Group dance made the web!

Olivia's group dance Falling Slowly, made the competition's website as their pick for a primary-level dance.

Here's the link:

Falling Slowly

Brian, the patient

Brian has been complaining about his wisdom teeth for some time now. I added him to my dental insurance this year, and figured we would have him looked at to see about having the teeth taken out. A friend from church is an oral surgeon, and so he was able to get Brian in last month for a consultation. As we suspected, 3 needed to be taken out.

Yesterday was the day of the surgery. I took off to drive and take care of him. The surgery was set for 9 am, and we were walking out of there at straight up 10:00. I just have to say, he was hilarious! He kept telling me how loopy he felt and kept asking me the same questions every time he saw me (like, how did I get up the stairs? Did the dr. tell you about drinking out of a straw?)

He has an ice pack wrap that he is supposed to keep around his head for 36 hours. All in all, he is doing much better than I thought he would though. I don't remember much of anything from the first few days after mine were taken out, and he is up watching movies and folding laundry! However, he did say that he is much more uncomfortable today than yesterday. I told him that was to be expected...

Here's a pic of him sleeping yesterday with the ice wrap. Poor baby!

Kids Artistic Review 2010

This past competition, Olivia did not dance until Sunday...and she danced ALL DAY LONG! Because we knew it would be a long day, we arranged for Belle to spend the night with my mom on Saturday night and to stay with her throughout the day.

Her solo went on about 8:30 (and this time, we did NOT forget her skirt!). Once again, she did incredibly well! When awards came, Olivia received a Top First award (the highest for the primary division), and came in 7th in the top 15! There were 30 solos total for ages 8 & under and we were thrilled with her placement for only her second time to compete a solo!



Then, it was time for her and Kenny's duet. They went on close to the end of the category, and also received a top first award (and highest point total in their division of tap). Then, when the top 10 were announced, they were announced as being second...but we have since found out that they TIED for first place with Lost (another duet from our studio). Since this competition broke tied scores based on technique scores and the other duet had a higher score by 1/2 point, they were announced as the winner. But it was so very exciting to know that we actually tied. Olivia was SO excited. Their hard work has paid off. Olivia and Kenny also received an invitation to New York to the KAR Kids program. How cool!










When it came to small groups, Jump Shout Boogied looked good, but not quite as good as I thought it did last time. It received a top first award, and came in fifth over all. It also got a special judges award of **** Our group's hip-hop (which Olivia is not in) came in second, and received most entertaining. The judges were loving it!



That evening, large groups were warming up, and it was obvious that the kids were getting tired. Not all of them, but most of the ones that had been there all day. Olivia was hyper as ever! LOL.







Jazz was first and looked fantastic. Then, it was tap (looked pretty good), and lyrical (looked great). After lyrical was over, I decided we needed to leave. I was not going to stay for awards because it was 6:30 pm and I hadn't seen Bella since the day before. It was a school night and I was BEAT!!!

I heard later that evening that tap came in 4th, jazz came in 2nd (and received most entertaining), and lyrical won. It was a VERY long and exhausting day, but as always...lots of fun!

I took pics at the awards ceremonies I need to post, but also, we purchased pics from the competition during the dances, but the CDs are being mailed to Renea so I'll post those when I get them. There are some GREAT ones to share!

DONE...DONE...DONE!!!!!

My BIG ESL project from the graduate academy this past summer had to be completed and postmarked by 3/1...so Monday afternoon, I was at the post office mailing my project! I was so happy it was finished...I just HAD to take a picture of it before dropping it in the slot! WooHoo!!!

Bella and the BIG bike

Isabella has been eyeing big girl bikes for some time now. The problem is, her legs are too short! Well, Brian decided to take the girls on a bike ride on Sunday afternoon because the weather was (finally) beautiful, and I needed to be working on my ESL project. So, after church, he put the training wheels back on Olivia's little bike and lowered the seat all the way down. We tried her on the bike, and her legs BARELY are long enough!

So, after Olivia's private lesson with Angel, Bella put on her helmet and tried out the big bike. She did not find it nearly as much fun as she thought it would be, and tired of it easily...but she was still proud of herself. I got some cute shots of her real quick before she came inside.

Hall of Fame '10

We went to Hall of Fame dance competition this past weekend. It was insane! All of Olivia's dances were within 3 1/2 hours of each other! And that wasn't the only drama...

Olivia did her very first solo Jailhouse Rock for the first time. I was so nervous because of her turn (I didn't want her to fall...). Not only was it her first time, but she was the 7th dance of the morning! So that meant we had to be at the Robinson Auditorium at 7:15...which meant we had to get up at 5:30 to get completely ready to leave by 7 (and allow extra time to get those contacts in!). WELL...we were in SUCH a rush, that we ran off and left Olivia's skirt for her solo costume AT THE HOUSE! I realized it in the elevator of the Robinson. I called Brian (who had dropped us off to find a parking spot) and he ran back to the house. He was literally going 90 MPH to make it back to competition in time. I was completely freaked out!! Olivia had already gone backstage with Jamie and Hannah (also doing her solo for the first time) when I met Brian outside to get the skirt! I ran back behind the curtain, pinned the skirt on as Abbey was on stage!! I went out in the audience and FELL APART crying! Talk about stressful! But the solo itself...it went well. She nailed her turn and she looked really good.




Then, it was off to change for large group dances. Falling Slowly was first (no good pictures of Liv so we didn't buy them),then Soul Man,



and Takin' Care of Business.



This was the first time for Takin' Care of Business to perform. It looked great. After that, it was a fast costume change into the red dress for Jump Shout Boogie (my MOST FAVORITE dance!). That was small group tap and Olivia had been picked as the one to get the award for that one this year. I love it because it is so fun, but also, it is a HARD dance! The fact that these little 7-year-olds can do toe-stand turns, etc. blows my mind!




Awards were about 11:00 or so. Her solo got a High Gold award, Falling Slowly a High Gold, Soul Man and Takin' Care of Business both got a Platinum! In the top 4, Soul Man came in first, Taking Care of Business came in second. They won $150 for large group jazz. Then, for small groups, Jump Shout Boogie also got a Platinum award (but I am honestly NOT surprised...it is just that good. LOL), and they also won $150 for small group tap.

We bought the cd of pictures with a few other moms. Aren't they good?

Bye, Bye Glasses!

Olivia went to the eye dr. last Wednesday to get contacts. I had called and asked about the one-day contacts he mentioned at our appointment last November because she had gone through one competition seeing what she called "gingerbread people" on stage. I was told she could not get the one-day contacts after all due to her astigmatism. So...regular aspherical contacts it was!

At first, the nurses put the contacts in her eyes, and Liv loved them. She had to sit in the waiting room for a bit to let her eyes adjust and wait for the dr. After he checked them out, she was taken into a room to learn how to take them out and put them back in. THAT is where the problem started...

We were in the dr.'s office for a total of 2 1/2 hours...and the nurses were wonderful! They were so patient and did not ever seem frustrated with Olivia AT ALL! One nurse (I think she was the dr's wife...) even took a pair of rarely-prescribed contacts and put them on her knuckles to let Olivia practice pulling them off to simulate her movements needed to take them out. This same nurse ended up giving us her home number in case we had problems getting them out that night!

When we left the office, Liv still did not know now to put them in nor take them out. However, by the next night, she was ready to try again and learned how to take them out on her own! Even now, she has problems putting them in, but can take them out without any problem at all! They certainly helped with competition this past weekend! Yea!

Big Surprise! I guess I can share this now...

Last month, I had dinner with my mom and sister at Dixie Cafe. While I was there, I was handed this card by my sister.



At first, I didn't understand the front of the card, but then I opened it up and read it...



I was so excited! I can't wait to have another baby in the family!!!

Out again...

We were surprised to wake up this morning to a few inches of SNOW! Real SNOW! Yea! Schools were out, businesses closed, and the snow continued to fall throughout the day! The girls went outside to play, and Brian used the trash can lid as a make-shift sled for them! They had a blast...but only lasted out there about 10 minutes before wanting to come inside again. Ha!












We tried going to lunch, but Larry's was closing up when we got there. So, we headed to Chili's. We got stuck one time going up a hill, but edged through it... While eating, the snow kept falling, then changed to rain, then back to snow. It is so beautiful! I wish we would have a snow like this once every year!

I hear we are supposed to get more snow this evening, and it isn't supposed to get above freezing tomorrow. I wonder if we will be home from school again....

Showbiz, first competition of the year

Only three of Olivia's dances went to Showbiz this past weekend. It was her duet with Kenny, Love Shack (a few changes from last year and the new costumes received right before regionals), the large group lyrical Falling Slowly, and the large group jazz Soul Man. However, we had gotten to the competition early enough to see our studio's solos. We saw Sydney, Kenny (2), Abbey (2), Mary Ellen (2), and Amber (2). They all received at least one High Point Diamond First! Then, Kenny got Mr. Showbiz (entertainer) for 8 & under, Abbey got first runner up for Ms. Showbiz for 8 & under, and Sydney got Ms. Showbiz for the junior age division. Then, Mary Ellen received a costume award. It was a great afternoon for our studio!

Because Kenny had won Mr. Showbiz, he received a gift card of $50 for the gift shop at the competition. He bought Olivia a stuffed bear with a showbiz shirt that she picked out. It was SO sweet of him! Liv loves her bear!






When Liv and Kenny performed, we were so excited! Their steps were in order, but Liv's personality wasn't as big as she'd done before. I realized later that her cold had affected her energy level, but they still did awesome, receiving a High Point Diamond First and coming in second place in the Petite division! Abbey and Gage performed Lost and they also got a Diamond, and came in first. So, our studio did awesome on the first day of competition...we couldn't WAIT to see how the groups would do on Sunday.




Falling Slowly performed first, and I was literally almost in tears...they were so together and clean with that dance! I was proud of them all! Then, Soul Man went on about an hour later, and it was really cute! The costumes were adorable!! During awards, there were only 3 Diamonds given out for the Petite division, and we received 2 of them! When the top 7 were announced for Petites, we received 3rd for Soul Man, and 1st for Falling Slowly! That dance also received a choreography award! What a great way to start out our competition season!!

(sorry, these were taken with my phone so they are pretty dark...)