The Company You Keep, In Pics

These are just some of my favorite pics from the dance season so far. Some you've seen. Some, maybe not.

Recital rehearsal has started. The kids are learning not only their regular class dances, but the company dance as well. I am excited to see the finished pieces, but trust me, I am not rushing it!

Have a great day.

Window Shopping

One of the things that the dance company participates in is a Wine Walk and Christmas Stroll. Most of the shops in the downtown area participate and this was the first year we went. Of course, we had three dancers participating as well.

 

The Christmas theme for downtown this year was Rudolph and the Island of Misfit Toys. I'm waiting for the theme to be "A Florida Christmas" so we can all wear t-shirts and flip flops. Of course, that would probably be the year we have a cold winter. Anyway...

 

The baby and the big girl were both in the window of a cupcake store. Are you kidding me?!?!?! How lucky can you get? Specially when the owners are giving them free cupcakes! Not fair!!   

 

 

 

This is the big girl with 2 of her elfish friends. Notice she's reading Hermie's book about dentistry? Well, kind of. It's upside down.

This is the baby girl in her elf costume. I want the shoes!! She was so excited she got asked to participate in this event. It helped to be with her big sis in the cupcake shop. I know where I'm hanging out next year!

 

 

The big girl doing a little studying.

 

 

These are some of the reindeer that were in the Christmas House across the street. They had some of the most amazing decorations in that store. I could have spent a million bucks. Well, if I had it.

The boy was Hermie. He's the elf that wants to be a dentist. This is his friend, S. She was a reindeer. They danced and danced and were so good. People would stop and just watch them. The owners said they needed to come back next year!

The baby girl brushing up on her dentistry. The funny thing about this book is that the book was written in French. Even if the girls had held it right side up, they still would have no idea what it said.

This is the whole group. It's a yucky pic, but I had already put the camera away, so it was the phone or nothing. Good thing there was lots of flash from other people, because the rest of my pics make them look like they have alien eyes. Check out the top row.

It was so much fun! Hubby and I made a date night out of it. We strolled and drank wine. I even got a Christmas present while we were there. We are so doing this again next year!

Have a great day!

Lights! Camera! Dance! The Rehearsal...

We got a new camera. So far, we are not very good at it. I'm working on it, and so is hubby. The "crop" feature has become my very best friend. Great googily moogily. Anyway, the reason we bought a camera is for the performances the kids will be in this Christmas season. My phone is great for stills, but you add lights and motion and it's all over but the screaming. Usually it's me screaming because I missed something, but you get the idea.

And speaking of pictures, I am about to inundate you with a plethora of various shots from rehearsal. The big girl and the boy had 2 shows this weekend. The first was a tree lighting and performance, the second was just performance. I don't have many action shots from the performances because I was helping kids into costumes and we are still novices with the camera. The first night, my batteries died. The second day, the camera kinda freaked on me a little and quit working. I didn't think about taking the batteries out then putting them back in until we were on our way home. If all else fails, do a hard reboot. These are just rehearsal pics. I'll post pictures from performances later. Ready for pics? Here we go:

The big girl and her friend, B. I love these girls! Whenever they are together, they're dancing. In class, out of class, in the living room, with a fox, in a box, on a plane, on a train. They may not like green eggs and ham, but they love to dance!

This is just part of the group. There are a couple of more at the end of this line, but for some reason, I didn't add that pic. Hmmm...

I love this shot. Just happens to be one of my favs. I think it's the smile on K's face.

The final pose for Skater's Waltz. This is the number that opens the show. Fantastic way to open a show, if you ask me. And the girl 2nd from the right is my favorite dancer in the group. That's my big girl!

This is A. Oh. My. Word. She is an amazing dancer. She is beautiful and graceful and she may lose that pancake tutu. I'm gonna steal it, but don't tell anyone. It'll just be our secret...

Look at these cutie patooties! These are the junior company girls. These are some of my favorite costumes. The color is super gorgeous. The girls have worked very hard and they should be very proud of themselves! I know we are!

Ok. I am a huge Santa fan. I think Santa is awesome! But look at my boy! He makes an amazing Santa!

These are Santa's elves! The big girl is all the way to the left. Cutest. Dance. Evah.

The boy has three heel clicks he does. See the height? Yeah, that's what he does. He flies. Reindeer have nothing on this Santa!

This is jazz to Joy to the World.

 

The big girl's contemporary number to O Holy Night. That is my all time favorite Christmas song. This dance makes me tear up every time! Every. Time! My big girl leads them on stage. The girls needed a little extra practice for this one, but they did the work and got it done. Makes me teary just thinking about it.

There are more pictures I could have added, but even I have my limits. Not many, but limits nevertheless. If you have a chance to come see some very talented young people, please do. They have 2 or 3 performances left and a parade to dance in. I am so proud of my kids and so proud of these dancers.

Have a great day.

Flower Power

I've been teaching a biology co-op one afternoon a week. I am digging it. Biology is one of those things that more fun with a crowd. It's the experiments. Who wants to dissect alone? Well, serial killers, but we aren't talking about them. We haven't gotten to the dissecting part yet, but I am working on it. We're getting closer every week.

We started with the plant unit. There is a lot more to plants than I remember. Some of it, I'm not sure I wanted to know, but I do now, so there you go. It was actually kind of cool. I might take one day before Christmas break and we may do the microscope labs we didn't get to do during the plant unit. Hmmmm, there's an idea. Anyway, we did the big collection and identifying and labeling lab. That was one of my favorites when I took biology, all 3 times.

To celebrate the end of the plant unit, we had a party with edible plant cells. The kids had to make edible representations of the plant cell to share. We had pizza and cookies and, wait for it, chicken enchiladas. Those things were super good. We also took a field trip to a local botanical garden. My family had been before, but some of the kids and their families hadn't. I gave the kids a sheet they had to fill out to prove they didn't sleep through class. They all did very well.

And, of course, there are flower pics:

Such a great place to go. All the plants were labeled so you knew what they were. They have several gardens set up. They have a native plants, a southwest garden, marshlands, butterfly garden, and more. The part the kids liked the best? The maze. They played hide and seek tag. At least nobody came running to tell us we couldn't come back! I call that a successful field trip.

Have a great day.

Daybook Be My Playbook

Catchy title, huh? Things are a little jumbled in my head, so it's the easiest thing for me right now. Ready? Come on...

• I am listening to... Queen's A Crazy Little Thing Called Love. My kids are diggin' Queen. Me, too, actually. I downloaded their greatest hits and now the kids want me to make a CD for the van. Well, ok, when I get the time. Oooo, Destiny's Child now.
• I am reading...Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. It is almost the continuation of The Shining. It's the story of the son, Danny. I borrowed it from a friend. It is so good. Hubby and I stopped at the library today and I browsed their bookstore. I walked out with 2 Dean Koontz books I hadn't seen before. I'm ready to read those, but I need to get through the Stephen King book first. Our after dinner book is the last 39 Clues book from the Cahills vs. Vespers series. We had started it, but we weren't able to finish it before we had to turn it in. In the four weeks we waited for it, we started Where the Red Fern Grows. We'll go back to that when we finish the current book. So much reading and switching, I hope we remember it all.
• From the kitchen...So, you know we do the whole cook from scratch thing. Hubby has taken on a new endeavor in that arena. He bakes bread. I had done the whole bread from scratch thing a couple of times. It was just not my thing. I liked the bread the first day, but come day 2, I was not impressed. Hubby found a recipe that is super yummy on day 2 and beyond. It makes the most delicious sandwiches. Oh, my. His brother just gave us a ham from a pig he caught and I picked up some conch peas at the farmer's market. We are going country around here. Add hubby's bread, sliced and still a little warm. Makes me want to cook right now!
• From the garden...We let the chickens free range in the garden a few times. That was hilarious the first time, watching the ladies look at each other and trying to figure out what they were supposed to do. They did a very good job of scratching and eating lots of little buggies from the raised beds. Hubby cleaned out the tower and gave it a good scrubbing. We got everything planted finally a couple of weeks ago. We have brussel sprouts, broccoli, and cabbage. Our pepper plants are still hanging in there. We aren't getting any peppers, but the plants are still green and growing. I am so ready for those brussel sprouts! I've got a few weeks to wait bit I go out every day and encourage them. Go, sprouts, go!
• From the schoolroom...Still trying to find a groove for the big girl. So much work, so little time! We have gone to a block system. She has one hour a day for each subject she has to do. So far, there have only been a couple of days where she had to go back and finish something. And now there's driver's ed in the mix. She is about halfway done with it and I am ready for it to be OVER! She has done very well and hubby gave her the first driving lesson today. I'm not sure I'm ready for that part, but it's almost here, so I need to get over it. I have dropped Latin for the baby and the boy. It wasn't getting done, and before I knew it, 3 weeks had passed and there hadn't been a lesson done. Ok, then, moving on. Works for me.
• From the dance studio...rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal! We are about 3 weeks out from the holiday performances. All of the dances are done and now it's clean up time. The baby started rehearsal for the group that dances in the Christmas parade. It's tough right now, and it seems like we only have time for dance and school (because that's all we have time for!), but I am so proud of the kids for all of their hard work! I love to watch my kids perform!
• Around the house...I know that one day Mt. Laundry won't be there and the dishes in the sink at Mt. Washmore will be gone. I'll miss the chaos and the scrambled to get out the door. I know I'll have time to actually clean my house. It will be here before I know it. Until then, I'm trying to not have a panic attack at all the cleaning that needs to be done around my house. I'm breathing, I'm breathing...I'm freaking out just a little.

And that's what I've got for now. Just a little peek into the funhouse. Who doesn't like a little fun?

Have a great day.

Dancing for Joy...and a Few Tears

I'm late. I know. Get over it. Anyway...

The big girl and the boy made the company dance team at our dance studio! Yea!! I am sooo proud of them. One of my very favorite things in the world is to watch my beautiful kids dance.

The boy owns the stage like nobody's business. He was born to perform and be the center of it all. Good thing he's my middle child. He even has a ballet solo. That does not hurt his feelings at all!

The big girl's group for contemporary has me in tears at every practice. I cannot even imagine what a blubbery mess I will be come performance days. And she gets to be in the group of kids that perform at the tree lighting in our town.

Now, you may notice the baby is missing. She didn't make it. She was so upset, she cried all the way to the studio the day we got our letters. And since I was driving, there was not one thing I could do about it until we got there. Hubby came and got her and took her to dinner and got ice cream and he held her while she cried. That's an amazing Papa Bear. By the time I got home with the other 2 kids, she was all better. And working her way into an ice cream coma. Ice cream and Papa Bear hugs make it all better!!

Our weeks are crammed super full with school and dance and practice and, and, and. We only have one day a week where we are home and the alarm doesn't go off. That day varies from week to week. We are tired. But we are happy.

Have a great day.