Kate's First Musical! (aka A Diva in Training)

What a fun post to write:) A few weeks ago, Kate was asked if she wanted to be a part of a special group of girls from her dance studio that would perform in the Mauston High School production of Shrek the Musical. I was a little nervous, mainly about the extra practices/time commitment, but we decided it would be okay and Kate was very excited! 

She was the youngest in the group, there were two five-year-olds, including Kate, and then older girls. She had to learn a new tap routine in just a couple weeks and I was really impressed with how quickly she had it down! Her main issue was just watching the others and being distracted by the actors but I think that is just fine for 5 years old! I was able to go and watch her first practice at the school on stage and it was pretty crazy to observe the practice:) I had the feeling we weren't going to witness any budding stars of Broadway, but it was super cute. 

Play practice! Kate is in black leotard, pink shorts and white tights.

Dave and I diligently helped her practice (if only you could have seen that!) and she made all the practices and even the dress rehearsal they did for the elementary schools (had to pull her out of preschool to get her to Mauston). She was dying to see the whole performance and never wanted to leave their practices with the high schoolers, so I was super happy that we took her out of school to do the dress rehearsal and then they were able to watch the whole thing as well. 

The performances were Friday night, Saturday night and a Sunday matinee. I can't believe we had the weekend totally open for this! I wanted to watch her performance and so we lined up a sitter for the boys for the opening night. If I wasn't nervous enough for Kate, I was also worrying about leaving 9 week old Ayden at home with a sitter! 

No nerves on the way to her first night!

Dave and I had a date! ps- the cookies were amazing

Her name in the program! I was so flipping nervous....

I let Kate put on some eye shadow and lipstick for the performance, which she loved of course. We dropped her with her dance teacher and went to sit down. They finished getting her ready backstage and so I wasn't even sure what she was going to look like. I kept checking the playbill to see how many more songs until she came out:) I was a total dork. 

When the song started (they didn't come out right away) I think I audibly squealed. She was so flipping cute! I did take a few photos with my phone and Dave videotaped it. I already hate this scenario....I want the photos/video from these things but you can't watch the performance with your full attention while documenting it. I remember my parents saying the same thing when they would try to tape my performances. 

The "mice"
Kate is in the back row, between sets (black background)

She did really pretty well with her routine, she didn't smile during the performance which we kept telling her to do. I think she looked around at everything/one else a lot, I'm sure that will come with time. At the end, they go through a tunnel and do a big jump thing and we told her to really smile then. She was the first mouse through the tunnel and she did smile right then at least:)

Kate by the Pied Piper

The whole musical was fun. The singing wasn't perfection but it was really funny and I was so glad we went. At the end, the "mice" came out for the curtain call and then stayed on stage and danced with everyone to "I'm a Believer" and danced in the aisles. So fun. And she really enjoyed that part. 

Meeting her out in the lobby. More squealing from Mommy...
I'm sure she is already embarrassed by me:)

Flowers from Daddy;) She loved them

And some ice cream from Culver's!

For Saturday's performance, Dave ran her down and had a "backstage pass"  and then took her home right after her performance. She was a little mad about missing the curtain call, but the show ran way too late to have her up two nights in a row! Thank goodness the Sunday show was a matinee. When I picked her up on Sunday, she was pretty ready to go home, but I think that was mostly driven by hunger:) 

Kate, front middle

The group "backstage"

It was a pretty exhausting weekend for her, she has been sleeping in a bit but she definitely loved it. Her big dance recital is on Saturday, May 2 in the same high school auditorium. She will perform a ballet routine and a tap routine. Then we are off from dance for the summer (Dave and Erin rejoice!) 

I asked Kate what her favorite part of Shrek was and she responded, "That I'm in it." Oh good grief....

Here is her performance from the first night!