Journey to Pridemore Pastures : June 2012

I think it's been two months since my last post. Eeeek. Sorry about that. Right now I'm in a quiet house. Ella and Kendall are napping. Tara seems to be napping with Ella...last thing I knew she was reading to Ella and she never returned. :) Ronnie and Daniel are working on Ronnie's fish tank...which is basically half dead after some miscommunication over who was turning the lights off one night while he was at Kentucky Changers. Woops.
Today was a pretty exciting day in the Pridemore house. Ella had her first ballet recital! She started taking ballet in November after we scored a LivingSocial deal for Jennifer's Academy of Dance. We've tried to involve Ella in different activities...before ballet we did tee ball (which we are also currently in again) and soccer, but we soon realized that she was having more fun in her ballet/tap class than in the other things we have tried. So we decided to stick with it. My sister and I spent our childhood getting muddy and sweaty playing sports, so this dancey stuff was all new to me. Not gonna lie, when I first recieved the recital handbook that detailed how her hair must be fixed and how her makeup was to be applied, it kinda freaked me out a little. But now having gone through the production and seeing the final project I see the importance of making everyone uniform and, yes, I now understand why my child had to wear red lipstick...the bright lights really do wash them out!
The last couple of days Ella has seemed not-so-excited about her recital. We've had an out of the ordinary week. Ronnie has been gone to Kentucky Changers for the last week, and we spent several days back home in Scottsville. I thought she was just a little out of sorts, but Friday morning she told me she was NOT going to her recital and would NOT dance on the stage. Thankfully when she woke up from her nap she was in a better mood, and got kinda excited when I turned Doc McStuffins on the TV, sat her on a stool in front of me, and started curling her hair. When it was time for makeup she was so excited. She's been dying to wear the red lipstick since the day I bought it! When we arrived at Memorial Auditorium for the dress rehearsal she was pumped. She was able to see some of the "big girls" perform before she went back to practice the finale, and I think that helped to excite her. After perfecting the finale, her group went through their "Colored Glasses" routine and they did great! My hope for Ella was that she would just do SOMETHING. I just hoped she wouldn't stand there and do nothing. And she did fantastic! She did a great job with the routine...she sang, she was animated, and for the most part she kept up with her moves. I was so excited for her! On the way back home she kept saying, "But I want to go back to the recital! I want to dance more!" Yay!!
This morning the girls were so excited to wake up and see their Daddy. He had returned in the middle of the night while we were all asleep. Then, Aunt Tara & Uncle Daniel arrived. The girls were so excited! We all rode together to the recital and Ella couldn't wait to put her dress on. She wasn't allowed to wear her costume in the audience unless it was covered up. It was pretty warm in there so I just put a summer dress on her and would change her a few routines before hers. Their group was the very last to go, so we had awhile. Ronnie was a trooper. He's gotten very little sleep the last week and a dark auditorium made it difficult for him, but he stayed awake and I think he maybe enjoyed it more than he would let on. :) It was fun watching all the groups dance. The older and more talented girls were a lot of fun to watch, and the younger groups were just adorable! Finally I took Ella backstage to get her changed. She was so ready to have that costume and her lipstick on! It was hectic when I dropped her off backstage, and I was really worried that it might freak her out and cause her to freeze. When her group walked out on stage they were SOOO stinking cute. I'm probably biased, but I think they had the cutest costumes. :) Then it was time to dance...and they did great! I was so proud of Ella! She did even better than she did in the rehearsal, and the whole group was great! Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures or video during the performance, but I got a video of the rehearsal that I will show everyone when they come over. :) Here are a few pictures taken from rehearsal and recital day...