My Dancing Girl

This last year I was able to let my kids do some extra things. In the past, money was so tight that I never considered having them in dance or soccer. Thanks to the military we have been able to give the kids the opportunity to try some things out. McKenna was given several options and chose to do dance, hip hop specifically. So, every Tuesday for the whole school year I drove her into town and sat in the car for an hour with Evan and Alana (sometimes we went to the park) while she had dance. McKenna enjoyed it very much and always looked forward to going.

The end of the school year also marks the end of dance, for the summer anyway. She had her recital this last weekend and it was a huge success. She was so nervous and so excited. She cried a bit before we left the house because she was so afraid of messing up. Ryan and I gave her a very positive "we're proud of you" pep talk and that seemed to help.

I took her to the recital at 6:00pm so she could be there for curtain call. Parents were already lining up at the doors to get in. They were not opening the doors until 6:30pm so I figured that I should just get in line. Well, it got crazy real fast. People started crowding in and getting anxious about getting seats for all their family. By the time they opened the door it was a shoving match to get in and a sprint to the best seat you could get. I grabbed five seats as close to the front as I could. We ended up somewhere in the middle. I am really glad that I was in line because, within five minutes the whole place was either saved or occupied. A lot of people were standing in the back.

McKenna's two best friends came with their mothers and her school teacher also came to watch (Mrs. Smith really loves McKenna). Ryan came with Alana for the last half. McKenna's dance was #27 of 32 so I didn't see a reason to have an energy filled two-year-old trying to sit for two hours of dance.

When McKenna finally came on stage she was glowing and perfect. She danced really well and she smiled the whole time. Most of the girls didn't smile, but it was easy to tell that McKenna was having so much fun as she danced. I am really glad that she had this experience. We might do dance again next year or she might do guitar lessons instead. We're still figuring it out.

Enjoy the video.