Molly's First Dance Recital!

This afternoon, Molly had her first dance recital. Gotta admit, I was a bit nervous about it. She loves going to dance class, but I rarely get a good report at the end of her class. Oh, sure, Miss Kathy thinks Molly is funny, and adorable, and all that. But Molly RARELY cooperates during her class, or listens, or even dances.

Uggghhh.

Well, whether she danced or not, we were going to the recital. But first, hair and makeup were in order. Big sister Meggie (a veteran of 14 years of dance herself) volunteered for the task. I wholeheartedly agreed to that one!

Molly was NOT a fan of the hair process...
...but sat still long enough (and it WAS long) for Meggie to accomplish that goal. Makeup (or "nake-up" as Molly calls it) was a breeze. Molly LOVES wearing that stuff!

The recital theme was "Let's Go to the Movies," and I thought this...
...red carpet at the entrance was a nice touch!

I didn't take any pictures while Molly was dancing (partly because my camera stinks and partly because I wanted to actually watch her dance), but she did make me take a bunch of posed shots in both of her costumes. First we have her pom costume...
...which she wore to dance to Elvis Presley's "Speedway." She was mostly lost during that dance, but she looked awfully cute up there! There was a part in that dance where they were supposed to "shimmy and shake" and, for some reason, Molly got super shy during that part in rehearsals. She promised she would do the shimmy and shake in the show, but she did not. Grandma B cracked up when Molly looked right at me (we were in the second row and Molly knew it) during that part and yelled, "Sorry!" Crazy girl!

For ballet, she wore this adorable outfit...
...and danced to "The Lonely Goat Herder" from The Sound of Music. Adorable!

At the end of the show, Molly was super excited (and super surprised) to get a trophy! (I thought that was a nice touch on the part of the dance studio, as well.) And of course, no recital performance would be complete...
...without bouquets of beautiful flowers! (Thanks Daddy and Carson and Grandma and Grandpa B. for the flowers...she LOVES them!)

I thought I'd get some pictures before we headed to dinner...
...of Molly with cousin Sophia and big brother Carson (her biggest fans)...
..Molly with her wonderful dance teacher, Miss Kathy...
...Molly with Grandpa and Grandma B...
...Molly with Grandpa D, Sophia, and Grandma D...
...and, what do you know, Daddy and I actually got into a picture! Meggie was super bored at the recital (and super bummed that she missed seeing Evan pitch his baseball team to the District championship)...
...but she did quite enjoy watching her little sister shine on stage. Carson, on the other hand...
...had a great time watching the whole show. He recognized a lot of the songs and loved the acrobatics that were in a lot of the dance team numbers. And he thought his little sister looked awfully pretty.

So we survived Molly's recital. She cooperated more than I thought she would and didn't fall off the stage. All in all, I'd call that a success!