!

We watched and watched and watched.

Sweet Lila!

Lila wears Samantha's fake hair piece from when Sam was little.

The hair piece that just keeps going and going...

Miss this little face and spit curls and GIGANTIC flower on top of her head.

Video: Lila doing her thing!

It's been about two months since Fiesta and I still haven't recovered. We were actually supposed to return to classes already and have decided to take it week by week with regards to when/if we are going to return. We are jammed packed with activities for both kids between sports, after school classes, school in general, weekend games and life. While flamenco is pretty mellow at this time of year, the actual Fiesta season is absolutely crazy. It is a mix of fun and not fun and this year I can't shake the not fun. It's tough because Samantha loves it. She was definitely tired by the end but she's 7 and has way more energy than me.

Pre-Fiesta week is actually the fun part. The performances are optional, you pick and choose which ones you want to do. You can do 3 a day or skip the entire week. It's great practice and the girls get to perform for what Samantha calls, "all the little old grandmas and grandpas" at nursing and retirement homes. The idea is to bring Fiesta to them since they can no longer go out to Fiesta activities. I think we ended up doing about 75% of these performances. A lot of performances the parents don't get to see because logistically it would be too many people crowding into some of the spaces so Samantha would report to me what the audience was like. She'd tell me that they were all dressed up in Fiesta clothes, clapped and smiled a lot and about once a day she'd tell me that a little old man or lady would be sleeping while they danced. ;)

Thatcher was a trooper. He found a few little brothers in the same boat and they'd bring cards, toys and snacks to kill time.

In between shows the girls would keep busy with lots of games.

The girls were pretty good at including Thatcher during their downtime fun. If they weren't clapping hands they were playing round after round of Uno.

I say this all the time but if Thatcher marries Fallon one day she'd be Fallon Fallon. ;)

Life in between shows just goes on and we go to Trader Joe's with a giant pony tail, a giant flower and....

bright red lips!

There is something at the drug store called Revlon Color Stay lip gloss and lip liner in "Red Scarlet" that does not come off for days.

The girls were pretty good at including Thatcher during their downtime fun. If they weren't clapping hands they were playing round after round of Uno.

This is what the back of my trunk looked like for 2 weeks.

I got better and better at doing her hair. It is a running joke amongst other Flamenco Mamas that you take a picture on "good hair days".

We'd sometimes do a performance in the morning, go to the gym in the afternoon, then to another performance,

then out to lunch, then back to another performance and on and on.

This place had a giant swing for Thatcher so he was a happy camper while he waited for Samantha.

We loved when Lila would be our extra kid.

(side note to Holley if you read this, isn't this your favorite place?!)

Nordstrom became our home base when we were performing downtown. We'd use the bathroom, kill time, savor the air conditioning and eat at the cafe.

The Jr. Spirit was from our studio this year. Ysabella is a pretty spunky and talented little girl who did a great job!

It is always fun to have friends and family come watch. Especially Dancing Grandma who came up to save Thatcher from flamenco-hell for the day but also made time to come see Samantha dance. So actually Thatcher ALMOST escaped flamenco-hell entirely. ;)

Picture day!

Some of the girls had the seamstresses make American Girl Doll costumes that were identical to their own!

As if there wasn't enough to lug around all week, they had the addition of a doll. You better believe Samantha was begging and whining for a costume for her doll and you better believe I told her absolutely not! ;)

The entire studio!

A much needed break in between shows at Cielito.

Plus Fallon Artistic played a big part of making this restaurant look so darn good. (shameless plug).

Thatcher was in his flamenco groove by week 2.

Lila and Thatch got along splendidly don't ya see?

Prom 2025

If we weren't at Nordstrom, we were at Eureka.

Samantha was constantly "bibbed" to keep food off of her dress.

Leanne and I made sure to call Happy Hour at some point in the day ;)

Sammy's idol, Kate, a big seventh grader now, came to watch!

Carpooling between shows!

At the Mission for Fiesta Pequena, the dress rehearsal for the big Mission show on opening night of Fiesta.

Bailey and Sam

Oh and then this happened. We've gotten very used to this. This time he had his arms and his legs in his shirt and was hopping around and basically fell face first on the driveway because he had no hands to catch himself. You can't make this stuff up.

Doesn't Leanne looked thrilled? This is day 3 of "real Fiesta" and she had what a lot of first-time Fiesta moms think, "really? we do this all day?" I made sure to have her sit down for a margarita daily to lessen the blow ;)

Team Deakyne came to watch.

It takes two photos to get all of her crew ;)

TJ and Sam.

TJ has made it to see Samantha every year!

School friends, Natalie and Connor.

Bailey again! Side note: she dropped her ice cream on my foot right after this photo. ;)

Eureka, again.

We even bumped into Thatcher's soon-to-be Kindergarten teacher, Mr. Silva!

Candy break.

Dog break. Roxy's family was out of town so she was our second dog for the week.

Action shot of the dancers escaping a bee.

And then right back to a hand clapping game two seconds later.

I bought A LOT of these things to keep Thatcher entertained.

Ready to go on the big stage at the DLG.

Thatcher's good side of his face ;)

Thatcher's buddy, Mateo, who is the big brother of a dancer in Sam's class. Mateo introduced Thatcher to hot chips which are bright orange, spicy, Cheeto-looking things that stained your fingers orange. All the healthy eating goes out the window during these two weeks.

Samantha and last year's Spirit, Talia, who has since moved away to college!

$3 fans from the DLG that lasted for about an hour before they broke.

Mixed it up by going to CPK.

Sweet Sophia came to watch.

We visited our old preschool stomping grounds again at Good Shepard and performed for all the preschoolers.

The girls are like Disney Princess royalty here.

The kids line up to take photos and each time Samantha and Fallon would change up their pose.

We bumped into this year's Spirit of Fiesta. I don't recall her name, she's from another studio but obviously an excellent dancer to get that fancy title!

I call this "Flamenco Mad Face." As the dancers get older, expressions play a big part in the dances and this is one of them you frequently see the dancers do. Lila is looking mighty fierce for a five-year-old!

The Cascarones King.

Samantha's 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Godlis, even came to see!

Sporty Charlotte made an appearance.

Artsy, artsy.

The Pirozzi clan!

The Tanguillo girls with their teacher, Ms. Cari.

And THE Linda Vega.

Sweet Sofia who got us into this whole mess ;)

Samantha and I were naughty and skipped a few performances to watch the big girls perform at El Paseo. It was the best decision as her eyes were gigantic to see how good they were and to watch them so close up!

This was my favorite dance of all, besides Samantha, of course. These five are all former Spirits of Fiesta so they really know a thing or two about flamenco.

Closing the show with some Linda Vega action.

It's our third Fiesta and the third time my former first and second grade teacher from Riverside has come up to see Samantha dance. We also learned that our new house is right around the corner from where her mom lives in Santa Barbara!

A quick break to attend an office party downtown where the girls did an impromptu performance.

I am sure the person whose office this was loved to have their white board decorated the next day ;)

Lila lost her hair at dinner. Better here than on stage!

Cielito again.

Lila found her calling. She's a true flamenco dancer. Lila is a very sweet and quiet 5-year-old but when it came to dancing flamenco, she was in her element! I'm betting on her becoming a Jr. Spirit in the near future.

Sleepover!

Notice the red lips. That stuff doesn't come off even with makeup remover wipes.

The morning after, Lila even still has a spit curl on her forehead!

Finn made it out from Boulder to hang with us for the day.

Solei!

The Children's Parade.

Chloe is a classmate of Samantha's at Peabody and also had an American Girl Doll dress made which brought the whole, "will you buy me one of those?!" issues up again.