Recital time!

We made it! Another year of dance DONE!!  They still claim to like dance classes so we plan to continue them, but these dance seasons keep getting longer and longer! Although once their all dressed up and ready to perform what they have been working on all year, I can't help but melt a little.

 Unfortunately, the recital fell on the same weekend as Ella's 4th birthday.  G-ma and G-pa C made it into town to help make it feel a little more special.  She was a good sport and while we squeezed in some birthday time before the big show, we also promised a party just for her next Sunday!

With about 30 minutes till we needed to leave, we sang happy birthday, had some cupcakes, opened gifts, and finished the hair do's.  Ella loved hearing everyone sing happy birthday to her...

She had her posing down perfect this year.  Every time she opened a gift I would say show me what you got and she would turn to me and smile.

Although sometimes she was too excited to smile...like when she got her own makeup.

One more of the posing...even with new socks!!

After gifts it was time to get busy.  We obviously had some hair to do!  Here are the finished products...

They both loved their costumes this year and although Ava wished hers had a big tutu, she did LOVE to sparkle!

Once we made it to the venue we caught up with Ava's friend Karlee.  Neither of the girls liked wearing their headbands, but we had to grab a picture.

Karlee's little sisters are in Ella's class, all together they equal a LOT of pink!

In order to get a good seat we had to get there WAY too early, which led to boredom pretty quickly.  Luckily, Papa Jim was there to give Ella a boost which entertained her for quite awhile, at least till his back and neck gave out! :)

Both girls did so much better this year compared to last.  They still had some moments where they were clueless, but there were less of them, and they seemed to have a lot more confidence.  

Ella did stop for a brief moment in the middle of her performance to try and spot us out in the darkness. She actually did and she waved!  It got some good laughs!

Here is Ella's performance as a whole.  It is about three minutes long and she is the second from the left.    Her waving moment happens around two minutes and 30 seconds.  SO CUTE!

Stay tuned...I'm having some technical difficulties!

                                  

Ava did her best to hit her moves and keep a smile the entire time.  She did have a lapse in memory, which caused her smile to fade, but she got it back by the end of the routine.

With a background in dance it can get hard not to run up there and help when she's lost, but she has gotten so much better, and really enjoys being on stage!

Here is Ava's routine in its entirety. It is very hard to tell who is who, the lights made their costumes look like they glowed.  Also it was recorded using my phone, by my Dad, who did not know what he was doing or how to focus.  All I can say is that Ava is in the front row third from the left until they move around and then she ends being sixth from the left.  If you decide to watch...good luck and sorry for the quality.

Still having problems!  Will upload as soon as I figure out why it won't work!!  I hate computers!!!

                                      

Saturday was a long day and a LATE night!  These lucky ladies got to wake up Sunday morning and do it all over again for the matinee show.

We didn't go camera crazy again and there are no videos, but I did manage to get a couple of poses.

This is Ella's favorite pose right now.  Anytime you ask her to pose for a picture she immediately strikes this up...

And this one came out of no where from Ava, but it's one of my favorites!

And finally one more shot, make-up free and with Gavin!  The girls did great!  Gavin did a great job of playing at home with whoever was scheduled to watch him. And we all look forward to next weekend when Ella can truly celebrate turning 4!!!