Madeline's last dance recital

Maddy loves dancing. And we love watching her dance. 

But she has been asking for a really long time to be able to stop dancing at the dance studio. 

She just doesn't like having to go out at night after being in school all day long, doing homework, dinner, chores, etc. I totally understand that. She also told us that while she has fun once she is there, she doesn't look forward to it but that if it was an art class she would love going all the time. 

So we decided to let her quit dance and we are looking into art classes for her instead. 

This month we had her last dance recital. 

The costume for the winter recital is a rental so we change into it once we are at the school. 

So here she was all ready to go with her hair and makeup done. 

When we got to the location for the recital, my parents, Doug, and Abigail went in to get our seats while I took Maddy back to the staging room for her class (and a few others). 

There I was able to get her into her costume and wait with her until it was almost time for the show to start. 

She kept practicing her dance by herself because no one in her class arrived until a few minutes beforehand. 

I didn't take a video of the actual performance (just pictures) so here is a video of her practicing).

And here is her class coming onto the stage. 

Maddy is the last one on the right. 

Afterward I went back to help her out of her costume and then brought her to where everyone was waiting for us. My parents got her a rose. 

Afterward we went to ice cream as usual. 

We will miss seeing her in the recitals but we see her dance through life every day at home so that won't change.

Abigail's Adopt a Beanie Boo birthday Party: The actual party

While we were waiting for the arrivals, Madeline got busy coloring at the table.

Pretty soon the kids were arriving and everyone was coloring. 

When the last child arrived we gave them a few more minutes to finish up their pictures and then we went to the adoption station. 

We wanted it to be somewhat fair and not a free for all, so Abi wrote down each person's name on a sheet of paper and then pulled them out of a bowl. The order in which they came out of the bowl is the order they got to pick their animal. 

This was a huge hit. All the kids (except Henry, who decided he was going to adopt it for his little sister) loved the stuffed animals!

I love this picture of Maddy showing her Corgi to Henry because... well I will get to that in a minute. 

 We did the bowl and piece of paper idea at each station.

Decorating their carriers...

Abi went first to check out her animal's health. 

Maddy was last at this station. 

I loved watching her do this. 

She loved it so much. It made me wonder why we hadn't had a doctor kit before now!

As soon as everyone was done with the stations, it was time for cupcakes and ice cream. 

Abi asked for cupcakes with pink and blue frosting and two big candy eyes. 

After cupcakes and ice cream she opened her gifts. 

We still had about twenty minutes before parents would show up so they went outside in the backyard to play. It was so great that it was warm enough that they could do this!

They had a lot of fun. 

While they were outside we noticed that Maddy was sticking pretty close to Henry. 

Afterward Doug decided to tease her by asking, "Do you have a crush on Henry?"

She surprised us by saying, "Yes. I want to marry him."

We came back in as the kids started to leave. 

Those that were left just sat around the room and talked. 

She has a really good group of friends that are all funny, smart, polite, nice kids. I love that. 

Maddy played with the doctor set some more. 

Abi and her friend Elena were sharing secrets. I love seeing her have such good friends. Friends that I would pick for her if I could! 

It was such a fun birthday party!