Tiny Dancer

Ivy had been telling me that she wanted to take ballet for a while and I finally signed her up for a summer dance camp in June.  She was so excited to go to the store and pick out a leotard and ballet slippers.  I was a ballerina growing up so this was a very special moment for me and when I tried that leotard on her in the store.....well I got a little bit teary eyed.

I really didn't think that I would ever sign Ivy up for ballet because she doesn't strike me as a ballerina.  She's very energetic and LOUD and I just thought she would want to do other stuff.....like run marathons...while shouting as loud as she could.  But she very clearly asked for ballet so we're giving it a shot.

And as you can see she was very anxious to show off her moves before she even went to the first day of camp.

She went for five days of a princess themed camp and she loved every second of it! They had a little performance on the last day of the camp and Ivy was so excited when I walked in. It made my heart swell.

Our next door neighbor Mea went to the camp with her and they were so funny to watch together.

For the most part Ivy was more concerned with making sure that I was watching her than with actually paying attention to the dances she was suppose to be doing. She did pretty good once she quit worrying about me until they were walking around the room and the strap to her princess crown broke....and then she fell to pieces.

She had a blast but I wasn't overly impressed with teacher or the school. So when she still wanted me to sign her up for ballet in the fall I took her to the ballet school that I went to years and years ago. It was strange feeling walking back in that place. I never thought I would set foot in there again and it was a surreal moment when I walked into a room that I use to dance in every week. It still looked exactly the same and it even smelled exactly the same. The only difference was that I had Ivy standing next to me.

Ivy had a lot of fun but was not in the mood to take any pictures so I only have this one with her teacher. But she said she had fun. And I can't wait until this spring when she gets to dance in the same production that I did as a kid!