Kaiti's 1st Recital

On May 6th, our little ballerina made her stage debut, performing in the Eglin Ballet School Annual Recital. Kaitlyn has been taking ballet and tap at the Eglin Air Force Base Ballet School since last summer. She is in the 3-5 year old class which means that they manage to practice a few plie's and grand jete's in between making faces at themselves in the mirror and sliding across the floor in ballet shoes. Somehow, their very talented teacher is able to turn this into an adorable recital. Let me just say, it was quite the event.

We spent all day Saturday at the rehearsal. The ballet school is comprised of students age 3 - 18 so there were 29 separate dance numbers, including the Mom's dance. That's right, some of us old moms were convinced to make fools of ourselves and perform a dance that we learned on Saturday afternoons. Let's just say that we did a lot more laughing at ourselves than dancing. We're not sure how the dance actually looked but we had a great time learning it together and the daughters had a great time laughing at their mommies.

After a long dress rehearsal, we all arrived on Sunday afternoon at the base theatre and headed backstage. Samantha sat with Duane's parents and cousin who had come in from Oklahoma for the festivities. To complicate matters, Camp Rudder was hosting its' annual Open House where we open the Camp to the public to view everything from an ambush demonstration to a parachute jump. Duane was one of the jumpers. He jumped at 12:30 and literally ripped his chute off and raced to the base theatre just in time to catch Kaitlyn's first number. Of course Kaitlyn thought it was pretty cool that her Dad jumped out of a plane to be at her recital - Rangers Lead the Way......even to ballet recitals..........:)

Kaitlyn performed a tap number to "RESPECT" which was pretty hilarious. Her ballet number was to the song "Butterfly Kisses" and of course I cried. She was adorable and loved the stage. While many of the little ballerinas were a little intimidated by the stage lights, Kaitlyn ate it up. I'm thinking if we encourage her love of the stage, perhaps Duane and I will be able to retire in a first rate nursing home..........

All in all, it was an exhausting and adorable event. I can definitely see the wisdom in having only one recital a year because I think it will take me a year to gear up again.....and next spring it will be Kaitlyn and Samantha.