Dance Recital 2010

Heidi recently had her dance recital.  She dances through the City of New Hope which is a pretty cool program.  They have some competition classes and they do a full recital at the end of the year. 

Heidi has been dancing with her BFF Lauren since they started in New Hope.  They are both looking forward to getting their 5 year trophy (only 3 years to go!)

They are so cute in their costumes!

I tried very hard to get the goof ball to be normal for a picture and this is what I got.

And this. Nice Heidi.

There was a no flash photography rule.  I forgot.

But all of my pictures have heads in them. And most of them are fuzzy.  So, that's karma...!

The girls did a fantastic job.  Really.  I am not just saying that because she is mine.  Their class got the biggest applause out of the entire program.  And most of the girls remembered the steps.

Way to go girls!!!

Book Review: The Watson’s Go To Birmingham

After completing The Help Shawn mentioned his students were reading a book called The Watson’s Go To Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis and that he was going to read it.


This book was set in 1963 partly in Flint MI and partly in Birmingham AL. He read it on the plane on the way to CA and then passed it on to me.

It was a quick read at 210 pages. Refreshing after the bulky book I had just finished.

It was a light hearted read. Also refreshing after the sometimes intense moments in The Help.

In reading this book I realized how jaded I have become while reading a book. I could not help but expect for something really awful to happen. There were two tense points late in the book but since this book was written for the middle school sect it was not overly dramatic.

The story is about a boy, Kenny, who lived in 1963 Flint MI with his Goofy Father, his Mama who relocated from Birmingham after marring his father, his older brother, Byron, who was always getting in trouble, and his younger sister, Joetta, who was very protective of the trouble making older brother.

Kenny and Joetta watch Byron cause a lot of trouble and repeatedly get reprimanded by their parents. After a forbidden hairdo incident involving Byron, his parents decide it is time for By to go live with his grandma in Birmingham for awhile. They pack up the Brown Bomber, their family car, and drive from Michigan to Alabama. While in Alabama the family is faced with what is really happening in the Civil Rights Movement at the time with a church bombing and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Curtis writes this story so well you believe Curtis is Kenny. It truly reads as an autobiography, not a fictional story. I suggest you check it out. If you have a middle school aged child in your home, enjoy it with them.

It's Carnival Time!

Every year for as long as anyone I know can remember, the elementary school at the end of our road has held a carnival.

So on carnival night we packed up the kids and went to check it out.

It was an instant hit since they had a bounce around.  The kids didn't even mind waiting in the 15 minute line to get in.  In fact, the waited twice!

This bouncy maze thing was pretty cool too.  You enter through the hole on one end.  Navigate through the pillars.

Climb through some walls.

And end up on the other side.  Two people can go at one time and race or one person can go at a bouncy pace.  Heidi picked the bouncy pace.

More waiting in line.  It rained out that night so Heidi had the appropriate foot wear on.  To bad the carnival is held inside the school...

I really do find it impossible to get all three of them to be looking at the camera at the same time and not making a crazy face or be talking. I love this picture because they are each doing one of the things that make picture taking so difficult!

It was a lot of family fun. Even Shawn danced his way through the Junk Food walk!

All of the girls won something.

Heidi picked a polar bear stuffy because who doesn't need 7 polar bear stuffies?

Emily won a book in the book walk that came with a sweet bathtub toy!

And Jess got some donuts which the kids promptly devoured the next morning.

Over all it was a blast! We spent a ton of money and had a great time. We look forward to next year!

Dance Practice

Dance Recital practice takes up one Saturday every spring.  It's typically the first nice Saturday in many, many months.  I have been through this so many times and it's always the same.

The girls did a good job watching the class in front of them do their dance 17 times.

Then, finally it was their turn to go line up.  There were two classes with the same costumes dancing to the same song.  They do this in this age group and then one class dances in Saturday's Recital and the other dances on Sunday.  It works well.

There is always some crazy itchy part of the costume.  This year it was the arm bands.  Luckily they were able to remove those after the dance.  Last year it was the top part of the costume so the poor girls just had to suffer.  But all is okay when you are with friends!

When they got on stage I was amazed at how well they remembered their dance.

And they all looked so cute in their tutus!

The big finish! 

And when it's over they get to relax until it's time to do it all over again. 

It's a long day and they all wish they were outside playing instead of sitting in the high school auditorium but come next weekend with all the families are there watching they are happy they showed up for practice!

Heidi and Emily BOTH Love Gymnastics! Or Two Goons On A Bar!

Ok, this is the last of the Last Day of Gymnastics posts.  I am just such a proud Mom / Aunt!

After class one of the teachers pulled us aside and asked to get some pictures of the girls on the bar.

She also said if the girls lived in Texas they could work with Bela Karolyi.  I don't know about that but they could have hung on the bar for weeks.

Many hours of practice at the playground and in the back yard sure have paid off.  This was a long photo session!

And flip! Here's the fun part.  They could have hung here for weeks also.  But the other class was starting so we had to go. Three weeks until Summer Gymnastics Camp starts for Heidi!  She can't wait because...

We Love Gymnastics!!

Emily Loves Gymnastics!

Emily love Gymnastics too. Don't let this picture let you think otherwise!

She gives me this look a lot. "It's just my face!"

See!  She really likes it!

She missed the first day of class because both of the girls feel off the Rock Wall at the Maple Maze the night before.  Emily hurt her foot and had to stay off it for a bit.

The second week she went and was very shy.  She didn't want mom to leave.

But look how good she is! We are all so happy she went to class the second week.

Yeah Emily!!  I hope you are able to go back next year.  Gymnastics is your calling.

Three Goons On A Rainy Sunday

These three Goons were caught vegging out on the couch after a long rainy weekend.