Ballet Recital

Wednesday was ML's ballet recital.  Big Daddy's "Maryland" brother (you have to keep track of them by state and country when you're one of 5 kids! :-) was in town for one night only as well, so we had a special dinner to celebrate.

I really loved how this trim I had in my ribbon stash looked on the marshmallow 'stand.'

Flowers from the front garden:

After a yummy dinner of grilled chicken and Chick Fil A chicken nuggets (per ML's request of course!)  we were off to the ballet.

ML holding the chetah my parents gave her before her performance to distract her from her nerves.  So sweet!

We had to wait about 30 minutes in the 'green room' before they went on stage:

I love this picture I snapped on my cell while they were waiting to 'take the stage' for the first time since rehearsal:

While we were waiting those 30 minutes the 'big' girls in Company were dancing Act 2 of Swan Lake.  I didn't get to see much of it (just the last 2 songs from the side of the stage, but Big Daddy said it was amazing):

And then my little ballerina was on!

There were two moms back stage.  The other mom and I decided that I would stand on the right side of the stage and 'shoo' them onto the stage at the right time.  The other mom would stand on the left side of the stage to gather them when they came off of the stage (they were supposed to exit towards the left.)  Well, when ML finished dancing she was on the right side of the stage, so she just ran to me.  But I knew she was supposed to exit toward the left, so I sent her back across the stage to the rest of the girls.  It was so CUTE and everyone in the audience laughed at the sight of this tiny ballerina running across the stage to join the rest of her class.  Luckily, ML didn't hear them laughing or I think she might have been embarrassed.  I probably should have just kept her with me, but at that moment I just thought "you're supposed to go to the other side!"  Ha!  It was the cutest moment though!

After the recital we took a couple of pictures with friends who came to see ML dance:

It was a great night!