Thunderstruck

The Princess had her first dance competition this weekend. She was very nervous going in, but all was well in the end. She, and the entire studio did a great job. Her solo went off without a hitch (she'd been quite worried about some of her jumps/leaps), and was really fun to watch. She brought home 3 trophies for her solo--Lightning Gold (the general scoring category her score fell into), 1st place (high score for intermediate, teen solos), and the award she is most proud of: the I Love To Dance award. This award is voted on by the judges and is only given to one dancer per session. In addition she was in two group dances. One got a High Gold and won a judge's award for energy. The other won Lightning Gold and a judge's award for all their cool tricks. Cara's BFF did a beautiful solo and her group won a HUGE trophy for their dance as The Most Entertaining of the ENTIRE SHOW!!! It was a very fun day for all the girls!

Before the show.

After her first group dance with her #1 Fan!

Accepting her 1st place trophy.

Her group.

With her coach and choreographer.

With her bling!

Birthday Girl

Is it wrong to toot my own horn?

About Molokai

I have added Molokai to my book list. It's the first book of the year to get three stars! It's a historical fiction book that takes you through the life of a 7-year-old Hawaiian girl who contracts Leprosy and is sent to the Hawaiian island of Molokai, a Leaper colony. It's a great story based in fact and a fast read. I HIGHLY recommend it.

Little Cuties

Ahhh, look at those little cuties.

My babies don't look like that anymore.

2006

Cheer Camp

First of all, excuse the quality of these photos. The gym and my camera are enemies. I cleaned them up as best I could, but you get what you get and you don't throw a fit.

The prince had a good time at cheer camp but wondered why the girls got so wound up only after lunch! Good thing the camp was over at 1:00. They got to perform at half-time Saturday night and it was a good show. A little cheering. A little dancing. A lot of fun!


"Leading" his charges onto the court. Looks kind of like he's telling a tall tale. "The fish I caught was this big!"

While the girls did this...

The boys seemed to do a lot of this.

But at the end the boys came out while the girls were in a big circle. The boys ran the circle and when they'd run by a girl she'd have a cool pom-pom move...kind of like the wave.

The boys basketball team has made it to divisionals which will be here this weekend. If they can place in the top 4 (say a prayer or 1,000) they'll go to state next weekend. The prince keeps asking his friends on the team if they'll make it. The boys are non-committal, but the prince reminds them that he really, REALLY needs another road trip with the girls!!! I'm sure the boys would like to go too, but not for the same reasons as the prince. Stay tuned.

Good Advice--Update

It was the littlest girls who had the biggest crush on the prince today, not the older girls, as I had thought it would be. Smitten. :)

Smart Girl

My smart girl learned two new things this week:

1. That crunching noise anytime we drive somewhere this week is gravel under the tires. Our roads are slick!

2. You can be a doctor and not go to medical school. She learned about the power of the PhD this week.

I feel horrible that she didn't know #2 since I have a friend with a cool PhD.

By the way, this post seemed far more entertaining in my head that it appears now that I've typed it out. Se la vi.

Good Advice

Before the prince set off for the Little Falcon cheer camp this morning, I thought of this helpful advice:

1. Let someone else take them potty. (I know, Mom.)

2. Be warned that the 11/12 year-olds will all have immediate crushes on you. (I know, Mom--wink.)

3. Don't eat all the pizza they are bringing in for lunch. (There's going to be pizza?? Sweet!)

About American Wife

I just added American Wife to my book list. If I were inclined to give 1/2 a star, this book would have gotten 2.5 stars. But I don't so it got 2 stars. It's 555 pages long. The story could have been told well in 400 pages. So, though it's a great story, and I do highly recommend the book (skim the really long paragraphs that sometimes take more than one page), I can't give it 3 stars!

Let There Be (Stop) Light

Woot Woot!!! The stop light is up and running. It was up. Then it was flashing. But this morning, when I approached it, it was full-on RED! And the other direction was GREEN! This is such a blessing for our neighborhood! No more awful crashes, near misses, or undue stress!

Ski Trip

Ski bunny.

Shhhh....don't tell them they have helmet hair.

Crazy, chilly, fun!

Pointe Shoes

The princess got the news she's been waiting for since fall--she is now ready for Pointe Shoes. We are not ready to pay for pointe shoes, but she can advance her dance career that much more once we fork over the money! :)

Spirit the Bear

If you do a really good job of cheering at a game, you get to take home Spirit the Bear for the week. A couple of weeks ago the prince got the honor.

More Cheer Photos

Happy Day!

The princess had her orthodontist appointment this morning. He was able to remove the rubber bands that connect her top and bottom jaw. I also heard him tell her that her teeth look great. They are working on pulling some top teeth together. And he told her she does a good job of brushing. That called for a celebration so we headed off to McDonald's for a delicious frappe on our way to school! We are nearing the end of this teeth thing. Yippee!

Crab-A-Holics

While in Colorado, Grandma took us to an awesome Chinese buffet. The highlight, for everyone but me, was the crab legs. Libby loves them. Always has. And she has always been too busy eating hers to crack for her kids. So her kids learned, at very tender ages, that if they wanted crab meat, they'd have to crack their own crab. And they do.


All was going well, as I sat between the 7-year-old and the 5-year-old until I looked down and noticed crab meat all down both sleeves of my shirt. Apparently I was in the crab zone!

When we got done, we went to pick up Mariah, and as she got in the car she said, "Why does it smell like crab in here?"

Uh...maybe because we're all wearing it!!! ;)

Cracking crab is serious business.

After you've consumed all the crab you can take, you relax with a game on mom's phone.

Wait! We're not done yet.

Go ahead and try to count all the crab legs in these photos!

Pretty In Pink

Clowning around, the princess took this shot with her bff.

I cropped out the bff.

Too cute.

She needs a tiara.

Happy Valentine's Day

Lots of chocolate at the palace today.

Life is good!

Just

The prince has to bring donuts to school tomorrow for a cheer breakfast. So of course, since I was already buying a dozen for him, I HAD to buy a dozen for us...the king is a donut connoisseur after all.

The conversation at the checkout when like this:

Clerk: Just two dozen donuts then?
Me: Yeah, JUST.
Clerk: Ha ha, good one.

Just 2 dozen outta about do it! Don't ya think?

Trip to Colorado

I went to Colorado last week to spend time with my sister as she celebrated a birthday. Grandma met us there. We had a great time and even one nice "grown up" dinner. Isaiah either loved me or hated me, depending on if I was disciplining him. I was his lovable aunt most of the time, but I'd become "mean grandma" when he was not happy with me. :) But it's all good. I had a great time and miss them all already.

Tyson

Yes, he's resting his shoulders on the counter as he does a handstand.

He can also jump onto the counter from a standing position 3 feet away from it.

Mad skills.

Mariah

Could she be any prettier?

Jajuan

Yep, that's a delicious "margarita" his aunt made for him in his hand.

Isaiah And Ariana

Lovable Knuckleheads.

Happy Belated Birthday!

Happy belated birthday to our little sisty! I wasn't able to blog it at the time because I was there in person to celebrate. Check it out, her sweater matches the color of the number on her cake! Love you!

Hug Your Kids

Yesterday a boy the prince goes to school with died of a heart infection. Also yesterday a high school girl from a neighboring town was at the ski lodge, working with Eagle Mount for the day, took a break to do a run on her snow board and had a horrible accident. She's in a local hospital with head injuries and a broken back. Say a prayer of gratitude if all you're dealing with is teen attitude!

Happy Birthday Andy!

Hope your day is AWESOME...just like you!

Love is in the air.

Love is in the air, and the Valentine's dance at the middle school is just around the corner. This all brings me to today's installment of As the Middle Schooler's Heart Breaks.

Last week a 7th grader showed me the book he was reading. LOVE POEMS. PLEASE!!! Then he proceeded to read some to me. I was gagging...and I do NOT exaggerate (as you can tell by all the capital letters and exclamation points).

Yesterday he was again talking about his true love (who, by the way, is at least a head taller than he is--that happens a lot in middle school). I finally said, "Dude (yep, I use that word a lot in middle school), you aren't even 14. You can not be that much in love."

He said, "Well, I'm only 12, but I fell hard."

He fell hard. I'm still laughing about that!

Pretty soon our principal will have to start playing love songs over the P.A., and the recess aides will have to get out the hoses!!! But not today. It's currently -23* with the windchill.

Hearty Vs. Hardy

Really? You must mock me for this. I'm feeling the prince's pain. He says he rarely posts on Facebook because people mock his spelling. And by the way, when you get your butt out of bed at 5 AM and trudge to school when your car says it's MINUS 14*, that takes a lot of HEART!!!

No Fair

Depending on which news agency you check, the high temperature today will be somewhere between -4* and +1*. Yesterday I think our high was about -4*. The high today in Colorado Springs is suppose to be about -7*. My sister was notified last night that school is canceled there today. Huh??? No fair. We'll be going to school, unless the heater is broken, we'll be going. We're hearty like that.