Dance!

Evie and Fiona had their end of the year dance recital last night.  I do love our little dance school!  The teacher is so mellow and really encourages each girl to do her best, no matter what her ability.  As everyone already knows, this year hasn't been our easiest.  I normally love sitting in the girls' classes and watching them learn and practice.  Last year worked out well for me because it was easier to keep Daniel busy and Lula was the baby on my lap.  This year, it was three against one so Mark usually took the girls to class.  I didn't see Evie's dance until the recital and boy, was it great!

This first video is Evie's ballet dance.  Both her dances have a patriotic theme.  When I first saw which costume her teacher picked for her class, I was a bit disappointed.  The whole point in ballet recitals is to wear the poufyest tutu and the sparklyest crown.  But a sailor suit? It's a good thing I didn't influence Evie's opinion with my own.  She loves it and plans to wear it for Halloween.  And once I saw it on her and saw her dance, I changed my mind!  I loved it!  Evie is the girl on the far left that is the first to cross to the right side of the screen:

The second (and third) video is Fiona's ballet dance.  She is the second smallest in her class because she (and two other girls) just moved up to the ages 5-7 class this year.  She is second from the right.  I had to record her dance in two parts since naughty Heidi was trying to grab the camera with her new found reaching skills!  Luckily, Mark rescued me halfway through.

Next up is Evie's tap dance.  Love, love, love her tap dance.  If I would have known that they were doing a little tappy march with salutes, I totally would have given her a little heart tattoo on her arm.  Evie has the best timing, the best rhythm, and never misses a step.  My little daughter is perfect!  She is pretty hard to spot at first, but is mostly in the center of the screen.  After the big move to a single line, she is third from the right.

Click here for Evie's dance (for some reason, I can't embed it)

Fiona had a harder time with her tap dance.  She could "feel" the ballet music and knew when to do what step, but the tap song sounded too much the same to her and she got lost a lot.  I do like, however, that when she decided to go with a routine, she did it with enthusiasm.  If she kicked, she kicked.  If she flap-tapped, she flap-tapped!  The best part (and quite possibly the most painful) was watching the girls watch each other to see what to do next.  Fiona was not the only girl to get lost, that's for sure!  I think if I ever had to torture, say, a couple of older brothers or maybe a terrorist, I would tape their eyelids open and make them watch little girls tap dance.  Just sayin' *wink*  Fiona is second from the right and sometimes gets behind the only girl shorter than her.  Heidi managed to affect the quality of this recording too, but this time with her rocking back and forth to music skills.

All in all, the night went well.  It was so nice to have my parents and sister come out and see the girls dance!  They felt so loved!  And it was awesome to have the extra hands when it came time to get Lula and Daniel out to the playground to burn off some energy along with their cousin.