Ella Beth's Recital

Ella Beth and I experienced our first dance recital a few weeks ago. And it was very much an experience! I told Lee that I felt like a crazy pageant mom getting ready for the event (no offense to any pageant moms). I'll start at the beginning....

At 9:45 the morning of May 2, Ella Beth had an on stage rehearsal. She bravely went into a strange building, sat next to strange little girls, and waited for her dance teacher, Miss Debbie. While she practiced in a closed rehearsal, I met with a very stressed but organized helper of Miss Debbie's. She showed all of the moms where the dressing rooms where and answered many questions. We were told to have our girls dressed and ready to dance at 6:15. We were also told to label all items and put them in a box so they would not get lost. When our meeting was over, Ella Beth and I were off to Wal-Mart to purchase the box and aqua net (another suggestion from the organized but stressed helper). We arrived home, some time later, with a box, aqua net, and lip stick! While Ella Beth took a nap, I labeled every item and placed them in the box. Here's a list of the items in our box:
costumes - 3 with matching hair accessories
2 pair of tights
hair pins
brush
aqua net
scissors
safety pins
hair nets to help secure the bun
pony tail holders
wet wipes
make-up which included lip stick, blush, mascara, eye shadow, and brown eyeliner to be used to make her face dirty for the final performance.
The list might explain a small amount of how I felt.

At 4:00, I began getting Ella Beth ready for her big event. We started with fresh nail polish. Then, we put up her hair, did her makeup, and put on the costume for her first performance. She was a beautiful little princess!
At 5:00, Ella Beth, Will, and I left so that we could get pictures made and save some seat. I'm sure you are wondering why Will would come with us. Well, on this same night at about the same time, Jack was awarded his webalos badge for boy scouts. (I'll post pictures of that later). Because Lee had to be with Jack, I took Will to save our seats. His job was to tell everyone that these seats were taken and patiently wait for me to get Ella Beth settled backstage. He did an outstanding job! By the end of the evening, Will had sat waiting and watching the performance for 4 hours. All I can say is wow!

Ella Beth had 3 dance routines. Each time, I had to go back and get her ready for the next performance. It was crazy backstage, lots of little girls and lots of moms. Ella Beth did a great job of staying with her group and getting ready for each performance. Here are some pictures of each routine and how she occupied herself backstage. We had a great evening, even though it was long, and look forward to doing it again.