We Survived Our First Dance Recital!

Auds has been taking classical ballet and tap from a Christian dance academy this past year. I was so thrilled to find a place that didn't force makeup and barely there costumes and encourage shaking parts little girls shouldn't be aware of. That's what "dance" is in the pageant world of the South. 

It was something I never had the opportunity to do and Auds had been obsessed with Angellina Ballerina for a while beforehand, so we gave it a whirl. My sisters and cousins and friends' kids have all done a beginner dance class (not with this school, but with other more "glitzy" ones) only to have them want to quit halfway through the first year. I honestly figured it would be the same thing for us. I didn't think that she would want to have the discipline at such an early age to go to weekly classes and then bi-weekly rehearsals before the big recital. 

Boy, was I wrong! She loves it! All she does all day is run around dancing, and now that we're done with recital, prancing in her costumes. She's talking about wanting to take a summer camp (jury's still out on that one for me as it's a lot of money and work for such a quick program) and focusing on ballet more than tap next year. 

She had her first recital last week and it was so much fun. I left all the boys at home and got some much-needed girl time with my ballerina. We primped hair, did last minute fixes on costumes, and I got to watch her beam as she danced and watched the bigger girls dance. 

Then came the recital and she did so well! She's in the 4-5 class, so it's not like they were very experienced and it was their first time on stage in front I people, but they did amazing. She remembered her placements and most of her steps in time with the music. She was even the center of a little bridge three girls made with their arms for the rest of the girls to walk through. Star of the show, I tell you! 

B was a proud papa watching all of her hardworking pay off. The boys weren't all that interested. Lol 

In other news, things have been super busy here, and I'm looking to take a week or two off before starting school again (coz Auds loves it so much she wants to do it every day). I just wrapped up school Spring and portrait orders for a local school, have a service day at a local battered woman's shelter that I planned to do, and a first birthday party to plan. 

Add to that that Drum has been blessed with salmonella and it's a regular circus. Evidently, salmonella can occur as just a stomach bug in older kids and adults. Younger kids and babies have a real hard time with it with most cases ending up in the hospital. People are contagious for six months after the fact, so someone who had a bug months ago and didn't wash their hands properly after the restroom touch him and passed it on (it's only contracted by contact with fecal matter). So we've been having a very sick baby who is at least nursing well enough to stay out of the hospital for now. He's been nursing so well that despite the bloody diarrhea, he still weighs 26 pounds. He's so chubby his blood work has to be done from his foot because his arms are too fat. We're praying he gets better soon and are even more diligent than normal about hand washing and hand sanitizer. I pray no one else at church got it since that's where he contracted it. If you poop, wash your hands people. I'd love to tell that from the rooftops, but it might be a little rude. ;)

Auds has been doing amazing with school and T has been learning more as well. He's got his alphabet, colors, numbers, and shapes down. Her reading is impressive and she already understands addition without needing her cuisinaire rods. She even read verses with us while we taught Bible study last night. (We teach a topic and then go round-robin reading the verses that back it up) her first verse she read was Acts 1:5 :)

Things are going well, albeit hectic, here but we wouldn't have them any other way.