Our little ballerina princess

Our little ballerina stared in her first ballet. She was gracious enough to allow her Mommy/paparazzi to take a photo shoot of her before opening night:

"Isn't She Lovely?"

This was the pose used during the school's photo shoot. A little hum-drum. That's what prompted me to take my own pictures and even add the rose as a prop.

Lauren looks so elegant and graceful in this shot.

These two photos, above and below, are my all time favorites. I have them in frames in my house.

I just wanted to share the portraits that I took of Lauren dressed up in her ballet costume. I was very proud of how well they turned out! Walgreens almost didn't print them out for me becuase they looked professional. It helped that the lady working at the time I picked them up knows me. I am a "regular customer" after all! This is not the first time that has happened, which is flattering to me and my photography skill.

This was her first year to take dance, and she loved it. Naturally, being the girly-girl that she is, Lauren was THRILLED that the tutu was pink. Pink is her all time favorite color of course!

Our little ballerina stared in her first dance recital at the end of May. She had several fans that attended the show: Mommy, Daddy, Uncle Wayne, Aunt Becky, Memmie, Pappy, Jenna, and Mary. She performed two routines: ballet and tap. She did such an outstanding job and was not scared in the least! The name of the song that Lauren performed her ballet routine to was titled, "Isn't she lovely?" The tap routine was performed to, "Animal Crackers." After the show, she was soooo excited and kept commenting about what fun she had and that she couldn't wait to start dance class again in August! In fact, she said, "This was the best night of my life!" Isn't that the cutest thing! Philip and I were both so very proud of her. I couldn't help but cry during her first performance. I guess that I was experiencing so many different emmotions about seeing her up on that big stage: pride, love, joy, happiness, sadness that Philip's parents or both of our grandparents couldn't be seeing this moment, fear that she might get stage fright, admiration, and the list goes on.

It seems that as well as Lauren performed, I feel that tap is more Lauren's style. That was the routine in which she truely shined! My friend Jenna, her mother Mary, and myself all noticed that "spark" in Lauren's eyes when she tapped! Watch out world, we have a little "star" on our hands. Of course, I've always known that seeing as she has always had quite a "big" personality and sense of humor since she was just a few months old! She gets that humor honestly...from both sides of the family!

I am going to enroll her in a pre-jazz class this fall in addition to her ballet/tap class. Although it will stretch out my time waiting in the lobby to 1 1/2 hours, it is all definitely worth it to see her do something that she loves. I am so grateful to the teachers at A.D.U. for doing such an outstanding job this year, not just with Lauren, but with their entire dance school. I am pleased with my choice in dance schools, and I am looking forward to many more exciting years of dance in the future.

Be on the look out for some pics that I took before and after the recital. I will post them at a later date after we return from the beach!