Samantha's 1st dance recital

 Being silly in her tap costume.

 She was not sure how to pose when she took her actual dance pictures earlier in the year, but she has this pose and the hand on the hip pose down now!

 With her flowers after the finale. BTW, my brother designed and made the shirts.  So cute! He is super talented.

 With her dance teacher.

 Opening presents at home.

In her robe in between numbers with her new stuffed fish from Atlantis.

Samantha started dance last year and she loved it! She started with a 4 week summer class and then went right into a regular class.  It just so happened that she was in class with 3 classmates of hers at Pre-K, so needless to say, she loved that!  Her recital was on June 9th.  She had two dances and costumes - ballet and tap.  Tap was up 1st.  The theme was destination dance so all of the dances represented a different place.  Samantha's were New York and Italy.  She danced to Start Spreading the News for tap and Bella Noche for ballet.  I'll admit I got a bit teary when she went on stage.  She looked so cute and she actually danced.  Her teacher was backstage and all the girls looked to her to make sure they were doing the right moves.  Right after that dance, the dads did a dance with the girls.  Brian wasn't very excited about it, but it wasn't long at all and it was really cute.  Some other dads had it much worse in the Hawaii dance when they had to freestyle hula.  Sam also did great for her ballet routine.  I will say being a dance mom is stressful -  having to change costumes, go backstage, cover up, etc.  But the revue was great and was not too long.  The dance school is fairly new and not very crowded, which is really nice.  The owner is the main teacher and her daughter and sister help teach. They also danced in the revue a lot and Sam loved that!  

Afterwards, Samantha got some presents including roses, a Belle doll, a tea set, a ballerina necklace, picture frame and doll, a book to record her 1st year of dance and a stuffed ballerina bear.  Thanks to Mimi, Pops, Nannie, Uncle David, Aidan, Granny and Paw-Paw! Unfortunately, my niece's revue was on the same night so Brian's parents had to split up and each go to a different revue and my sister-in-law couldn't make Sam's revue, but everyone has since seen the video :)

And for her 1st year of dance, Samantha got a good attendance medal and a trophy for selling ads (by selling candy :))  She LOVES her 1st trophy!

And lastly, Avery had her very 1st babysitter that was not family that night! I wasn't sure how long the revue would last and it didn't start until 6, which is right around dinner, bath and bed time.  Avery's sitter was from the gym we go to.  There is one girl there that she will always go to and doesn't cry with and she was free that night.  She did great! Samantha was a little upset that she couldn't stay with the sitter too, so we'll have to use her again soon!  She went back to school, but when she works at the gym, the girls get so excited and go right to her.  She is so sweet.  Avery didn't like the gym at 1st, but she has gotten used to it.  Over the summer, she was used to Sam being with her, but now that Sam is back in school, Avery gets upset sometimes when I leave her.  But not when her sitter is there!