Belle's Big Debut :)

I'm one proud mama :)  Isabelle has been taking dance since last September, but seeing as she gets stage fright just trying to have a school picture taken, I have not expected much from the recital as we've built up to it.

Sure, I've been talking it up for weeks, she knew that just about the whole family was coming so they could see her dance, she talks about dance all the time, but, well, she's just a timid and pretty quiet kid. 

Sooo.....when we went to dress rehearsal on Tuesday night (that started 15 minutes before bedtime...) I wasn't expecting much but was just hoping she'd at least make it on stage.  I would have been satisfied with that.  I wasn't going to push it.  But she was GREAT!  It gave me hope that she might actually do something the day of the recital.

Here she is this morning right before showtime :)  Isn't she ADORABLE?!

 And she did great!  They rent out a theatre downtown so she was supposed to sit up in the balcony with her class while all the parents were downstairs.  Yeah, not so happy.  She cried when I left her for her first act but I knew it was better for her to cry before the show started than when it was time to go on stage :)  I was right - she was happy by the time they went on and did great.

And then I went to change her before intermission.  And, well, let's just say that when I came back downstairs after getting her ready, Steve turned to me and said, "Was that Belle?"  As in, we were in the back row of the balcony and she screamed bloody murder so loud when I tried to leave her that Steve heard her all the way downstairs.  In the middle of an act.  Oops.

Thankfully, she recovered and was an adorable little tapper!  We have some stage pics and video (I videoed the dress rehearsal) but I don't feel right about putting other people's kids on-line without permission, so afraid the blog world will have to miss out on those :)

Still...some cute pics :)

 Proud as punch after her big show, holding her big flowers from her daddy :)

 I think we are all getting pretty used to this whole family thing :)

Kyle even drove an hour from Durham to be with us!  Since he has two boys, we are guessing this will be the only "first dance recital" in the family :)

Next up...tomorrow is my bridal shower at church!  Yippee!!  This stuff is fun :)

(keep going - I've been catching up...)