Dance, dance baby

Sophie started taking dance lessons this year -a jazz/ballet/tap class at a school here in Eagan. I looked for a very long time to try and find a place for her to take dance lessons and visited a lot of the local schools. It is kind of shocking to see what is out there and what kind of moves the schools are teaching young girls!! When visiting, I looked at the costumes of the former classes and I bluntly asked if their jazz classes included "pole dancing for 5 year olds". We finally found a place that seemed fine and Sophie has loved her class every week.

This was our first experience with a dance recital, and it was quite the eye opener! The costumes are EXPENSIVE - I now know why moms look positively green when I buy their used costumes for a dollar or two at a yard sale! There are dress rehearsals and photos and everything done in full make-up and hair. The recital itself was almost 3 1/2 hours long! Sophie did a great job though she tends to be very concerned about whether or not the girl next to her is in the right spot and often we could hear her trying to push the girl into the right place! I actually have some video of the dances, but they are too big to put up - I need some computer help with them!

This is Sophie and Sydney, a friend of hers from church who attends the same dance school. She was very sweet and shared her flowers with Sophie! We gave Sophie a necklace with a real beetle inside of it for her congratulations gift. She named the beetle "brownie", because it is brown.