Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music. ~William Stafford

Tonite was Bella's Dance Recital. They held it at the Uptown Theater here in GP. It's this really cool old theater that originally opened in 1950 and was renovated in 2007. It's such a beautiful facility...the perfect place for the recital!!

This is Bella's class...as you can see, she is the Ginormica of the group. They are such a cute group! I can't get over how precious they all looked in their tutu's, crown's and bee costumes. When we first got there, I took Bella aside to let her breathe apart from the mayhem that is recital-day. There was this grungy wall that I fell in love with...I'm so in love with this little girl, too...

Bella did WONDERFUL tonite. They had two numbers, Put on a Happy Face and Baby Bumblebee. She was SO EXCITED to go out on stage for that first song...which surprised me, I was preparing myself to console a crying, scared child. But she proved me wrong...which I'm so glad she did!

The second song was Baby Bumblebee. This one we kinda saw coming. Bella hates loud noises (ie, fireworks, loud music, screaming) and the teacher taught the kids to actually SING this song...which they do...loudly....bordering on screaming. Soooo...at the rehearsal last night, Bella did awesome at the first song...but they start in on that second song and she flips, starts crying and covering her ears. We went today and got her a pair of ear plugs just for tonite....I sat with her and tried them on, explained to her that she had to really WATCH Miss Stephanie with these earplugs in. She was good to go...but when it came time to put them in right before she went out on stage, she said "No, mommy, I don't need them, I will sing loud." But...the music started...the other girls sang with a bit of scream mixed in...and Bella just stood there. A few minutes into it, a teacher pulled her off the stage. I was kind of disappointed in that, Miss Stephanie had told me if she started to cry, they would save her the embarassement and pull her off....but this other teacher acted to prematurely, I think....cause Bella wasn't crying! She wasn't dancing...but she wasn't crying!! Oh well...it's just sad b/c afterwards Bella was telling me she wanted to go back out and sing Bumblebee :(.

Post-show...actually, more like intermission, since we left early. James and Aube got Bella a beautiful bouquet of flowers to show her how proud we were of her!

It was such a good night! I'm so proud of Bella for excitement and willingness to perform...stepping out of that comfort zone. We treated her to some Brahm's afterwards...and the promised ChuckECheese is tomorrow...lol. We have been telling her and telling her that if she'd get out there and dance, we'd take her to the Cheese. So, the promise will be kept.