Spring Recital ~ 2017

Lilah had her Spring Recital two weekends ago!  For me, there is NOTHING more that brings me joy than seeing my daughter on stage and my sons on the ball field doing what NOT only they LOVE, but what they are good at!

Her recital was at the Jefferson Center, in downtown Roanoke.  The Jefferson Center has a ton of ridiculous photography rules, so I just decided to enjoy the show instead of trying to sneak a photo or compete with all of the rules.  It kind of frustrates me that I cannot take photos of my daughter's handwork.  These are MEMORIES, but I am a rule follower, so I just obeyed.

Lilah was in three dances: tap, ballet, and jazz.  She was focused and flawless.  

I am thankful for the back stage babysitter who snapped a few photos of Lilah's dance team.

We are Liley's biggest fans!  Always have been, always will be!

After the show, we greeted her with a beautiful bouquet of fuchsia baby roses.

And loads of hugs!

Then, we treated her to dinner.  We let Liley pick the restaurant.  She chose Alejandro's.  

At the restaurant, we blessed her with a few gifts to show her how proud we are of her.

I found this darling and oh so appropriate canvas art to give to her.

"Dance like nobody's watching!"

Then, she unwrapped her BIG gift.

Can you tell how EXCITED she was?

Rather than getting her a bunch of crapo gifts, that just go into a junk drawer, we decided to buy her a bluetooth, color changing alarm clock and usb charging system.  She's wanted this for over year.  Lilah was truly SHOCKED.  She exclaimed, "You are the best gift giver EVER!"

I always love watching my girl dance on stage.  The Lord has given her many talents and I believe dancing is DEFINITELY ONE of them.  I am not sure what we are going to do next year.  We are 100% still dancing, but we may switch studios.  We are taking the Summer off and exploring all of our options!

Lilah's Dance Ad

Every year, we are required to pay for a 1/4 page ad for the May recital program.  You can get it sponsored by a local business or you can just pay for it yourself.  We always just pay for it.  It's due April 8th.  I quickly created Liley's ad a few minutes ago!!! I love the way it turned out.  

Dance Photos!

Never in my life did I ever think that life would be so busy and my heart so full that some months I would only get to post two times. TRUST me, I have soooooo much to write about and post on, but TIME... Have no fear.  I plan to catch up BIG time after the twins turn 8 on Saturday!!!

Lilah had a photo shoot at Miss Mona's yesterday and during the breaks, I captured THESE photos with my own camera. The atmosphere wasn't the prettiest, but she sure made up for it.  I love costume time.  It's so much fun!

Lilah will be in three dances in her May recital.  We are always so excited to watch her perform.  This year she is taking...

Ballet

Jazz

And tap!

I got a little camera happy, but I figured if Teresa Custer, the photographer, doesn't capture a pose or a look that I like, then at least I have some great shots of my own.

 

She's such a little ham!

She started feeling the camera after a good hour and a half.  LOL! "How about this pose mom?" But the first hour she just wanted to play with her dance team members and was running away from me.  Haha.  Sigh...

I love HER and I thoroughly enjoy watching her dance. Her recital will be at the Jefferson Center in May.  Can't wait!

Miss Mona's Fall Recital 2015

Lilah had her Fall recital on December 8th. Any extra time I have had has been devoted to Christmas traditions and Christmas shopping, so this is the first opportunity I have had to post about it. The Fall recital is always held at a local, Salem elementary school and the lighting is always poor, so capturing good photos is difficult. Before her debut, I took several photos backstage.  She wasn't really into it, so I stopped with 2 pictures.

 Lilah's Tap 1 dance crew!

Kylie goes to our church! I thought she was looking mighty festive and since her daddy works the show, I figured I would capture a photo or two for him!

 If only EMMA was our elf on the shelf! Cutie pie!

 There's my little ballerina tap dancer about to perform.

 Annie goes to our church!!! This was her first dance recital. She did so great!

 Paris is another friend!

 Eden used to be in Liley's dance class, but now she's in a different class.  We still enjoy watching her dance.  

Alex sang and danced in several "acts".  He also goes to our church.

 Our favorite dancer aside from our little girl...EMMA!

 This was the funniest act!! Alvin and the Chipmunks.

 There were SO MANY cute pictures of Annie, I couldn't help but post them ALL!

Oh how I wish this was a better quality photo.  On instagram, it came out BEAUTIFUL!!! This photo was taken with my iPhone, so...

 After the recital, we took several family shots! They came out so GOOD!

 They challenge me, but life is FULL and COMPLETE with them!

I will post several videos that I took during the recital shortly.  I decided with Lilah's dance, it was more beneficial to have video footage than blurry, distorted photos.  

Darren picked out a beautiful bouquet of flowers, but typically we try to give Lilah something that will last, that she can look back on, in future years, and say, "I got this for my Fall dance 2015 recital!" So...she also received an "I love you" locket. We have yet to put pictures in it, but daddy of course received ALL of the credit.