Recital! Recital! Recital!

Isn't she beautiful? She was quite the prima ballerina



So, where to begin? I suppose I can start by saying that Saturday was a BUSY day! I had to clean the house and get all the food ready for the party afterwards.

Then we left at 12 to be at the school by 12:30. [It was held in a high schoool auditorium.] From 12:30 until 2:00, they did some practicing. Mainly just practicing the curtain call, where everyone comes out to bow.

They practiced that many times, then had them all sit where they were on the stage. [Hence, the picture of Erica sitting on the stage with some of her friends. They lady standing is their teacher.] Then they went over the order of events, did mic checks, and other stuff.

We got a break from 2:00 - 3:00 to do whatever. I thought it was best to get out of the school for a change of scenery. We didn't have time to go home or anywhere else, so we just stayed in the car. I took my laptop so that Erica could watch a movie while resting and having a snack. Even though it seems boring, it was actually good for her. The rest of the day was so crazy. And the movie was good... it was a Strawberry Shortcake movie where the girls all learn a dance and then perform at a recital. Fitting, huh?


At 3:00 we went back inside. Erica got changed into her pretty blue costume. I did finishing touches on her hair... She had to have it all pulled back into a bun. UGH!!! That was the worst experience of this whole thing. I tried ALL WEEK to figure out what to do. Nothing ever worked right, and she always took the clips out after I put them in. She kept promising that she'd keep them in on recital day, but I doubted it... Well, Erica was true to her word. She didn't mess with it the whole day. And I did a perfect job getting it put back. I'm still totally shocked as to how that happened.

The recital began at 4:00. I stayed with Erica the whole time. [Remind me next time NOT TO BUY A TICKET for myself! Jeesh.] The parents had been told that we could stay with our kids backstage or leave them there with their classes. Well, its good I stayed with her. There was NO ONE there to watch over the kids. [I wouldn't have expected it anyway, but we had been told that there'd be volunteers back with the kids.] And no one brought anything for their kids to do or play with during the waiting time. We began sitting around 3:00 and the ending curtain call at 5:30.

I know my child, though, and knew there was no way she'd survive the time without something to do. I took coloring book and 6 markers, 2 toy horses and prince and princess, memory, bingo, a card game, and a snack. Well, all these kids came crowding around when they saw the stuff. But what was I supposed to do? Keep it hidden so that they wouldn't get jealous? No-- Erica needed something to do. And my child, such a good girl, was willing to share with everyone. ... Well, the 6 girls in her class. It was funny watching them, since there were only 6 markers and only 5 pictures in the coloring book that werent already finished. But all in all, that was great.

... ... ...

I know I'm giving such unimportant information. The key part of this all is: How did she dance? Well hahaha. I'm not gonna tell now. First of all, my fingers are cramping. Second, I have chores to finish. But mostly because I have 'video' of her dances that I still need to upload onto the computer from my other camera. So I'll get to that later.