Hailey participated in her first ballet recital on Saturday night. I was very proud of her for doing her routine on stage and not getting "stage fright" as she thought she might get since she has never been on stage before. She was excited to start taking ballet/tap last fall and thoroughly enjoyed it until about January. Then she decided it just wasn't her cup of tea so to speak! I wasn't willing to let her quit because she and another little girl were the only ones in the class and Hailey's problem was that she just didn't like practicing. Ballet/Tap as well as most other activities require discipline and hard work. I feel these are good qualities that need to be developed in everyone.  Giving up just didn't seem like a good route to take. After a few talks,  we talked about this performance goal and her reward was set. She decided she wanted to go to BuildaBear Workshop. She has wanted to go there for a very long time. She danced a little routine to Cruella DeVille on stage. She knows the first part of her dance well but the second half is quite toublesome for her. This didn't bother me as much as I know that ballet will never be her thing. She is my spunky, bouncy girl and that is fine. She pretty much froze during those parts and looked at her friend or off stage at her teacher. I took ballet for many years and absolutley loved it. I still remember my first performance when I was about Hailey's age and the pretty green dress I wore. I wanted to go hide and be invisible. I didn't want to do it at all and even cried to my mom but I survived. Hailey however wanted to go up on that big stage. She had a pretty smile on stage and even spotted us in the audience. She also enjoyed free dancing on stage at the end. During the first practice dress rehearsal on stage earlier in the day, she and her friend danced with an older girl. It was super cute to see as she had no idea that they were going to get to do this. When the night performance came, Hailey and her friend took the opportunity to dance on large blocks at the back. They were the only ones doing that. I know this delighted her but I was imagining her falling or jumping off and breaking herself several times! She gave her teacher some flowers and a cute dance clipboard. I also gave her and her friend some flowers. I remember getting flowers after every performance growing up and I loved it and felt special. I am so proud of my little girl. She even announced to Brady and I that she wanted to do it again and wanted to keep taking classes. That shocked me. I will let her decide in the fall when classes resume again. Since she had to sit and watch the other routines she became a big fan of a few songs but the one that caught her attention the most was the girls that did a routine to the Double Dutch Bus song. I think Hailey would like jazz or hip/hop better. I downloaded the song for her and was quite surprised to hear that she knew a lot of the words!