It might take a week or more to catch up on all the things that happened while I was away from the blog, so I figured the best way to do it was to rewind and start from the beginning! Originally, my trial was supposed to start the first week of June and the girls’ recital would have fallen on a weekend in the middle. As things in the legal system are prone to do, our trial got bumped a week and the recital ended up being the Saturday before we went to court. Not good. I had scheduled everything as well as I could considering I was working around the clock, barely seeing the girls and they were about to leave for a two week vacation with my parents, but the pressure of work and the stress of so many dances left me feeling like I needed a redo. Thinking back, there are some things I would do a little differently, but I’m thankful for Josh and my mom and for some amazing dance mom friends who really stood in the trenches for me over the course of those few days and helped me spend as much time with my girls (and get as many photo ops) as I possibly could, given the circumstances.
Since Ella competes, her team dances in all three of the recitals — at 11, 2:30 and again at 6. She danced four times in each show, so we were dealing with tons of hair, makeup & costume changes. It was pretty stressful and we were a little late getting there for the first show! I barely managed to buy groceries for us to eat at home, much less plan how we were eating at the venue. We had to make a stop by Publix for a cooler full of goodies and it put us a few minutes behind schedule! Luckily, Ella was completely dressed and ready and we got her into line and on stage for her ballet dance just in time. Whew.
These are some of my FAVORITE girls on the planet. They are such sweet friends for Ella and I have love love loved getting to know their mamas this year.
This wild and crazy hairdo is courtesy of pre-show crimping and LOTS of hair changes. We all laughed at how big her pigtails were and told her she looked like a Muppet!
We had time in between the first two shows for a picnic in the hall. These girls were starving after working so hard that morning and they still had eight more dances to go.
In case you missed it on Instagram, Platinum Dance gave us a sweet shout out a few days before the recital on Twitter. A fellow dancer screenshotted the photo for me and we were thrilled to them using Ella’s photo from the Birmingham competition for their Throwback Thursday post! We had to snap a photo while she was in her jazz costume.
After show number two, it was time for Josh & Sophie to arrive. Thankfully, she only dances in the evening show, but I was worried to death I would miss somebody on stage or forget something I was supposed to do while running between dressing rooms and trying to get everyone lined up backstage.
It’s hard to tell in the fake smiles in those photos, but Sophie was thoroughly freaked out. I know the photo below is super blurry, but it’s the only shot I have of what she really looked like backstage. I don’t know if it was because she fell asleep in the car or if there were too many people, but she seemed really nervous and clingy and I was so worried she would fall apart on stage.
I left her in capable hands and ran around to Ella’s dressing room (competition girls are on a different floor!) to check and make sure she was dressed and ready to go! All she needed from me was a good luck. Thank heavens she can almost get herself completely dressed without my help!
By the time I got back upstairs to Tazzie, she was looking a little more like herself. A pep talk from some friends put a genuine smile on her face and she seemed excited to go on stage.
This is what the audience for the evening show looked like when I finally got to sit down. No wonder she was nervous! The evening show is the biggest of the three and our entire family was there to cheer them on!
She did so great on stage for both numbers and I was thrilled I didn’t miss anything. I had to skip Ella’s jazz routine, but I had seen it during the earlier performances and let’s be honest — after competition season I could pretty much do that dance myself.
My mom was a huge help and got Sophie dressed for her ballet routine so that I could change Ella for her next number and when I got back upstairs these two girls were clearly having more fun than the last time I saw them. They have become such great friends and can be counted on to ham it up for the camera!
I grabbed Sophie and ran back out to the audience so she could see her big sister dance at least once. Ella managed to catch both of Taz’s dances while she was backstage so everyone got to clap and cheer each other on. Taz even let out a very loud “Go Belly!!” during her ballet routine and Ella gave us both grief about that afterwards. I LOVE these pictures of both girls in their ballet costumes and have plans to have some professional ones taken very soon. How adorable are they?!
This was Ella’s 5th year of dance, so she got a big trophy on stage at the end of the recitals. I couldn’t believe she was big enough to be on stage up there with the big girls! It’s crazy to think she’s been dancing so long already, but I’m so thankful that she loves it and hasn’t tried to quit yet. I will be so sad if and when I don’t get to watch her anymore. She truly is talented and you can tell by looking at her face that she is enjoying every moment of being onstage.
Thankfully, this season is over and we can all take a deep breath. But not for long, because dance camp is in two weeks and then barely a month after, we get to start it all over again!
