More Recital Pictures

More Pictures! Yeah!

In the previous post, I mentioned that Erica was kind enough to share her coloring books, games, toys, and snacks with the other girls in her class. So here's a picture of them huddled on the ground to color. Have you ever heard of Crayola's "Color Wonder" products? They're amazing! The markers only color on special paper. So if she were to accidentally [or purposefully] color on herself or her costume, it wouldn't leave a mark!

Now I suppose I'll pick up where I left off... I need to talk about the actual performances.

In some ways, we were extremely lucky with how things went together. One of Andrew's good friends from church was actually working at the recital, in charge of lighting/sound/other AV type stuff. And Erica does now Shannon [that's his name] a bit as well. And so, before she went out onto the dark and creepy stage I was able to assure her: "The stage is going to be dark when you walk out. But don't worry! Mr. Shannon is taking care of the lights. And he's going to turn the lights on for you so that you can dance!" And so, she wasn't afraid at all. I also assured her many times: "This is all about having fun! Yes, we want you to try your best. But just try to have fun out there. You'll do great."

I really was shocked at how well it went. I was never really worried about Erica freaking out. [She had earlier at rehearsal... but that was just b/c her shoes broke. Stupid Crocs! Why spend all that money if they're just gonna break!] But she got over that quickly, and the performance was hours later. Anyway, I was saying how shocked I was. BECAUSE-- all of the girls did so well! None of them freaked out, none of them cried, none of them ran off stage, none of them stood still in fear. They all danced and had fun!

Their first song was called "My Thumbs Are Dancing." It was for just their class. They did a pretty good job with it. At one point, they were supposed to join hands and dance in a circle. Well, they got to the holding hands part, but then one of the girls got confused and left the circle to move onto the next part of the dance too early... But their teacher had been right. It was cute and we all loved it, no matter the problems. At classes, I'd get so stressed out when she'd mess up. But at the recital she was just so cute.

Another funny thing about that song... The mothers stood offstage in the

wings to watch. And Erica spotted me somehow. And she shouted: "Mama!" We all busted out laughing. But Andrew assured me that no one in the audience heard that part.

Then we headed out into the halls again to wait. It wasn't as long of a wait then. They soon had their second dance. It was a combination of all 3 young classes. The 3 y/o, 4 y/o, 5 y/o classes. I knew it would be chaotic; that's a lot of kids and they had only practiced all together twice before. But it was crazier than I could have imagined. Somehow, the music started before all of the kids were on stage... All of the youngest ones were still offstage. So they had no idea what to do. They just ran out and picked any old spot to stand. I could hardly keep an eye on Erica, and I was just off to the side watching. Somehow my father managed to video her through most of the song. I'll post videos soon too.

But none of them seemed to mind the chaos of it. They were still all so happy. [By the way, there's a picture of this towards the top of the post. I only managed to get a picture of her back. She's wearing blue and is farthest away.]

Not long after that was the final curtain call. All of the performers ran out onto stage to bow. Since Erica's group is the shortest, they were last to come out. So you may be able to see her in this picture. She's in the front row, far to the left. Okay, you really can't see her. But I'll try to add a movie clip soon of her coming out onto stage, and she's quite visible on that.

When it was all over, I quickly cleaned up the markers and toys. Then I took Erica into the auditorium to meet up with our family. She was so thrilled that everyone was there! I cannot begin to explain how thrilled she was. She kept laughing: "My family is here!" And Erica got a bouquet of flowers. I knew that there was no way I'd be able to bring any b/c of the craziness of the day. So I had called my mom to bring some. And it just thrilled Erica so much! She really felt like a ballerina b/c she got flowers for her performance.

We took some pictures there [obviously, since I have several of them posted], and then headed to our home for dinner/dessert. It was a good meal, but really easy. I had put meatballs and marinara sauce into my crockpot that morning, so they were nice and yummy by the time we got home. I also had lunch meats for sandwhiches. Erica specially picked out chips and pretzels for the party. My mom brought salad and Andrew's mother brought fruit salad.

But the best part-- to Erica at least-- was the cake. We got an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen, and Erica had picked out the design for it herself. I had wanted it to have a ballerina on it, but when she saw the design of the Disney Princesses, she was adamant about having that one. I figured it was her party and I shouldn't fight her on it.

So, in conclusion, everything went well. It was a fantastic day. I'm so proud of my little girl!