Tumblers and Warriors

During the winter months, Austin and Erik attended a tumbling class and a ninja warriors class. They decided on tumbling because they loved watching Victoria's private coach, Shannon, come over and teach her cool tricks (btw, Victoria got her ariel!) Shannon ended up getting a job at Jumparama, a small gym in the area that offers gymnastics and tumbling classes on a more simplified level than the bigger, more common gyms. I really like it and wish that it were around when my girls were younger. They would have loved it there! Plus, Shannon is the best! Victoria was able to go to Jumparama a few times before she got really busy with track and dance competitions (and before she injured her shoulder...). 

My boys loved their time in tumbling. Austin worked on his back tuck and pretty much has it on his own. Erik worked on back handsprings and looks really good! ( I can't find any videos of Erik's flip flops.) Shannon was impressed with their flexible backs in their abilities to do backbends. They did some front handsprings and other tricks, but those tucks and flip flops were definitely the favorites! She did a great job with the three kids she worked with who were all at different levels. And she always made it fun!!

At Ninja's Edge, where the boys went last year, they were excited about the strength and endurance they gained by climbing, balancing, swinging, and hanging. Bonus: Kai got a job at Ninja's Edge at the end of January and teaches the preschool class there on Mondays and Saturdays! We had found out that Olivia got a job there, at age 14, so it was easy for Kai to get a job there at age 15, plus we already knew much about it, having attended there last year. Kai loves it and has learned so much. It's a paying job and workout all in one! Her Saturday shift overlapped slightly with the boys' class, so I was able to discreetly watch her teach (I tried not to make a big deal taking lots of pictures so I wouldn't embarrass her, but I couldn't resist a few.) Today was the boys' last class since soccer season starts in a week, but we thoroughly enjoyed it!

Coach Kai with Erik during one class!

Coach Kai led stretching with her class.

Erik finally made it up the third warp wall! That's his rear end climbing up after he made it!

Austin's in the white long sleeved short hanging and Kai is in the blue sweatshirt.

Music Man

 Austin's my music man. He has such a good ear for music and has recently brought his piano practice to the next level. When he hears a theme song for a movie, he will go over to the piano and play it back. He does the same thing with songs on the radio. He used his cello one time as well to playback the theme song from The Lord of the Rings. 

Two weeks ago he killed it at Federation. He was the most prepared any of my kids have been for Federation. He didn't have to scramble last second with hurried memorizing and dynamics. It was done ahead of time and we both felt confident as he walked into the judge's room. His music was so beautiful and he got a Superior on both pieces! Next year, if he gets Superior again, he will receive a trophy!

A few days after Federation was his choir concert. Though they still had to wear masks, I felt like they had more confidence and sang out more loudly. I could actually hear them fairly well! I think one of his favorite classes is choir. Every day he has lots to say about his choir class. He has such a good time there!

I love seeing his development in music!

Waiting for his turn at Federation.

Here are his Federation songs the next day, not played as well as at Federation, but still very good! 

Here a fun choir song that is actually one of their warm-ups that they were demonstrating at the concert.

Happy 44th!

 My students were trying to guess my age about a month ago. Since most of them are 4 years old, they liked the idea that I am 44. They had some pretty wild guesses. Most of them guessed that I am in my 20s, a bunch guessed my 30s, and then a couple random guesses were 50 something and 70 something. The funniest part is that my assistant that day was the 18-year-old, who I had no idea she was that young, and their overall guesses for her were in her mostly in her 30s and 40s. Obviously, I don't look younger than her, but she's a lot taller than me, so that throws off 4-year-olds. We got a laugh out of that!

Around that same time, I had a thought of taking my family for a bike ride on my birthday, it being on a Saturday this year. We can finally put all of our bikes in the truck and drive to Maybury and enjoy being outdoors in maybe slightly warmer weather? How bad could it be on March 12? Luckily, Jason was keeping an eye on the weather so that I was prepared a week earlier for the freaky cold weather that would occur pretty much just on that day! It was a real feel of 2 that morning and 15 later on. I think the regular temperature was in the 20s. I had already decided that we would just go to the movies, which I actually don't think I've ever done on my birthday, so it was a real treat! We saw Uncharted which we all really enjoyed. We stopped by to pick up some Lebonese food from Peepos, a new restaurant in town, on the way home. The food is so delicious and they have excellent smoothies as well!

Kai made a playlist with some of my all-time favorite songs and we had a dance party that evening. It was so fun to spend time with my family that day and to talk to friends and family who aren't local. Birthdays are the best!

The Saturday before my birthday there was a super good sale at the grocery store. .99 raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries! Berries are my absolute favorite and my kids, including Erik, all love raspberries! I was a happy camper!

Waiting for the movie. 

The yummy smoothie!

Some of my gifts. 

Tired after our dance party!

My delicious carrot cake!

Hats

 Two weeks ago the Young Women in our ward learned how to knit hats using a 36 peg loom. Dawn Kennedy, who's a flight attendant and isn't always available for weeknight activities, was the teacher. She had learned to make hats from a passenger on one of her flights and has been a hat-making machine ever since. She not only taught the girls how to do it at the activity, which, in only an hour and a half with 15 girls probably didn't yield a lot of results, but she had enough hats saved up that she gave one to each girl there! 

Kai gave me hers and it's the softest, most comfy hat ever! I immediately sent a thank you text to Dawn and she offered any free lessons so my girls could learn a little better if they wanted. They had enjoyed it but weren't really interested in making a whole hat. Austin, however, wanted to take lessons and make his own hat.

Dawn and I set up a good time for our schedules last Monday and she got us started on the rim, which took about an hour. We then had two days to finish up so we could meet on Wednesday for the next part. We had all the way till Monday, yesterday, to complete the final part because it was a longer portion. Then yesterday, she helped us finish them off! We love them so much and it was so fun and relaxing to make them. Austin's already starting another one and even brought it to school today to work on during downtime, which he totally did! He wants to be like Dawn and make hats for everyone! 

Austin was fairly quick and very dedicated to making his hat.

Just completed his first hat!

I made the blue one and Austin made the black and gray one. We borrowed the regular size loom from a friend for Austin and I couldn't find one to borrow, so I just bought one. The only one available at JoAnn's was a child-size one. I figured I could give it to some cute little kid I know. Turns out, Austin likes the smaller one better. So we traded hats! 

This is the one Dawn made that Kai gave me. The pom on top makes it so adorable!

Here's what the loom looks like. I'm starting another one on this borrowed loom since Austin's using our smaller one for his next hat. We love our new hobby!

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!