The Journey of the First Year (Part 4 - December 2014)

So, the Dance Derby competition had finally arrived. First, we had to do a couple of things.

She needed a little extra sparkle...

And she needed her nails done, and to tan up.  We went for her spray tan the morning before her competition, then we stayed the night at a hotel near the event (since paying for her competition was about as much as I could handle about then).  I had made a sparkly tie for Greyson as a joke, because we had extra stones that matched Shara's dress, and Matt ended up wearing it for the competition, though he "lost it" later.  We had to be in the morning of the competition for hair and makeup at 6:30 am, so needless to say, none of us got much good sleep.

Smooth was first.  If I remember right, she only danced about 27 times that day, but we got a break to change clothes partway through.  We did find a beautiful pair of earrings there that looked like they had been made for her dress, so those almost came home with us.  Fortunately, the creator has a policy about loose stones, because at one point, Shara got slapped full on across the face by a dancer (by accident, of course), and it knocked her earring right off.  They got shipped back to us after all the stones were firmly reattached.

(See all of the extra crystals at the neckline?  We did that!)

And my tiny dancer won her first Regional Championship. 

 At which point, it was time to change clothes.  We swapped her to her Latin dress, and she got a small break.

I also learned that I am no professional photographer.  I have since learned to stick to what I'm good at.  Unfortunately, the photographer never bothered uploading the still shots he took of the competition.  That was over six months ago.  There's a reason someone else got the contract to do photographer for our region this year.

Shara Dance Derby December 2014

She took first in Latin in our region, too.  She also walked away with the Top Junior award that night.  I think that one was her favorite because it looked like a little "horsie."

She was so exhausted when we got home, she didn't even take off her makeup and she slept with her hair up.  When we took the pins out the next morning so she could condition it twice, then wash it, we were left with this: