A busy week of swim, dive, gymnastics, piano, music, karate and dance flowed over into a busy weekend. This weekend was Aubrie's dance recital weekend. Her studio puts on 3 separate recital times, and if you are in the performing group, (which Aubrie is) you have dances in all three of them. The first one was Friday night. I helped backstage that evening, so Ben stayed home while Aubrie and I went to the recital. Aubrie did well in her dances, and I was able to watch most of it on a TV monitor, in between babysitting nine 7 year olds. My niece was in the group I was responsible for, so I was also able to visit with Nicole for a bit in between Shea's dances. After the recital, I took Aubrie to Sonic for a treat, and then we got home and got her stuff ready for the recitals for the next day. We then got the kids to be bed early (9:30) so they could get up for their early 7:30 dive meet the next day.
6:30 came way to fast. It was so hard for me to get up and going. The kids were excited, especially Ethan. When we got there for the warm ups, we were really blown away by some of the kids dives. I thought, "Well, I hope they just have fun and are happy with what ever ribbon they get". One of Aubrie's dives was a front flip. She had practiced her tuck dive all Thursday, and hadn't even practiced the flip. During warm up, she started getting freaked out because she couldn't run to do it, but had to do the 3 step approach. She starting crying and telling her coach she was scared. I wasn't sure she was going to make it through the competition.
Her other two dives were awesome. Especially her tuck dive. She got really high scores, so the flip was the only thing that would foul her up. I was praying when her turn was up, that she could have the courage to do it. She ended up doing it, but not with the most graceful landing. I was happy that she pushed through.
Uncertaintiy written all over this face!
The boys did well. They had no fear. Boston's pencil dive was perfect, and I was proud that he conquered the back dive, after having a melt down at one of his practices, refusing to do one and insisting he was going to quit.
Ethan has absolutely no fear, and I swear his cute charisma got a him a few extra points;)
When it was time for the ribbon ceremony we were surprised and excited when Ethan placed first in his division. Boston did so well (having the highest points in the whole competition) I wasn't surprised when he placed first, but I was starting to feel bad (I hate seeing the disappointment on the other kids faces), and uncomfortable from the attention. When they started calling for Aubrie's division I was just praying that she wasn't last, but with each call of placement they weren't calling her name. She ended up placing second. She was so happy with that, and I think it gave her the confidence she needed to do better next time. There were lots of smiles on the car ride home.
There wasn't much time to celebrate, since we quickly had to get Aubrie ready, and the kids fed before her recital. The whole family went to the first Saturday performance. Aubrie, again, did well, and I was even more impressed at how responsible she was; getting herself ready for each dance, when she only had a few dances to make a costume change. The boys did pretty well sitting through two hours of dances. Sophia was fidgety, and kept asking us for all the pretty dresses. She also had a fun time cheering and clapping before and after performances. The people in front and behind us were getting a kick out of her. After the recital the boys quickly rushed to where the dancers come out of their dressing rooms to greet Aubrie. Friday night, Aubrie seemed a little bummed when girls were getting flowers and I didn't have anything for her. When she came out of the dressing rooms, the family was there waiting for her with flowers. She had a huge smile on her face, and she was showing her friends her pretty flowers.
We drove home for a quick snack and Aubrie and I returned for her final recital. It was so fun to see her interact with her friends, and see her set up for her costume changes. She and her friends had picked out a spot behind the choir bleachers to change and hang out between dances. Aubrie had all her costumes lined up in order so she could make her quick changes. I stayed backstage most of the time chatting with her and her friends, and some of the dance Moms. I popped in the theatre a few times to catch a few of my favorite dances. When the recital was over it was a sigh of relief for us all. We were both running on fumes, as we drove home. Ben was at home waiting for our date night. I wasn't sure if I had the energy to make it out the door.
We ate a new Spanish restaurant close by. Ben got his favorite Spanish dish, which included seafood that I was daring enough to try. Nothing like popping a squid into your mouth...YUCK. It tastes much better when it doesn't really look like an actual squid and is all fried up. At the end of dinner the Flamenco dancer started, so we stuck around for a few minutes to watch her. I was too tired for a movie, so we made our usual Walmart stop and then Ben took me home, and I went to bed to a nice relaxing message. Thanks Ben....your the best!
