Ella's First Dance Recital

Today we all proudly watched as Ella danced in her first dance recital! We were all so proud of how brave and excited she was. Her class danced to "I Won't Grow Up" from Peter Pan and they were all so cute! Once again, this was a lesson in "never say never". At the beginning of the year I said "she will NEVER do the recital!" Boy was I wrong! She went out on that stage without a bit of hesitation and without an ounce of stage fright. She loved every second of it! She came off the stage and said "Mama, we did our dance and EVERYONE clapped for us!". At the end of the show all the dancers went out on stage for a final applause. As everyone lined up and all the little ones sat down on the stage, Ella walked out to the front of the stage right to her "spot" ready to dance again! A couple of minutes later the studio's owner called out the names of the student teachers to acknowledge them. When she asked them to come forward and take a bow Ella got up and again took her "spot" on the stage, ready to take a bow!! With this her teacher, Miss Jen, turned to me and said "Boy are you in trouble!". Later she told Ella "Your dad better watch out because you are going to be a Star!" Could this really be the child who cried for weeks that she wanted me to come in the class with her? Could this really be the child I watched as I sat on the hard studio floor in the corner because she wouldn't let me leave the room? I still can't believe she did it and she LOVED every minute of it. We are so proud of her! Later while looking through the program we saw that Ella won one of the "Special Awards". She was voted "Most Potential". This is good, because later in the day she announced to her father that she won't be playing softball when she gets bigger. The little girl who has spent months "practicing" with her pink batting helmet and Dora bat while her brother and sister play ball, told him "I'm not playing softball, I want to dance"! We weren't allowed to take pictures during the show, but here are a few others from the day.

The Ballerina Fairy and her biggest fans!

Last week at dress rehearsal.
Daddy and his little Ballerina

Aunt Ali and Ella
Meme and Poppy came to see the show too :)