Dance Recital... and now I'm broke.

 Ava had her end of year dance recital on Saturday night. This year she got to do ballet and tap so had a costume change and everything. Last year Aunt Sara played Mom and took her to rehearsal and sat with her backstage during the recital since Quinn was only 10 days old. So this was an all new experience for me. It actually wasn't too bad (besides when I lost her for about 20 minutes) but ended up being a very, very long day with getting Quinn's 1 year pictures taken (again) at 8 and getting home that night at 11:30.

Ava in her ballet costume ready to go on stage.

 Ava and Reggi, one of her best little buddies ready for tap.

 So Sara failed to mention that we should bring a blanket to sit on so we had to share with some friends. I did bring some coloring books, notepads, and books to keep her busy which worked out great.

 The above three pictures are all her doing. Do you think I should start exploiting her and begin her career as a kiddie model? I don't know how many agents want a 5 year old that poses as if she's in the next issue of Vogue

 This dance stuff isn't cheap. I know I think WAY too much about how much stuff costs but after the monthly class bill, then the costumes, pictures, recital fees, tickets for family members to attend recital, of course flowers, and then don't forget the bill you pay when eating out after the recital it gets very expensive. And it doesn't help that she has been saying for the last couple months that she wanted to quit dance all together.  After she got back from her first performance she came running up to me yelling, "I want to do dance next year!!" Of course you do....

I have two other pictures that are WAY better than this one but I can't help myself. Grandma's all high on dance recitalness, Grandpa's all lets get the H out of here, and Ava is loving every minute of it.

Daddy, Caden, and Aunt Sara were there too, but Sara left early and trying to get the men in my family to take a picture is a rare occurrence. Quinn got to hang out at Lyla's house while we were at the recital. She really broke Ryan and Tarah in on what a crazed baby could look like. The text I got while we were eating from Tarah was, "It was pretty rough for awhile but she's sleeping now." I love it. This is probably one of the only times that she has been by herself without Ava and not at Grandma's or Kizzy's so I'm sure it was a bit traumatizing. After the recital, Doug and I took the older kids out to eat and it was very weird to just be eating with the two of them again. We picked up right where we left off before Quinn was born with Ava shoveling in the Super Nachos as fast as possible and Caden totally annoyed with a "headache".