DANCE WEEKEND!!

 We did a poor job of planning our calendar this spring because all of the sudden it was June, and we were string at a weekend of dance rehearsal/recital, an away baseball tournament, and Ben and Harry’s departure for Louisville for the National Speech and Debate Association’s high school national tournament. All good things, to be sure, but so many of them. At once.

Thankfully, Ben’s parents came all the way from Naples, FL to help us out! They took Cooper to baseball on rehearsal day when Harry and Jack both worked all day at the pool, Ben stayed home to put Minnie for nap and then met them at baseball, and Dorothy and I dressed her in a million costumes and then raced home to Minnie-sit. Then on Sunday, Ben and Harry loaded up the minivan and went to Kentucky, and the grandparents took Cooper and Minnie to a 3-hour dance recital (while Jack worked LOL).

It was… a lot. And we absolutely could not have done it without them!!

Also Dorothy and I recreated her very first dance weekend and even went to our favorite pancake place, our first indoor food experience since March 2020. We were both kind of freaked out and also ecstatic.

The calm before the weekend storm: (also, it was 60 degrees in this picture and last night at the same time it was 90. So yucky— but this night was gorgeous)

Ben and the kids and his mom and dad also found time to do fun Madison stuff between activities:

Dress rehearsal started at 7 am, but we enjoyed every single second. I mean, just slapping on a ballet bun and heading downtown to make a coffee pit stop on the way to the theater was fun.

When we got to the theater, I got nervous because her ballet number was the second one in the show, but we didn’t come in costume because the studio has a strict rule about no costumes anywhere but backstage/onstage until after the show. But then as we walked up, we saw that the backstage doors were still locked, there was a line of moms and daughters, and also some of her fellow ballerinas were already tutu-ed since every dance had to be onstage for finale practice first thing and then the show would immediately start. The kids in the first number were also in costume.

SO I MADE HER CHANGE IN THIS ALLY and she briefly hated me.

Dance one, elementary ballet:

Next, we went to breakfast

Dance 2 was her team mini crew hip hop dance

Next, she had elementary tap, and I was honestly blown away by how great she was. The last time she took tap was 2020, and she spent the last 3 months of the season on Zoom and was… not an awesome tapper. But last weekend, she was front and center and so darn cute!

Her last dance was elementary lyrical which I have still not seen except for on the backstage monitor because I wanted to pack up our stuff and GO HOME. Hashtag terrible dance mom. But in my defense it was at the end of the show and she had a super quick change back to her team costume for the finale, and it was a lot.

Heading home!

Here are a few pictures that her studio (Move Out Loud) took and shared:

The next day, we woke up early and did it all again, only without Ben and Harry

We did hair and makeup at home, and soon Dorothy won’t even need my help:

But she still does for now

The show itself went SO FAST with all those costume changes. Before I knew it, we were outside getting well wishes from the fam:

Which was SO 2017

Except now Dorothy is practically a grown adult person

And we have this little muffin nugget and future tiny dancer