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.