3 Recitals, 1 Weekend

Crazy weekend for our little family! We'd already had 2 days up at Kingsbury for dress rehearsals earlier in the week and thank goodness for carpooling friends so we could share those drives. On Friday evening we sent Olivia up with London and her family, got Luke situated with Addie babysitting, and then took Cares and and Bentley up the street to Bean's very first piano recital. We had to have him go very first and then bolt so we could make it to Kingsbury by 7:00 pm.
 

 

 Bentley with his awesome teacher (and our friend from our ward). It's been really lovely to have him walk home from lessons since they're just up the street!

 The boys playing their duet. Bean had his parts 100% memorized but Joseph needed the music since he hadn't practiced quite as much as Bentley ;)

 We raced up to the UofU and got there just in time for Livs' performance. Her piece was like the 4th one of the night so we knew we could not be late! She was golden up there: knew her steps so well and danced with all her heart. She is a particular little lady and likes only what SHE decides to like. Luckily ballet fell easily into her good graces and she is a happy student and performer.
 

 I always die over how grown-up and beautiful she looks with make-up on! But I like her little best :)

 Luckiest little girl to have Grandma Bobbi and Grandpa Sherm come see her dance. She opted for a "gum boquet" instead of real flowers (like Bentley chose for his recital prize...and then Cares wanted the same thing after she danced too! My kids crack me up and they really love gum (especially since they're doing no candy for the year).

 No one prouder than big sis

Love these two.

Then it was back over on Saturday afternoon for the older girls' recital. These ladies sure love getting dolled up for these performances:

 

Backstage and ready for their jazz piece choreographed by Miss Laura (Driggs) 

 

We grabbed this pic after they were all done and still wearing their costumes from their ballet piece.

These dance recitals seem like so much effort for just little grade school girls and yet they are pulled off beautifully by the studio. We are doing ballet at UDA again next year to try and really stick with something for several years. I know my girls both adore performing and have never once complained about heading off to class, but I would like to see their technique growing more in a year than it has so far (namely for Caroline who is getting old enough to have the kinesthetic awareness and body control to really work on her form. We'll see how this next year goes. Cares is adding in tumbling and letting go of jazz (she loves it but we only have so many dollars for dance classes!)