All she wants to do is dance, dance!

Maddie started a dance class at the YMCA this week. It is quite possibly the cutest and most enjoyable thing I've ever witnessed. We went shopping this week for the necessary accoutrements. I was a little freaked out when I realized that I would be shelling out about $150 for everything if I bought it at retail price (I mean c'mon - she's 3...who knows if she'll even want to go to class is 2 weeks).
Here is what we needed to get:
1 pair of tap shoes
1 pair of ballet slippers
1 or 2 leotards
1 or 2 pair of tights
possibly a skirt (many of the little girls were wearing them over their leotards and Maddie really wanted one)
bag to carry all of the crap listed above (again, there were oodles of pretentious pink bags with names like "Hannah" and "Courtney" embroidered on them.)

So after checking ebay and almost winning a few auctions (I wasn't going to pay too much for something I couldn't see or have her try on) I decided we would head over to Once Upon A Child. Now I have some issues with this store. First of all, the customer service sucks. Also, the clothes are generally overpriced for used clothing. Occasionally you can find a bargain., but anything name brand is marked up. It does save time if you aren't into thrift store shopping, but I enjoy heading out to the Fox Valley Thrift Store and picking through the crap to find the diamonds. However, I figured that Once Upon A Child would be better for finding specific dance-related items. Also, the children's section of the thrift store is a little seedy. 'nuff said.

So we go to Once Upon A Child and within 5 minutes I found tap shoes that fit her perfectly, 2 adorable leotards that looked virtually unused and a new pair of cotton tights. I spent $14. AWESOME! I also have the perfect fabric to make her a skirt and am already halfway done sewing the kick-assest (yes, it's a word) dance bag to hold her things. I will post pictures of both when they are finished. We stopped by Walmart and found ballet slippers for $5. They aren't the perfect Capezio brand leather ones, but they have leather soles and they are made by Danskin so I was more than happy.

You know what? Someone else was happy, too. :)