Bella's haircut

It finally happened... Bella cut her own hair.

It was bound to happen. All kids do it, right? Well, she came from our upstairs bathroom afater brushing her teeth telling me that the barrettes did it. Did what I ask...then I see it.

SHORT pieces of hair above both sides of her ears. She literally cut the barrettes out! (now, she usually pulls them out which BREAKS her hair...not much better, but it looks awful!) We tell her that she has to go to bed without "rocking" because she's ruined her hair (real dramatic, right?).

She gets in bed and starts crying saying she is NOT going to school ANY MORE because everyone will think her hair is ugly! I calm her down by sayin that I can disguise it with 2 pony tails. She says ok and that she will 'never' take them out so no one can see it.

Oh my...

Last week of Summer Vacay!

The last week before school started for us, we tried to plan it with a lot of activities! First, Bella had her choreography clinic to learn her jazz dance. Adorable!!! Then, the next day, Liv had lyrical choreography clinic where she learned her AWESOME lyrical dance! (SUPER excited about that one!!!)



On Wednesday, we went to the Overbrook pool with the Wooten's. Bella and Jace were cracking us up with that big dragon float!






Then we took Liv to meet her teacher at LISA Academy and I went from there to a photo shoot. The next day, the kids had a great time in the pool (as almost every day!)







Then on Friday, it was Hayden's last day to work at Larry's pizza before going off to college. We went to see him, and the girls got really lucky with the tickets! Bella got over 400!






Just before we were leaving, a girl went up to Hayden and gave him a hug bye. Bella saw it and blurted out, "Who is THAT?" His family (which was sitting a few tables over) heard her and died laughing! Hayden thought it was hilarious that Bella was jealous...

On Saturday, we kept Cooper for the morning and Renea, Kenny and Sydney came over for lunch and played for a bit. I took Coop home for a nap and Kenny stayed to play with the girls for a while. That evening, I took Olivia to go with them, the Pate's Karen Bowren and Shannon to see Step Up 3D. It was really good!

Then on Sunday, we had to be up at the dance studio to sign up for duets and solo lessons. Luckily, I got the day we wanted ... Thursdays. (since Bella will be up there anyway)

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!!