Guitar Recital 2013

Sunday was a huge, huge day for Madison...let me hit rewind first...Madison's new year's resolution for 2013 was to learn how to play the guitar. She's had a toy one for a few years, and well, that was the extent. Our music school starts guitar lessons at age 8...Madison is 5. After stalking Miss Stephanie for about a month, she took Mads in as a student. We got her a Yamaha Jr. acoustic guitar, and started lessons. First she got the stomach bug, then the flu, then a month before recital, she broke her arm. It's been rough! But you know what, she overcame adversity, and proved herself! This was her first time, performing in front of more than us, with a microphone. She did so well! And we are so proud. She is not a protégé, she's not a musical genius, but she is determined and committed to learning!

Audition...Declined

Today was a huge day in Madison's life. She completed her first year of elementary school, and moved from pre-K to kindergarten. We had a wonderful celebration with the entire class and our families. Even our former preschool teachers came to celebrate with us. Daddy decided a sneeze ago to take his big girl camping overnight, at an actual campsite, locally. They've been backyard camping since she finished her first year of preschool, but this is the real thing, for 24 hours.

Low and behold a last minute audition comes in. Ah! And it was the one we were hoping for last week, an audition with her grandpa! However, I let Madison make the decision whether to do audition or go camping. She wanted to do the audition, but that would mean that camping would be a wash, due to the call time. Daddy was cool with not going camping, but the final call was Madison. In the end she chose to go camping with Dad. It was her decision. It was the right decision! Have fun under the stars darling girl.

Dancing Fool!

Madison was been in dance classes since she was 20 months old. We saw fairly early on that our girls have music and the arts running through them. We have never stopped dancing, nor do they want to. Madison has also been with the same ballet teacher since toddlerhood, Miss Nicole Cohen. Nicole sees Mads potential, or at least humors us. This year, the recital dance for ballet was "Stand By Me." As a dance mom, I get to watch from backstage, because I volunteer to help. Watching from the wings has it pros and cons, for one I get to experience it with Miss Nicole. But I don't get to see those gorgeous smiling faces. The audience did "aw" quite a bit and lots of clapping. My husband did say that Madison smiled the whole time, and did not look at the other girls or the teachers once. Yay! What made this a more trying recital, was that Madison was in 2 dances, which is a bit for a 5 year old. But she powered through ballet, then a costume change, and back on stage.

Miss Priscilla Perez is Madison's Hip-Hop Jr. instructor. We started hip-hop last summer to try it out with Miss Tara Babajtis. She loved it and so we stuck with it. There have been real ups and downs in the class for Madison. Her biggest issue is sweating. LOL! However, come recital time, she dawned her "Thriller" costume and stepped out onto that stage, and her fierce. Can a 5 year old be fierce? She nailed that combo. She was unbelievable with her two dances. We had not re-enrolled in Hip-Hop Jr., but as of this morning, she is on the roster for Miss Priscilla once again. And my favorite line from Madison, "Momma, I know what sweating is about. It's about working hard. I want to work hard."

"Everything Has Changed"

Madison really wanted the role! She did her best! Jack is the little boy, who happened to befriend Madison (as seen in the photos), and I'm not sure who the little girl is, but she was perfect for the part on mini-Taylor! I remember seeing her at the audition.

Here is Taylor Swift & Ed Sheeran's new video "Everything Has Changed."

Read: Backstage.Kids

Backstage.Kids