First Baton Performance

 Allyson age 4, Mommy age 3

Ally had her first baton performance with her group in the Brownsburg 4th of July Parade. There were 7 girls from the group that participated between the ages of 4 and 12. Ally was the youngest and this was the first real appearance for the newly formed Starlight Twirlers. A connection from Purdue went out on her own to start a baton twirling group right in Brownsburg so Ally started taking lessons for fun with her in January. She is learning a lot and having a great time, especially now that there are two other girls close in age that all go at the same time. All of the girls are at the novice/beginner level but they are having fun and Miss Veronica is providing a lot of great opportunities for the girls to get started with competitions. I judged a small contest she hosted earlier this year and Ally is looking forward to competing very soon.

Ally was very excited to have her very own costume with tights and special shoes. She talked non-stop about the parade asking 1001 questions each day leading up to it. She then asked about a billion more when we arrived to get lined up. She was so excited to get started! The route was 1.8 miles starting at the high school and ended near a large park in town. The two littlest girls rode in a convertible for the first street but got in line and marched the majority of it. There were so many people watching, every street was packed. Everyone was so nice and cheered for the girls but it was definitely a distraction to them that they weren't exactly prepared for. Ally spent a lot of time looking at the people and would get farther and farther behind from the group and forget what she was supposed to be doing. Sort of comedy to watch but made it tough to get any good video. I walked along with the group to help and watching her was really fun for me. The whole day brought back a lot of memories and I certainly never expected how fun it would be to watch my own child enjoy doing something that I love so much. All of the girls did a great job and Ally had so much fun! She thinks she is now competition-ready but we will keep working on her skills and shoot for something more in the fall. I wish all of our family could have been there to see it but the video and photos will have to do.