Recital 2010

I remember preparing for Recital last year and saying to myself, “Next year will be so much easier since I won’t be pregnant!”. Well that wasn’t really the case this year, but the planning was a little easier since it wasn’t Year 1. After months and months of preparation, the big show went relatively smoothly. On top of doing a lot of planning, we had a ton of great help. That allowed me to be able to enjoy the fact that this also marked Baby Girl’s very first dance recital! As you can imagine, this event {as with her entire first year of ballet} is very near and dear to my heart, so I apologize for the picture overload!

{And these are actually from Dress Rehearsal, since it was a little more conducive to taking pictures.}

We started by putting a teeny, tiny ballet bun in Emory’s hair. Surprisingly I never even thought about practicing beforehand, so I was a little nervous about her hair looking okay. It turned out fine, but she had to be bribed with Scooby Snack and a movie in order to sit still. We used a little hair spray to keep everything in place… Which led to a {thankfully short} meltdown! But nothing like a little make-up to cheer a girl up! We have practiced putting on make-up at home, and she now begs to put it on with me every. single. morning!With hair and make-up done, we move on to tights and costume. Once all of the other little ballerinas in her class arrived, we went around with some lipstick. {Putting lipstick on itty, bitty, teeny, tiny two-year old lips might be the hardest thing ever.} We put on our ballet slippers and made sure our ties were tucked in!{ Baby Boy was there, too…being the oh-so-supportive little brother he is!}  One last picture with Mommy. {Too bad I had been there for hours and hours already and totally look it!} Next she headed to pictures.For some reason she doesn’t sit still for more than 3 seconds at home, yet when the picture lady gave her a pose, she didn’t move one single inch until they told her to leave! Then it was time for the  big practice on stage! The girlies were super excited to get out on the big stage like they had heard about all year! We decided to give them about 15 minutes out on the stage for rehearsal {as opposed to the normally allotted 5 minutes} in order for them to get comfortable. They ran through their dance twice and all did it wonderfully!   The next night was the actual Recital and I have to say they were the hit of the show! They danced wonderfully and got a lot of “aaaaawww!”s and “so cute!”s from the audience.

Emory {as well as Aaron and Watson} stuck around for both shows and while we packed things up. We left the Koger Center at 10:30pm and grabbed a bite to eat at Wild Wing. Emory insisted on wearing her ballet costume there as well and got a lot of laughs at the restaurant. I had to force her to take her costume off and go to sleep when we got home at 12:30am!!! She was on some sort of performing high and didn’t seem to want the day to end!

Baby Girl, we are so very proud of you! I couldn’t have asked for a better end of the year than to see you dancing up on that stage! Although dancing might not be your passion forever, I hope that you do whatever it is you choose with as much excitement and joy as you have for dancing now. We love you so very much!