Father's Day and the continuation of Dance Week

We knew that we had to stay for the entire dance recital, which was predicted to be 3 hours long, so we assumed that the rehearsal would be the same.  Thankfully, it wasn't and we were able to leave after the girls' last dance and head over to my brother's house for a pool/birthday party.






I know folks rave about Puddle Jumpers but these water wings from Walmart (super cheap) do the job. The girls still can't swim on their own but the wings enable them to hold their heads above water while still allowing them to "swim."  (Of course, an adult is always nearby.  We don't use the water wings as a substitute for life jackets.)




My brother's pool is salt water so you better believe that I did not wash the girls' hair that night.  Dirty hair = better braids.



I was nervous about the recital because there were rules and I wasn't quite sure how it was all going to work out.  Mothers were not allowed backstage.  I was very nervous about leaving my kids somewhere "backstage" with strangers.  They are only 5 years old and so small that they need assistance going to the bathroom and there was no way someone else was going to take my kids to the bathroom.  I tend to stress out about these things.

I ended up volunteering to be a "backstage mom" along with another mother from the girls' class.  It all worked out fine.  There was no one there monitoring who was coming and going and the other moms came back here and there.  All of the girls from my girls' class were well behaved and there were no incidents.  I will definitely volunteer to help out again.

Although we weren't supposed to take photos during the recital, moms were taking photos backstage, which was really just the school's cafeteria.  The one negative to my camera is that it costs $1200, which means it needs to be watched and cared for.  I didn't bring it with me because I didn't want to have to worry about.  I was a little bummed out that I couldn't take any pictures.

I expected the girls to be in "play" mode when we finally arrived back home.  Usually, if we've been gone from the house for a good part of the day, they will vigorously and happily play when we return home.  Not that day.  They were a mess and I joined in.  The recital had obviously been draining on all of us.

Emily was crying over nothing at some point so I brought her outside for some photos.  In my head, I was imaging a series of photos of a pouty girl with pouffy hair.  I would call it Fallen Ballerina.

Emily scrunched up her nose and gave me her silly laugh face.




Fake smile.




We brought the girls out for ice cream to congratulate them on a job well done and to celebrate Father's Day.  That's where we bumped into Alicenne LeBlanc, the famous child model/actress/fashion designer.







  

Anna was successful at avoiding the camera that day but I did capture her as she devoured an entire ice cream cone.  You can still see her "eyeburrows" in this picture.  I was laughing over their filled in brows all day and kept calling them Uncle Leo.  (Seinfeld fans will understand.)




So let's talk Father's Day.  Rich is a super awesome dad.  He never once complained that most of the day would be devoted to a dance recital.  He was so proud sitting there in the audience watching his little girls.  He's an awesome dad for many reasons but the one thing that always stands out to me is how much he puts into being a dad.  He doesn't shoo the girls away or tell me that he needs to golf every other weekend.  He's here, he's involved and he loves our girls more than anything.