First Dance Recital

Today was Lauren's first dance recital. Lauren takes dance lessons at school and she takes lessons at a dance studio. The recital today was for the school dance program.





We started the day with her dance studio lessons. (That recital is June 21.) At dance lessons she got her dance recital outfits for the June 21 program. Since she takes ballet, tap and jazz she will be in three dances in that recital. So she got 3 new dance outfits. The new outfits are really cute but I think the outfit for today's recital was cuter. The hat on the outfit was a bit strange but overall it is a cute outfit.

After dance lessons we went to a Arista Curl (a girls spa makeup place) and we had Lauren's makeup and nails done. We also had them curl her hair. The recital instruction were that we should have their hair half up and curly.

Lauren loves having her nails done and she loves to play with makeup so she had a great time. They put on some sparkly eye shadow and some glitter on her cheeks. It really looked a bit over the top but matched her outfit great.

Then they curled her hair. Lauren's hair is pretty thick and holds a curl pretty well but I was not sure about ringlets. But they sprayed on a ton of hairspray and it was not going anywhere.

Here are the ringlets from the back. It stayed that way until she went swimming. I kept telling her she does not look like my little girl any more.

All ready to go to the dance recital.

The dance recital was fun. Her class range in age from 2 to 4. (now 3 to 5) . Some did the steps and some didn't. There was a little boy next to Lauren that did not get out of his chair the whole dance. He just sat there and didn't move. Lauren did about half the moves. The class looked cute and you could tell they were trying to do the dance.

With the younger kids, the dance teachers were on stage with them. The kids were watching the teacher the whole time and trying to follow what she did. At Lauren's next recital there will be no teacher on stage. I will see which one works better. Lauren "practiced" her dance at home and she knew more at home then she did today. She still did great!

There were some moves that they got better then others but I am sure they were a bit overwhelmed with that many people watching them.

At the end of the program all the dancers come on stage and dance. Lauren's class pretty much just stood there. Every once in a while Lauren would do a dance move.

This is all of the classes that were in the program. I thought that the outfit that Lauren's class wore was the cutest (other then the hat.) But they all were really cute.

The program ends with balloons coming down and the kids all loved that.

After the program the students got trophies and a ribbon. Lauren loved the trophy. There are a lot of people that think that you shouldn't give a trophy for just being in a program. I don't think it is that big of a deal. Lauren was so proud of that trophy. She had to show it to everyone. We had to put it on her shelf right when we got home. I'm surprised she didn't ask to sleep with it.

Lauren's aunt Diane and her cousin, Elaine came to the program. They brought her flowers. This is a big thing. All the kids get flowers after the program. I told Lauren that we would put them in our vase on our table. She would have nothing to do with that. They had to go in her room.

Here we are (with my bra strap showing). I am so proud of my little girl. She got up on the stage and did a great job. She did not seem like she was scared, she listened to her teachers and she seemed to have a great time and that it why I am so proud of her.

After the dance recital we went to Aunt Janine's house. Lauren's cousin, Blaire, was having an end of year school party at her house. So Lauren had a snow cone and swam in the pool.

We went home a few hours later and Lauren was asleep within a few minutes.

I am glad she got to experience a dance recital. I think she will be more comfortable with her next one and maybe she will be able to do a little more of the dance. After she did this one she is excited about the next one and was asking when it is and etc.

It is fun to see her enjoy this activities. I don't think that she will be a dancer when she grows up but I think she will always have the memories of being in recitals with fun outfits. I think dance lessons and dance recitals are just part of childhood and I am so happy I get to be a part of it with her.