Dance like a lion

Molly has been taking dance classes for three years now. We're not doing competition, and she's not a mini Ginger Rodgers or anything, but she has a good time. Plus, this year, I scheduled her to be in the same class as Melese, my friend Terah's daughter. It worked out quite perfectly because Terah and I could hang out for an hour each week while the girls danced. Sometimes we would bring our younger daughters (Sydney and Charlotte) to play, and sometimes we'd just sit in the car and talk for an hour.

But, as most dance classes do, this one ended in a recital in June. We drove up to Lawrence a couple weeks ago for the big event. The theme was a showbiz theme, and Molly's class danced to music from The Lion King. So, of course, they had to dress up like lions. These costumes dropped feathers like there was no tomorrow. I had piles of them around my house, so I made a rule that the costume could only be put on at the recital and rehearsal.

Backstage at the recital is always crazy, but once the girls got dressed with their makeup, I made Molly and Melese pose for a picture.

Molly as the Lion King.

Two adorable lions.

They had dress rehearsal first, then a break, then the recital. We are allowed to get up close to get pictures during the dress rehearsal. Unfortunately, I still don't really know how to use all the functions on my camera, so the pictures aren't the greatest.


I've got to make a confession, here. The costumes and hair pieces made it incredibly difficult to figure out which girl was which on stage. I may have inadvertently taken pictures of the wrong girl a couple times. Whoops. Mom of the year award over here.

Molly is in the middle.

And on the right.

With her hand up.

They did a second little dance in the same outfit as all the other dancers in the studio. If you thought I had trouble figuring out who Molly was in her other dance ...

Charlotte did a great job sitting for the dress rehearsal. A lot of the other dances were princess dances, so she got to see Belles, Snow Whites, and Ariels. She really liked that part. But, by the time the actual recital came, she completely passed out. Slept through almost the whole thing. Good thing Papa came along to hold her.

During the recital itself.

She's on the far right.

After the recital, we gave her flowers and posed for pictures with all the members of her posse who had traveled to Lawrence to cheer her on.

Molly with Mom and Dad.

Mommom and Daddad came to watch her.

So did Kristin and Marilyn!

Papa came and held Charlotte. Charlotte wanted nothing to do with pictures and just wanted to keep sleeping.

The recital was adorable, as were the hundreds of little kids in costumes. It always reminds me of my days in the dance world, and I loved seeing Molly up there, even if I did have the Lion King songs stuck in my head for days before and after.

I included the video for anyone who wants to watch. It's super hard to tell who's who in it. We've ordered the professional video, but it's not here yet. Molly is the fourth from the right in the beginning line. Then, she's on the far right in the second line up. Despite the grainy quality, I still think it's pretty cute. But, I'm also a little biased.