Bella's Brother

I have been forgetting to blog about Bella's brother. He found us back around New Year's... Most of the time, he's older, and has no name. But 'apparently', he is mischevious!! :)

He stays with us for a while and then is gone for a week or two... But he always seems to come back. I wonder how long he will be here this time.

Audition time

The girls had auditions for Rock City on Saturday, July 24. They were to wear all black, hair pulled back, and no make up. Liv was supposed to try out with the petites because she will compete as an 8 year old this year. However, after we arrived, Kristen asked her to stay and audition with the juniors as well. She was SO happy. She did NOT like having to audition with her little sister! ha!

We got the results emailed to us Monday morning. Liv made:

petite sm. gr. lyrical
petite lg. gr. musical theater
junior sm. gr. jazz

Bella made a sm. gr. jazz

Our conference to review the results was Monday afternoon. Kristen said she didn't have a group to put Olivia with for tap in her age range, but wanted to add her into the teen tap group. Olivia was thrilled with this option! We also added a tap duet with a little girl named Hallie (in addition to her musical theater tap solo). Should be a great year!

Summer Intensive at RCDC

Because I was going to be in Las Vegas, Olivia could only attend two days of Summer Intensive at Rock City. She had a great time. Bella enjoyed watching and wanted to go on Friday, so we enrolled her and she had a great time too!

The big change

A HUGE change in our lifes this summer was the decision to change dance studios. We still LOVE the people at NLR...and the decision was NOT an easy one. However, after MUCH thought, prayer, and discussion, we decided it would be best for our family to move to a new studio: Rock City Dance Center.

While we knew it was the right decision for us, it was still hard to do some of the more permenent things...like removing our NLR decal from our car. I had to have Brian do it, so I wouldn't cry... But you KNOW I wouldn't let him do it until I took pictures of it so I can remember it forever... (silly I guess, but remember, I don't handle change well...)

Fun at the Pool

We met up with Jennifer, Abbey and Jace on Wed. the 14th of July at the Overbrook pool. Then we went back to their house for lunch. The kids had a blast!

Talent on Parade National Finals '10

Wednesday, everything kicked into high gear!!! Olivia's solo was that morning so we had to get her dressed and at the convention center by about 9:30... It looked pretty good. Then, we had a break until the others did their solos, and awards were that afternoon. Olivia got an Elite Top First award.

Love Shack performed Thursday. It got a Diamond Elite Top First and was the Category Cup winner for the open category. It looked really good. Their sign looked good, and I was sad to see it on stage for the last time...ever. During awards, it came in 2nd over all.

The next day (Fri.) Olivia had small group tap, Jump Shout Boogie. It was a little traumatic because she fell down during the performance. She hopped right back up and kept dancing, but I could tell she was about to cry (although no one else could tell). As soon as she came off of the stage, she fell apart. She was, however, glad to do the dance again when their dance made the dance off! Olivia did it perfectly that time! They got a Diamond Elite Top First and came in second over all for 8 & under small groups. We were proud!

Large groups were on Saturday. Taking Care of Business was first (at 4 pm). Then after that, it was a quick change into Soul Man (jazz), and then straight into lyrical. Lyrical looked ok, but out of all three, I thought jazz looked the best.

When the dance off was announced, we were shocked that Taking Care of Business got in because lyrical had done so well all year long. So, they had 30 minutes to get changed and get back on stage (and NLR was the first group to dance). Well...the kids got dressed and started to warm up the dance real quick when Olivia's nose started bleeding...a LOT. I ran her to the bathroom, followed by a few other moms. I tried to get her nose to stop bleeding, while others cleaned up her costume. We couldn't seem to get her nose to stop bleeding, and Olivia was beginning to panic (the dance off couldn't start without them). Luckily, the stage guy for TOP, Eric, came to see what was going on (I believe some of the bigger kids ran down to inform them as to what had happened) and he was super nice. He suggested that we put gauze up Olivia's nose so just in case it started bleeding again, it would catch it. He said that if all else failed, she just keep dancing...even if it dripped on the floor--he would clean it up himself.

So, Olivia got on stage and 'I' fell apart due to the stress of the situation! Several parents kept saying what a trooper Olivia was and how that dance should be dedicated to her. Wasn't that nice?

Anyway, she went on stage and KILLED that dance! It looked incredible, but it came in 3rd overall with a diamond elite top first.

One night Olivia went to the Chinese acrobats and one night back to Kirby's magical show... Another day, (actually twice) we discovered a great ice cream place called Orange Leaf. It's a self-serve icecream place. Delicious!!

July 4th... Off to Branson!

After we met up with the Brazil's at the Cheesecake Factory for brunch and cheesecake (of course!) before leaving Kansas and heading to Branson, MO. The girls and I were meeting up with the Fletcher's and the Lee's that afternoon because it was the 4th of July (and the first day of our condo rental...thanks, Scott!)

We arrived to the condo about dinner time, and met up with everyone at the Lee's condo for tacos. Yum! We all hung around there for a bit and then headed out to watch fireworks at Chateau on the Lake. It was really nice (not too hot or 'buggy').








The next day, we woke up for a late breakfast at the Fletcher's and went grocery shopping. We planned on taking the girls swimming that afternoon. There were several pools on the grounds of the condo. Tiffany wanted to try out every pool. We went to the Fletcher's for dinner that night (spaghetti which was amazing!!!).





The next day (Tuesday), shopping was on the agenda! Brian finally was able to come up and brought Angel with him (one of the teenage dance teachers). He met up with the guys at the golf course, and Angel came shopping with us. Kellie, Tiffany, Angel, and the girls all rode with us to the outlet malls. After that, I went back and started working on dinner...it was my night to cook. I made chicken spaghetti, sweet green beans, bread, salad. It was good!






One of the nights, Ken had invited Olivia to go to the Kirby magic show with them like they went to last year. Again, she had a blast!


One of the best things about the codo (and probably the BEST thing the girls liked...) was the jacuzzi tub! It was awesome!! Luckily, we thought about having the girls "play" in it before competition started, because we knew there wasn't really much time for that once Thurs. hit!