Black Eye

Ouch! Every time I look at this picture, I cringe.
Ella's dance competitions have begun for this year (fun dance pics to come later!). At this past weeks competition, Ella went to walk through a wardrobe rack in the dressing room and her back foot got caught and the side of her face landed on a metal bar at the bottom of the rack. I was out of town the couple of days following the fall so this picture doesn't even show it at it's worst. The bruising went all the way to her hairline and up into her forehead. As you can imagine, she was pretty hysterical when it happened and so worried about what everyone was going to think! I was worried about having to put makeup on it the next week. :)
This whole situation actually has a kind of comical back story. Ella's best friend, Austyn, also dances with her. Cute little Austyn has had to get stitches twice this year during performances, once for hitting a wall with her chin in the dressing room and another for running head first into a locker in the dressing room. Because of this, all the girls were banned from playing in the dressing room and running around anywhere. This is super hard for these active gals, especially when there is so much time in between routines. So, when Ella got this black eye, she joined the ranks of the injured dancers. And we are considering putting them in rubber suits and helmets for the next competition!