First there was dancing

Last Friday Abbie had her first dance recital, She is such a girly girl! On more than one occasion I've remarked to Dan that we have a future cheerleader on our hands & neither one of us will know what to do with that. Sure we'll support her in whatever she chooses (as long as it's appropriate of course), but neither Dan or I are really the cheerleader type. That said, when Abbie is dancing whether it's in a recital or practicing at home or just playing around she LOVES to dance and twirl around. She just glows!

 See?! Glowing!

With her flowers after the show.

Abbie had the most amazing teacher this year. We love Mrs. Bathgate! (She was Nate's teacher last year in 2nd grade then she moved to 1st & Abbie was in her class HURRAY!) Abbie was talking about dance and so Mrs. Bathgate talked to me about coming to see Abbie's recital. We got her a ticket & she not only came but brought Abbie 2 beautiful pink (her favorite color) roses. She is an amazing lady! Not many teachers would put forth this kind of effort outside the classroom. Truly Amazing!

We figured out that they line up the girls in alphabetical order by last name - Abbie is in the back row in all routines towards the left of the stage, as you are viewing it, often times right behind someone taller than her making it hard to see her - big downer for me since we didn't get there early enough to get seats on that side of the auditorium, oh well it is what it is. Now for the show:

Baton

Ballet

Parade Baton (sorry we were passing the camera to try to get a better shot/view point) so there are 2 clips for this one - click Parade for one & Baton for the other) neither one spectacular in quality, but we tried.

Tap (Abbie's favorite of her dances)

She even had fun in dress rehersal. I got better shots of her dancing here, but the room was not at all quiet, and I was using rehersal to figure out the new camera - so enjoy it for what it is:

Here's a couple clips of her tap routine

Clip 1

Clip 2

Baton Parade Routine

The Parade Routine in the Viking Fest Parade.

Dan walked backwards trying to get this video, not bad I say. However he was a distraction to the girls at first. The girl in front of Abbie is her good friend Lexi, who we can credit for getting us into dance & baton.

Abbie & Lexi waiting together for the parade to start. It was CHILLY! Especially in these outfits!

I am grateful that we are able to have Abbie participate in these kind of activities so that she can find the things that bring her joy. It is so fun to watch her grow, learn more about who she is, and who she is becoming.

PS I love having the HD video capabilities on the new camera but it takes this side of forever to upload to YouTube & loading these (much) higher resolution images to the blog takes at least twice as long. But I'm not complaining - so far I love the new camera. HOWEVER -  Note to self - I now need to allow more time to blog if I'm going to upload pictures/video!