Week 10

I have a few weeks to catch up on.  This is actually from the weekend of March 11-13.  Kayla had a dance competition in Oklahoma City.  We left Friday after school and made the drive.  Kayla's friend Saskia and her mom went with us. 

 Kayla and Saskia happy to be at the hotel.

Our hotel is in Bricktown directly behind the ball field.  After several of us had arrived we walked over to Coach's to get some dinner.  The girls had a great time together, and for some reason they decided to tell everyone that they were from California.  Very random.

Chloe, Saskia, and Kayla

Chloe, Saskia, Kayla, and Katie

Chloe and Kayla are actually both on Face Time...with each other!!!

The next morning we went to watch one of our groups compete.  Then we all headed to Abuelos for lunch.  There were around 25 of us.  Here is the kid side of the table.

The next stop was this super cute cupcake and candy store called Pinkitzel.  It was a fun little place to go, but I am glad we do not have to frequent it.  The cupcakes were $3.50 each, and the candy was $3.50 for 1/4 lb.  That is a little too pricey for me.   It only takes about 3 jellybeans to equal a 1/4 pound!

 

Lots of candy...

 

And lots of yummy cupcakes

 

Saturday night was the swim party

 

Followed by a pizza party in the hotel breakfast area.

Sunday morning it was time for business.  Another mother came over to do Kayla's makeup for me.  That is normally Grandma Sue's job, but she did not go on this trip with us.  It got to be a little chaotic in the room!

We had to leave the hotel before 8 in the morning.  That meant we had to check out.  We managed to get everything loaded up.  It is amazing how much stuff we had!

She is ready to perform

  A last minute practice with her teacher.

 At this point I about panicked.  If you know me, I like to be on time for things.  I prefer to be early.  We were practicing out in the lobby when we discovered that Kayla was the next number to compete.  We were not ready, and we were not even back stage.  It was still about 25 minutes until her scheduled time to compete.  I left Kayla with her teacher and went to the audience.  As I entered they were announcing Kayla as the next competitor.  However, she was not there.  They waited a minute, and then they moved on to the next number.  That poor girls top fell off in the middle of her performance and she quickly ran off stage.  Again they announced Kayla...and she came on stage.  Big sigh of relief!  She did a great job.

She won a Diamond Elite trophy (that is the highest level trophy they give out).  That was really exciting because Kayla has never gotten that before.  She also tied for first place for the intermediate level in the 9-10 age division.  She got a medal, a plaque, and a $50 check. 

Congratulations Kayla!!!!  I am so proud of you.

Weeks 8 and 9

I totally skipped out on doing an entry last week.  It was a slow week and there was not much to report.  Caroline's class made a trip to the donut shop and they got a visit from the Equine Hospital.  She now wants to be a zookeeper.  This last week had a lot more going on.  On Thursday Kayla had her 3rd grade music program.

 It was really cute.  I did not tell my parents what part Kayla had.  It was hilarious watching them try to find her, and to see their reaction when they finally did find her.  The kids did not wear costumes.  Each class just had a different color shirt.  Except for Kayla.  She got the one role in the entire show that needed a costume.  She also has the most NOT creative mother.  I quickly got on the internet and ordered her something.  I did not get a good still picture of her, and I think all of my video clips are too large.  I can't get them to upload to the blog.  Kayla had a pretty large speaking part and she did a wonderful job.  I have no idea where she gets her public speaking skills.  It must be from her father because it is certainly not from her mother.  This is the only clip I could get to load, but you will get the idea...

 I will keep working on some of the other clips.  I would love to get her speaking parts on here because she did such a great job.

On Saturday Kayla had the District piano competition.  She did a lot of practicing to get ready for this day.  Piano sometimes takes a back burner to all of the dance activities so she had a lot of work to do. 

 She did great!  She got a 1+ which is the highest you can get.  She will now go to the state competition in Oklahoma City in May.  We are so proud of her.

I have to give you some Caroline pics.  We have finally had some nice weather and were able to play outside.

Such a cute little cowgirl!

Week 7

We made it through another week!  We finally went back to school on Monday.  It was a week of just trying to get back into a routine.  Valentine's Day was on Monday.  Notes regarding class parties did not get sent home from school on time because of all of the snow.  All of the parties got pushed back until Friday.  I was able to join both girls at school for all of the fun.

First, I went to Caroline's party.  They had their party at noon.  They had some pizza for lunch and a bunch of cookies and other snacks.  They get it all on their plate at the same time so Caroline pretty much just had cookies for lunch that day.

After their party they went to centers.  I think this is Caroline's favorite center.  As soon as a boy came over she quickly assigned him his role.  "You are the dad.  I am the mom.  Now, give me that blanket so I can put the tablecloth on the table."

I headed to Kayla's party at 2:00.  They have theirs at the end of the day which is very smart.  Those kids eat a ton of sugar at these parties.  Here is the cookie cake.  The teacher requested a very thin layer of frosting.  There was at least a half an inch of frosting on this cookie.  They also had pizza.

I think I have a picture of Kayla with her friend Kaylie at every school party since they started school.  However, Andrew decided he wanted in on this one.

This was attempt #2 at a picture of the girls.

After the pizza and frosting were gone, the kids ate most of the candy that was given to them by their classmates.  They were crazy hyper by the end of the school day.  I am pretty sure that they all had a good time!

Week 6

We were out of school all of last week due to weather.  It worked out perfectly because Kayla had her first dance contest of the season on Friday.  She was going to have to miss school anyway.  She has been working on her dance since the summer.  She practices at least once or twice a week with her Grandma Sue (who was a dance teacher who still has a studio next door to her house).  This weekend was a big deal.

We (Sue and I) really struggled with what costume to choose.  We ended up going with the one her teacher originally suggested, but neither one of us were really sold on it.  But the minute Kayla stepped on stage and the lights hit her, she looked perfect.  She is dancing to a song called Big Time, and she certainly looked it.  Here she is right before going on stage.

She just took the stage and is ready to dance.

 Almost 4 hours later it was time for the awards.  Kayla tied for 2nd place!

Everyone gets a trophy.  The level of trophy they get is based on the average of their scores from the 3 judges.  The highest is diamond elite, then elite top first, then top first, and then first.  I guess that way everyone gets first!  Kayla got elite top first.  Each dancer is also entered as either novice, intermediate, or competitive.  Kayla is in the intermediate category.  They do a top ten for all of the dancers in each category.  Kayla tied for 2nd place out of all of the 9-10 year olds who were in the intermediate category.  That is great!  We are really proud of her.

Here she is after awards with her teachers and some dancers from her studio.

Kayla with her teacher, Rachel.

Kayla also did two group numbers on Saturday.  Her hip-hop class got 10th place, and her tap class got 3rd place.  It was a pretty good weekend!

However, one of the highlights of the weekend was getting the girls' stuff together so they would be ready to go to school on Monday morning.  Woo Hoo!  They went back to school.  I am just a concerned parent who wants to make sure my children get a good education.  My excitement has nothing to do with the fact that they were home for 9 days...NINE DAYS....in a row!  That is a very long time when you are totally trapped in your house!

Here is Kayla on Monday morning at the bus stop!

 School day!!!!

And I could not have a blog post without a picture of my Caroline.

Week Five

 I guess I will finish off the week of the blizzard.  Andy worked for 2 days to get the driveway shoveled off.  It made it possible for him to get his truck out of the driveway, but it also gave him an escape from the house.  He made it to work on Friday.

He did a good deed and helped a car that got stuck at our corner.

And we were so excited to see this guy come along.  I am thinking that it is someone that lives in the neighborhood.  From what I have been told, ours are the only streets in all of Sapulpa that got cleared.

Caroline decided that she would clear the snow from the front door.  That did not really work out so well.  Kayla did it a few days later.

We made our first ever batch of snow ice cream.  Yummy!

On Thursday night, Kayla was invited to go and spend the night with a friend.  Caroline got the run of our house.  Here is where she decided to lay to watch some tv.

On Friday, Kayla and her friend Kaylie were dropped off at our house.  Libby and Mallory came over later that day.  It was great for the girls to get to play with friends.

Friday afternoon it started snowing again.  We got around 3 more inches.  So much for the cleared driveway!

We stayed inside most of the day on Friday.  It was nice to get out to walk Libby and Mallory home.

The girls then decided to play in the backyard.  It was finally not so bitterly cold outside.  It was nice to be able to enjoy all of the snow that has kept us trapped for so long.

My dad was even able to get out to the store so he stopped by the house.

Finally building the snowman Caroline wanted.

 

 They decided to have a snowball fight.  Andy got both girls...in the head.

Andy never dreamed he would be shoveling snow off of a trampoline.  There was so much snow on there it looked like it was going to snap.

 Can you tell how deep that is?

 Anyway, it has been a crazy week.  Too bad it is not over yet.  The girls were out of school 4 days last week.  They did not have school today and it has already been called off for tomorrow.  The last forecast I heard called for 11 inches of snow Tuesday night into Wednesday.  ELEVEN INCHES!!!!!  It looks like they will be out of school all week.  And I somehow have to figure out how to drive to Tulsa on Friday for Kayla's dance competition.

This is just crazy!!!!

Caroline is not a fan of the deep snow!