Recital 2013

The girls danced beautifully in their recital, and the Grandma's (and parents!) were so proud!

Dance!

My sweet Annie has embraced her inner dancer wholeheartedly!

She and mommy got to take a little trip to Hot Springs for her very first team dance competition! We had SO much fun, traveled and roomed with the cousins and aunt, and just thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I loved having a chance to spend some special time with my youngest daughter.

Annie's team did a wonderful job, won an elite gold award, and got some great experience under their dance belts. Annie was thrilled to get her first pin to put on her team jacket and she can't wait for the next one!

The Polar Express!

Annie got to be a dancing elf for The Polar Express train show this year! She had a wonderful time doing 26 shows over a 7 week run. I think the best part for her was hanging out with her dance friends and cousins!




Shelley

Christmas Dance '12

The Christmas dance show was extra good this year! Both girls danced and did a wonderful job!

Ellie with her clogging class...






Annie's ballet class...








Annie...so beautiful.






Shelley

Summer Dance

We just got home from Annie's first dance competition, and well.....wow.

I'm not sure what to think. It was exhausting, fun, annoying, exhilarating, confusing, exciting...

Two things I will do differently for next time: Leave the other two kids somewhere else, and get enough sleep the night before.  Going into this with 5 1/2 hours of sleep, after weeks of summer school, therapy appointments, multiple driving trips to spfld...it was just too much for this mama.  But enough of that, onto Annie!

She did pretty good for her first time in a competition. She was a little timid, a little unsure, but I was so proud of her for dancing on that big stage! No awards for us this time, but great experience.  This was a clogging only competition that both her cousins were a part of also.  It was in our town, so no traveling this time.  As crazy as I felt the whole time (mostly because of the other 2 kids!), I definitely want her to compete again! I loved seeing her face as she watched all the dances.  She really loves it.  This summer she's taking clogging (as is Ellie), ballet, and hip hop. She's also taking a special camp class that has some of everything in it for a few days. It's a lot of time at the dance studio, but she loves it!

Pictures!

On stage and ready to dance! 

Annie and Olivia! 

Annie and Aunt Michelle! 

Miss Sassy Pants

Annie and Grammie!

 Annie's official number and the program from the competition.

It was a learning experience for sure! :)

Recital 2012!

I love a good dance recital! The girls worked so hard all year, and I love getting to see them show their great results and dress up in their beautiful costumes!

They were in separate clogging classes, but for the recital the girls classes came together for one bigger dance number! It was so fun that they were both on stage together!

Annie's class stage front, Ellie's stage back!

Annie clogging!

Ellie clogging!

Sisters! With Grammie and Grandaddy and their beautiful flowers! And The girls with friend Langley and cousin Elaina!

Annie in her ballet and tap numbers!

Post recital pic with the cousins and friends.

The crazy brothers.

All the dancers did a wonderful job!

Christmas Dance

The girls danced beautifully for their Christmas dance show again this year. It was Annie's first time to do ballet since she was 3. She's grown a little. :)

Also her first time to tap since preschool...

Then there's clogging! Her favorite!

And Ellie clogging!

The girls with Nana!

 And with Grammie, G-ma, and Aunt Denise!

Dance Time!

This sweet girl loves to dance! So much that it didn't even phase her to be the only girl from her dance class to perform! Miss Ami won the teacher of the year award for dancing with Annie so she wouldn't be all alone. We love Miss Ami! Annie did a wonderful job clogging and had a great time!




Shelley

Dance Recital, 2010!

Both my girls took clogging this year from Miss Ami! They were quite excited to get all dressed up for their BIG recital! Grammie did their makeup and I did their hair!

 They did a great job. Sweet Annie LOVES the stage! :)  Ellie loves clogging, but hated her costume, and had a hard time handling how it felt. You just never know what things will feel like to her, and it changes daily.  We made it though! Love that my girls get to learn dance from my sweet friend!

Recital!

It's that time of year again! The end of May, when everything ends with a BANG! I've about gone crazy with all of the end of the school year activity this year. What in the world am I going to do when they're all three in school? Yikes! It's all been a bit much for my Ellie girl. My routine-thriving daughter has been thrown for quite a loop these last couple of weeks. We're making it though. She was very excited to dance in her second dance recital a few days ago. Ellie takes clogging from a great friend of mine, Ami, who is incredibly patient with my girl. This years recital was a "technical recital", meaning no fancy (expensive) costumes, just some cute coordinating outfits. Ellie is blessed to have her two cousins, Olivia and Elaina, and her best friend Baron in clogging with her! Here are some pics for your enjoyment!

Baron, Ashley, Ellie, Olivia, and Elaina!


Baron, Ellie, Elaina, and Olivia!


Ellie, Olivia and Elaina!


And special thanks to my sweet mother-in-law! Nana came and took care of Austin on the day of the recital. She gave up watching her three grand-girls perform in person to help me out, and I am so grateful for her selflessness. Nana you are a blessing to us!

Christmas at the Studio!

Ellie danced in the Christmas dance show that her dance studio put on this year. She did a great job!

Here's the girls listening to instructions from Miss Jill. Olivia and Elaina danced too!


Here's Ellie dancing!


Ellie's clogging class! She loves it and having her cousins in it with her makes it extra special!

And they danced...

THEY ACTUALLY DANCED!

After the last couple of months at practice, when we had...

Tantrums over shoes. (Ellie)
Fits over being tired. (Both girls)
Refusal to even go in the studio. (Annie)
Meltdowns over what color Maracas we got. (Ellie)
"Practice" performances when we wouldn't dance. (Annie)
Lectures from our teachers. (Both girls)
Threats from mommy. (Both girls)
Removal from the studio after threats didn't work. (Both girls)
Almost losing her mind. (Mommy)

THEY ACTUALLY DANCED!

It's been two weeks and I think I'm still in shock.

Our dance studio, which is owned by a very good friend of mine, does a BIG recital every two years. This was the year. I was originally excited to have both girls in dance in a "recital" year, but as the year wore on, my excitement turned to dread. Neither of my girls was the "dancer" I'd hoped she'd be. I had nightmares of both girls refusing to dance in their expensive recital costumes. My dread lightened on the day before the BIG recital, when we had rehearsal at the venue that we would be at the next day.

My girls were seriously impressed with the BIG stage. Both made it through rehearsals like champions, and I had reason to hope! The next day they arrived ready (but late!) to dance their little hearts out. I was so proud of both of them! The recital was 3 hours long, and they both watched fairly patiently. When it came time for their dances, they did FANTASTIC! I was most nervous about Annie, but apparently all she's needed this whole time was a BIG stage and a BIG audience! I wonder what that bodes for her future?!

Time will tell weather we do this again. Two months ago I was saying NEVER again! Now, well, we'll see. I am not one of those moms who just LOVES the dance world. The costumes, make-up, pictures...it all just stressed me out. But who knows, if someone begs to dance again, I might just cave in.

If they sign a contract never to complain again!

Some pictures...

Ellie's clogging class! She's five kids in to the left.


Annie's ballet class, they were french maids! She's in the middle, with good friends Tessa on the left and Celeste's daughter Elle on the right.

Annie's tap class. They were Panda Bears! This time Elle's on the left, and Tessa's on the right.

So now the costumes are packed away. Annie will never again wear a size seven (the smallest we could find) ballet shoe. Her tiny tap shoes won't fit if she dances again. Ellie won't ever have to wear the too tight clogging shoes again. And I won't have to battle her to get them on! Hallelujah!

Just before the recital my friend Sheri took these pics.

Goodness they were cute!