first dance recital.

ek's dance recital was on saturday and it was hilarious.  she started dance a few months ago, but i don't think it really clicked for her that the culmination of that activity was a performance on stage.  last week, we had parents' observation in her class.  she barely danced at all - mostly she looked at us and looked at herself in the mirror and kind of flopped around.  i was not optimistic about the amount of legit dancing we would see come recital time.

the dress rehearsal was a trip.  it was from 4-6 on a friday afternoon (side note: how are there this many women who DON'T work?  what year is this?), so i worked from home earlier in the day, then grabbed the kidlets from school, battled traffic to round rock, wrestled a sweaty emme into her costume, bribed her with lipstick, then deposited her in a dark theatre solo.  whew.  i didn't realize beforehand (communications were not the best) that she would have to be in the auditorium without me, so i didn't get to pre-wire her at all.  stuff like that freaks her out, plus she was super duper freaked out to go up on stage.  my kid is not the ham that some kids are, that's for sure.

anyway…hollis and i wandered around the performing arts center, reading the same three books about 492 times until i was allowed to grab her.  fortunately, that was at around 5:!5, so she didn't have to stay the full 2 hours.  she was bright eyed when she got out of the theatre - seeing the "big girls" dance, seeing everyone else's costume, the lights and darkness - it was pretty cute.  i asked her how she felt being up on stage and she informed me that she didn't go.  i guess she got upset when she got her leg stuck in the chair in the audience, so she sat on some adult's lap and didn't go up when it was her class's turn.

so i was not optimistic about her actually dancing on saturday.  when we got there, it was total chaos.  i'd had to wake both hollis and emme up from 3+ hour naps to make it on time, and there were zillions of families and kids everywhere.  it was a bit overwhelming, and none of us had had lunch!  fortunately, i brought a boatload of cheerios, so they were able to have a pre-recital snack.  em did better when i dropped her at the green room, but she was still a little freaked out.  hollis and i found a seat and waited for the show to begin.

emme's class went on 5th and it was fairly adorable.  she didn't do much dancing right at first, but then she tried a few moves and smiled and did her thing.  she's at least 2-3 months younger than the youngest kid in her class (they were all supposed to be three before the end of august and she's a november birthday), so i didn't feel badly that the nearly-five year-olds were much more focused than she was.  i was just SO proud that she got up on the stage and so so excited that jb made it in time to see her.  she applauded at the end of her performance, which i thought was super cute - i just know she was so relieved to have made it through.

they didn't allow videos in the performance, and i haven't decided if we're going to buy the DVD yet or not, but i snapped a few pics of them snacking before the show, and we got a couple more shots afterward, before she changed out of her costume in the middle of the parking lot.