Caity's Ballet Recital

Caity had her first ever dance recital on Friday night.

I about died because I thought it was so cute. Something about forty little girls prancing around in pink, purple, blue and yellow tutus makes my heart smile. 

Because I am usually accompanied by my two mischievous sidekicks, I was never able to sneak in and watch Caity's progress in her learning her dance steps, so in a way it was like this huge reveal seeing how much she had improved and how much more confident she was performing with the other girls.

Here she is with her class (missing one) waiting in the "green room" for their turn to perform.

"Mom. We played sunshine fairies and it was so much fun that I think I might want to invite everyone of those girls to my birthday.

There first dance was to "Tale as Old as Time" from Beauty and The Beast. Unfortunately, I the video is too big to squeeze on to blogger, but lucky for you, I took a million pictures. (And luckier for you, I narrowed it down considerably- haha) Seriously though, as lame as it is- (remember I am pregnant here), I totally got emotional watching her dance. There aren't many times where I get to sit back and just watch Caity uninterrupted and Friday night, it blew my mind how much that little girl has grown up!

Her Jazz performance was to "Walking on Sunshine" it was so cute! I think my favorite (forgive me, Caity) was watching her trying to shimmy her shoulders, haha- she just didn't understand the concept of that one, but it was still cute all the same!

Then here is the whole school after the jazz performances were done. All the acts were so much fun to watch! I am really looking forward to next year.

Here she is, so proud of herself, but mostly excited for all the flowers she got. Confession: on the way to the church we watched all these dads walking in with bouquets, so John and I looked at eachother and John was like, "What? Was I supposed to do that?" Apparently- whoops. :) So we ran quick and cut a rose from our front yard, and it worked perfectly. Would the world have ended had she not gotten a rose? No. But it was fun having something for her.  Our friends also came to watch her and brought her tulips, and our neighbor gave her a couple roses as well. To say the least, Caity was pretty tickled. 

Cate-rina, Ballerina

Yesterday, we got to go to Caity's ballet class for a mini- Christmas recital. Oh, it was the cutest thing ever. 

Ballet has been a fun activity for Caity and she has really come out of her comfort zone. 

With that said, she was maybe two beats behind the rest of the class the whole time! And she may have had her tongue out of her mouth synchronized with which way her toes were pointing, but John and I couldn't have been more proud! Clearly, she was our daughter. :)

My Little Tutu Girl

Caity had her first ballet class today. She has been asking to do ballet since she could talk, so this was a big deal for our little girl. Let me put it in further perspective:
- Every day among the stack of books we read, "All Tutus Should be Pink" is in the mix.
- She wants to be a ballerina for Halloween.
- One of her favorite possessions is dollar-store Nutcracker she got last year, she pretends to be a ballerina and dances with it.
- Her favorite quilt is covered with Ballerinas.
This girl loves the idea of learning ballet. I could see the stars in her eyes when I told her that there was an opening in the dance school down the street.  It is just a little garage studio, but it is so cute.

I didn't realize how excited I was until I was brushing her long hair into a bun.  I remember scrambling after school, handing my mom bobby pins as she pulled my hair into the tight uniform bun.  I have fond memories plie-ing in front of the big wall mirror.  I loved how graceful I felt as held the dance barre and pointed my toes in positions.  I remember concentrating so hard to keep my back straight and my chin high.  I had a teacher who would walk past us with a stick, and she would "gently" tap us under our chin or on our shoulders if our posture was sub-par.  I used to put on my ballet slippers when I was by myself in my bedroom and would practice spinning and I would pretend I was dancing on point.  I hoped ballet would open some sort doors for Caity, in her own journey.

She was nervous at first and I practically had to push her into the "studio."  The garage doors were open, so as I left I saw her stretching with her class.  She seemed to keep up just fine, which was a concern, starting late.  Among the plethora of pink tutus, she shone bright to her sappy mother.   I even cried a little. She has just grown up so, so fast.  There is something about seeing her glow with personal happiness that tugs at my heart strings. I knew as I watched her, I was, in small a way, "letting her go." I just love that Caity girl.

She came home bright eyed and told every little detail. It better than she imagined. :) Johnny turned toward her and said, "Caity, Caity, Caity, CAITY! I think your tutu is beautiful." Well, just melt my heart.

While we are on the topic of Tutus....
Caity brought home a special family project from school.  We had to disguise a pumpkin.  I suggested we do a ghost. Caity had other plans.....

She found the wings and tutu in the "97 cent"s section at Walmart and dictated to me what else we needed.  I am really proud of how well she did. I helped with the glitter and curling the ribbon, but besides that it was all her. (Well, to be honest, maybe I guided her toward stapling the wings, as opposed to gluing them.) 

We completely finished, when heaven forbid, we realized we forgot the tutu. My little perfectionist almost had a melt down, but she slowly peeled up her pompom necklace and stapled that tutu down with enough determination and concentration that her tongue needed to be sticking out of the corner of her mouth. Then back went the pompoms and I was once again assigned to administer some glitter. 

She was pretty happy with end result.

Sure, our disguised pumpkin will probably take up a quarter of the teacher's bulletin board, but she sure was happy. 

When I went to pick her up from school, she ran to me and everyone started yelling "Good bye Caity!"

She said, "They just love me here, because I just love, love, LOVE all of them." (big hand motions)(pause) "But I love Brooke the most." (pause) "Don't tell David."

We also went to Krispy Kreme this morning, and watched them make donuts.  My kids would seriously spend 5 hours there, if I let them.