Ella's first school recital

Yesterday we attended the Happy Hearts dinner at Ella's preschool. It's the big fundraiser event that her school has every year. There's a spaghetti dinner, a silent auction, and then all the children perform.

Okay, let me start off by saying that we almost didn't even go to this. I can't believe that we almost missed out on this amazing event in my child's life. Shame on me for almost missing it. Well, we had no idea that all of the kids were going to perform. We just thought it was a spaghetti dinner and a silent auction. Neither Chris or I are big fans of spaghetti and it's not like we need to be buying anything. So, there really was no reason to go. Until a couple of days ago when I got an email from Ella's school mentioning the kids would be singing. What!?! The kids are going to be singing! We were so going to be there. No way was I going to be missing this! Chris quickly changed his flight so that he would be able to go. (He actually almost didn't make it due to the bad weather we were having. He got there with about ten minutes to spare.) We called Mimi and Papa (that's my parents) and there was no way they were going to miss it either.

So, during the days leading up to event, Chris and I had pretty low expectations. We know that Ella is pretty quite at school and she gets a little scared around people she doesn't know. So, we figured that she would just stand up there and not really do much. Well, shame on me for not having higher expectations of my daughter. She way exceeded my expectations and then some. She was awesome! And I'm not just saying that because she's my daughter. Well...yes I am. I really was surprised and so were her teachers. She did so great. All the kids did a great job. I mean, what's not cute about a bunch of kids singing songs.

I know this is a little off topic but I was just looking at this picture and is it just me or is that little boy standing next to Ella really tall for a 3 year old! Wow, he's tall! He's not in her class so I don't know who he is. The four kids to the right of Ella are all her classmates.

And I don't want to forget sweet little Madeleine. She surprised us too. She was pretty attentive despite pouring raisins onto my parents laps every couple of minutes. But she definitely recognized Ella when she got up to sing and even yelled out "Ella" pronounced "A-ya".

Some of the items of the silent auction were created by the children at Ella's school. Each of the classes, created something that everyone could bid on. Ella's class made the following item. Ella's hand is on the 4. Someone bought it for $75.00.

It was such a great night. And for Chris to be there and my parents were able to to make it made it just that much more special. I've been sitting here for the past thirty minutes trying to fully capture in words how I felt about the night. I guess this is what being a parent is all about. To see your child up there - in front of all these people - singing her little heart out. My heart just filled with love and pride for my girl. It was just one of those great mommy moments and something that I will never forget.

So, you'll have to check back tomorrow to see Ella in action and see what songs she sang.