Our little ballerina twirled away in her first recital on May 15! That morning practice was at the recital hall- a hall mind you, that seats 4oo. Having never done this before I thought that seemed a little extravagant for a child’s ballet recital. We were to arrive 30 minutes prior to curtain and we wondered on the way over what we would do for that 30 minutes while we waited. Well- it turned out we would use it finding a seat! The hall was packed! That morning when we arrived for practice Zuzu was feeling a little shy and showed that she is indeed my little apple seed as she stood in line on stage leaning over and whispering to me in the front row that she had to go potty. Again, and again, and again. She made it through though and was a real trooper. That morning we learned that dancers bring their teachers gifts to the final recital practice. Ooops.

That evening after we dropped her backstage and found seats next to some folks we knew we just soaked in the Quail’s enjoyment of a night out on the town. Going to shows, storytime, pottery painting; anything that requires sitting still and listening for longer than 30 seconds has just not been our ideal as a family. Zuzu is a free spirit. She likes to run and holler and leap and play. So it hadn’t occurred to us how much the Quail might enjoy this setting. She sat proudly on our laps greeting each neighbor that sat down with a smile and a wave. When the house lights came down and the stage lights started circling she was delighted. The sparkly costumes gleamed, the girls glowed and the Quail clapped and cheered along with everyone else.

When Zuzu’s class came on it was definitely one of the big “awwwwwww” inducers from the crowd. There is nothing cuter than a stream of 3 year olds decked out in their glittery tutus. Although Zuzu was a little more focused on her steps this evening she did spend a fair bit of the time with her hand shielding the lights from her eyes so she could locate us better. Unfortunately due to our arriving only 30 minutes prior to the show we were in the nosebleed section and couldn’t actually locate us.  She was darling nonetheless. All the little fishies did their swim, swim, swim. And when it was over she came flying into our waiting arms and exclaimed the two prominent thoughts on her mind:

1. “I couldn’t find you anywhere! I looked and looked and looked while I was on stage!” We know Zuzu.

2. “Where are my flowers? Katie has her flowers!” We’re sorry Zuzu, we didn’t know, but we will next year!

She actually glowed with pride after the show was over!We’re sad to see the dance year come to an end. Zuzu was one of the youngest in her class and we worried if she would have the discipline to make it through the fairly focused class. But her teacher is a wonder. She’s been teaching for 54 years (yes, that’s right- 54- you do the math!) and has those children in line, in order, in step and on time. Maddie loved it and although she was incredibly shy about showing us what she learned, she obviously worked hard this past year. We’re so proud of our little prima!