Dance Competition 2022!

 Victoria's been waiting a long time to compete for dance. As I mentioned briefly in the last post, she competed for dance only one time, and then Covid hit. In the last competition, she only competed in the main group number. I was holding off on allowing her to dance in a solo or trio simply because dance competitions are so expensive! For each dance they enter, it's more than a few hundred dollars, not to mention costumes. This being her Junior year, I allowed her to dance in a solo, a trio, and the two large group numbers. So, being her first time competing in a solo and a trio, she was amazing! (Btw, I think trios are much harder than solos because there are only the three dancers to look at and they must be totally on, or it's very noticeable.)

Last weekend, it was the Empire Dance Challenge. It was held at a beautiful high school in Waterford, MI about an hour away. It took place all of Saturday. This was the one my mom came to. Victoria's trio was first and it was lovely. Her solo was next and I described it to her as "flawless", which it was. The group dances were after the lunch break: The Rose and Singing in the Rain. Our studio, Dancin' Feet was the only one wearing masks, as we knew we probably would be. George, the dance instructor, has been very careful due to his battles with cancer. Even though 1 week before this competition the mask mandate was lifted, he still wanted the girls to dance in their masks, mostly because they didn't practice without them and he didn't want them to have blank faces. Even though he was wanting to help them, which may have helped some, it probably did hinder Victoria more than others because her smile is so great and she has beautiful facials while dancing. No matter, she still did fabulously and this was her first solo competition, so we can only go up from here! I could still see her facials through her eyes. 

At Empire, all of the dances Victoria competed in, and most of them from our studio, won Platinum, the highest-ranking. The Rose won a judge's choice for their ending pose that looked like a rose, and Singing in the Rain won the best choreography. Dancin' Feet "cleaned the house" with the top highest scores for their level, Uptown Level. Victoria for 10th overall for senior solos (senior doesn't mean her grade in school, it's her level of dance) and her trio was second overall. One of her dance friends got first place and won $600!

Warming up before competition.

Celebrating at Tropical Smoothie Cafe afterward.

This weekend was the Cru Dance Competition. The solos were performed Friday night and the duos, trios, and group dances on Saturday. It was in Dearborn at a theater, which was nice because it was only 30 minutes away. It was a much bigger competition with better quality dancers overall. So the competition was harder. Even still, Dancin' Feet blew some minds! Her solo on Friday night was just as good as the week before, absolutely beautiful! She again won 10th place overall for her solo. The trio on Saturday was also fantastic and again won second place in their category. The Rose was another show-stopper that the judges loved, especially the ending rose pose and the scarves. The dancers were asked to dance it again, an honor only 5 other dances got to do, and they honored each choreographer before each dance performance. They told George that his dance was so beautiful and that his use of the props (the scarves) was brilliant, as well as his ending rose pose. I loved hearing this praise for him. He has worked so hard and gone through so much recently. He also has such high regard for keeping up with proper dance etiquette in the audience and for girls to do so off stage. He always encourages more modest dance costumes and never choreographs moves that seem sexual and risque (as we saw some that were and are just not appropriate for these young girls, or anyone, in my opinion).  The Rose won first place for its category.

Singing in the Rain won the special judges' award for the one that made them smile the most and it won the On Broadway National Company Award. Basically, if we want to, the girls can go to Universal Studios Florida to perform this next January. I don't think they usually go because it costs a lot of money and takes away from the next season's practices. From what I gather, at least one of our dances is chosen for that honor each year. Singing in the Rain won Best Technique for group dances and first place for its category. 

Again, Victoria's fellow dancers got many places at the top! Dancin' Feet is an amazing studio!

Solo night!

Jason got to attend with me!

Awesome George with his awesome soloists!

The whole group for The Rose.

Singing in the Rain group.

The Rose pose

Victoria's trio

After all the winnings!

With dance instructor Dana.

Perfect Timing!

Victoria's dance studio finally got to enter some dance competitions this year. They only got to compete in one, two years ago. The other two were canceled due to covid, no surprise there.  Last year, there were competitions,  but fewer of them, and the competition leader, George, was going through extreme cancer treatments and recovery for most of last year. He's one of those people for whom just about everything went wrong during covid. They have recently found another spot on his liver, so we're all praying that he can get through another round. Needless to say, last year we weren't in a position to compete.

This year, we have two competitions we're scheduled in. Last weekend was the first one and this weekend is the other. It's nice to have them scheduled two weekends in a row. My mom wanted to come to experience a competition with us, so she came last week. It turned out to be perfect timing because we didn't have school Friday or Monday for mid-winter break/President's day. 

This post will be about our visit with Grandma Pat. After the competition this weekend I'll post all the details about both competitions, though you can see some info on Facebook about last weekend's success in the competition.

As usual, my mom joined me at work each morning. We have lots of fun at Red Bell and it's enjoyable to have another adult there, especially one who can teach Yoga! 

The backs of my adorable students!

We ended up getting some crazy weather. All the snow melted with all the rain we got on Wednesday. Then everything froze up and we got a new fresh pile of snow on Thursday. I was supposed to host book club that night at my house, a book which my mom had also read, but we ended up doing it over Zoom, so I still led the questions, but I didn't make any treats or get to host it in my new sunroom. Tumbling for the boys and dance class was canceled because of the road conditions. So, if there had been school scheduled for Friday, it would have been canceled. I was still scheduled for work Friday because of all the school we've missed recently due to covid and snow days. We wanted to give the kids some days that normally would be off, a chance to come in, though Red Bell is open all the time for the childcare kids, this was an opportunity for those who attend the preschool program. Being such crazy weather, not as many showed up, but I enjoyed it and my mom took my kids to see Sing 2 at the movies. 

By the time we all returned, the sun was shining and the roads were still lousy, but my mom and I took the boys sledding while Victoria and Kai hung out with friends. 

Erik going down with speed!

Austin actually didn't sled, he snowboarded!

Saturday morning we were up bright and early for the competition, which took most of the day. Jason dropped Kai and Austin off at the church for a stake volleyball and pizza activity (finally getting some church activities going again!) Erik got to help Jason move a family out of our ward and watch the Friend Face to Face. So they all kept busy. They even got to see some of Victoria's dances on live stream.

I taught my 16-17-year-old Sunday School class on Sunday (my daughters are both in that class now!) and we had a normal, relaxing Sunday. 

On Monday, I took advantage of our zoo pass and we went to Toledo with Austin, Erik, Kai, and her friend CJ. My mom hadn't been to the zoo in a while. We got a warm sunny spell that day and Toldeo is about 8 degrees warmer than Canton, so that was nice! All the indoor parts were closed because it was President's day, but we enjoyed the outdoors and the animals we could see there. Since we didn't spend time in the aquarium or the reptile house, where we usually spend a lot of time, we finished at the zoo much sooner than normal. So, we went to a nearby park and I can't believe how much fun these teens and preteens had there! It was a little slushy and very muddy, but we avoided getting too messy since we're all capable of that nowadays.

It looks like those kids are in with the tigers!

Red Panda

The otters put on a good show!

We don't often see the elephants because we always run out of time and they're at a hot part of the zoo. 

Beautiful bald eagle

We did some NInja Warriors wall climbing at the park when they were done at the playground.

Then they had to throw ice chunks in the river.

Quirkle in the evening.

Even though my mom didn't plan on coming for days off, it turned out that way and worked great!

Stay tuned for dance competition updates!

Valentine' s Day 2022

We tried to make Valentine's more meaningful this year by writing each other "love notes" for the 14 days of February before Valentine's day. This was for all of us in the family and it worked so well! They were just words of acknowledgment, encouragement, or thanks given by whoever to anyone in the family with a goal of doing at least one each day. They were placed in lunches, on pillows, and at places at the table. It was nice to see kind words from others in the family. We also sent our traditional Valentine's to our grandparents, which is always a fun activity for my creative kids.

We love our grandparents!

Cute paper that I've had for years and was what we used for our "love notes".

Jason and I went out for an early Valentine's date on Saturday to a smokehouse we had never been to, Max and Bella's. It was cute, quaint, and delicious. We got dirty rice to split, with homemade mac and cheese and very delicious coleslaw. I'm not normally a coleslaw fan, but this one had a vinegar base, as opposed to a ranch dressing base. We got some baked beans and collard greens to go with it as well. It was so good and we got our meal in a very reasonable amount of time. It was nice to get away for a bit before Jason has to take care of Bishopric duties for the next day.

Max and Bella's

On Valentine's Day, we just had our usual schedule. Jason and I gave the kids their favorite candies,  little cards, and pop-it gifts. Jason brought me flowers and Red Vine licorice and I got him a stone sharpener so he can sharpen my knives. I also bought myself a session to Train Your Brain with Jody Moore that took place a couple of weeks ago. I made rice creole, Asian pork, and roasted green beans. We had leftover poppyseed cake from the day before when the missionaries came for dinner. 

My favorite Valentine!

It was a slower Monday and nice to see everyone that evening for more than a few minutes! Such a simple holiday and full of love!

Better Late Than Never!

 Even though Kai's birthday celebration was our trip to Chicago for the Furfest with Olivia at the beginning of December, she still wanted an easy celebration at home with more friends, sometime after we returned from Costa Rica. We made sure to make her birthday special in Costa Rica too, but when your birthday falls between Christmas and New Year's, you don't always have a choice as to what you do, you kind of just do what your family has already planned, as is the case for Kai. So I was fine with having some friends over for a meal and just allowing them to hang out. My kids all really value their friends and social lives, so I try to honor that.

We finally got around to having her friends over last Saturday. It was after our 3 snow days, so it was nice for them to have a chance to get together. Kai brought together friends from 3 different groups, some of them meeting for the first time. They all got along very well and now have a group text together. Three of her color guard friends (2 of them happen to be in the Arts Academy with her), 2 of her old friends, and a friend who was from our ward, until they changed the boundaries. 

Birthday Friends!

She wanted to have Puerto Rican food, mostly because she loves tostones so much (fried plantains). I was a little surprised she still wanted the pork because she's not really that fond of meat and 3 of her friends who were there are vegetarians. Jason made sure the rice and gandules were not made with chicken broth and Victoria invited two friends over last minute to enjoy the food, including the pork, as well.

Jason's getting really good at making this pork!

The rice and gandules are so decilious, even without the chicken broth!

Kai's fav- tostones! (And there's roasted cauliflower there, which was also a hit!)

I had to laugh at the nibbles Kai put out- candy and raw veggies. Pretty much her favorite things to eat in addition to tostones.  

Victoria's peeps.

Kai made a fun cake and they ate, hung out in her room, and even walked over to the nearby park (more likely trudged in the snow, none of them well-equipped with boots and coats). 

This says "Ranboo". He's a Youtuber. 

They all thought the #1 candle was hilarious.

Again, it was so nice having a sunroom for such a gathering!