Goodbye Dance

Aubrie just wrapped up her 8th year of dance. I can't believe she has been dancing that long! She is such an amazing dancer. She really feels the music and has great stage presence. However, the time has come that she had to make a choice between competitive dance and competitive gymnastics. Since she is starting a new school, that will be more demanding, we decided together that gymnastics would be the better choice. While the studio was a second home for her, if she needed to drop out to focus on school, that would be a hardship on her fellow dancers and instructors. Choreography would have to be redone, etc. Gymnastics on the other hand is more of an individual sport, and dropping out would not significantly affect the team. Also, Gymnastics only requires 4 hours of practice on school nights, while Dance was six. Though she is a hard worker, maintaining honor roll and principals list with 12 hours of extracurricular last year, we know that will not be possible with the new school.

It was a very hard decision for Aubrie. Her emotions about quiting vacillated. Part of her wanted out because of particular girl who had been unkind to her all year, but she was going to miss the dancing and friends tremendously. While the year was wrapping up I was torn, too. I loved the experience it was for her, but was ready to be done after too many competitions, a whole Saturday of pictures, and knowing I had another Friday of Rehearsal and a whole other Saturday for Recital. The Thursday before recital, Devney (the owner of the studio) called a special meeting for performing girls and their parents. We all thought it had to do with the recital. We were wrong. Devney announced that she had sold her studio. That news was good and bad. It was hard to know the studio was going to change, but it made it easier to leave.

Friday Rehearsal was LONG! Aubrie also had problems with the girl who has been awful to her all year. I could hear her talking bad about her in the changing room, and I told the girl that she needed to stop and be respectful. It was so sad to see Aubrie so rattled. After I spoke with the girl, Aubrie said, under her tears, "thanks Mom!" That girl wouldn't look at me the rest of the weekend. I felt bad, but there seemed to be some thankful and surprised Moms. I don't speak up much about things, unless they are REALLY important to me. I've learned that unless its important its not worth the battle. So I think that someone must have told her Mom, because she was on top of her the rest of the recital. So with that drama, I was ready to be done with dance.

That all changed Saturday. I loved watching her up on stage and having a good time. I enjoyed helping her backstage during the second show. At one point, I was watching her side stage and started reminiscing over all her years of dance. I started to tear up a little. After the last Recital show, everyone was VERY emotional. There were a lot of tears shed. Teachers, students, parents, (even I) was crying. It was definitely a bitter/sweet experience. I'm grateful for a dance studio that respected modesty, and values, and still gave them a great time with dance. Sophia was hilarious in her dance, by the way. She was super cute and she had the audience in stitches. The funniest thing was after each somersault she laid spread eagle on the mat for several seconds. I had people commenting on her performance all night. Always the ham. Everyone loves her there! The girls all fight over her. Sophia will be going back next year.

CANDY

Sadly, the only dance I got photos. This was a fun hip hop dance they took to 3 different competitions. They had candy necklaces, rings, and each girl had their own silk screen candy jacket. Aubrie was Sour Patch!

Recital Picture Day

A long day (9 to 7)

Aubrie, Kaelyn & Kennedy (Kaelyn's sister)

We drove to all the competitions together, and to their Disneyland Exhibition. They are practically family!

Funny Girls

(There are a lot more pictures like this floating around)

Tearful Goodbyes

Tearful faces as they say goodbye to dance and Deveny's, where they have gone since they were three!

Aubrie and Devney

Flowers for the performers!

Sophia was so excited for her rose. She kept her rose in a vase by her bed till it died!

Summer Beginnings 2011

Well summer feels like its flying right out the window. We are now half way through week 3. Dive has been keeping us busy in the mornings. Sophia started swim last week and that has been nice having the 3 at the pool at the same time. Sophia LOVES going. Her teacher ended up being Justin Peugnet, from our old ward. He is so good with her. The boys are enjoying dive. They have had two meets so far. The first meet the coach had them competing against each other. We weren't happy with that, but the boys didn't seem to mind it. The second one, Ethan was put in a lower division. He easily got first place, and on the way to the car Ethan said he would rather be up with Boston because the other division was too easy. I was impressed that he would willingly give up first place for a challenge. Boston thought he was going to be doing very well this year after gymnastics. He was surprised when a friend from the gym, who is at a higher competing level, was on the dive team. There are actually more than that, but they are older. I guess Boston talked about it a lot to his gymnastic friends! Anyway, when his gymnast buddy was at the meet, he soon realized his hopes dominating were gone. The kid smoked him first meet. The last meet, they weren't that far apart. Boston is alright with it. I think the fact that he gets to see his friend from the gym and goof off with him at every meet makes it all fine with him. Personally, both the boys are doing really well. Much improved from last year (Ethan especially). Aubrie went to one of their practices the other day, because we were going to Wet and Wild right after. She convinced Coach Josh to let her dive. She finally got her back dive and back flip a few days before, and she wanted to show him. After, I asked her if she wish she would have done dive this year, and she said yes. I knew she would miss it. Especially being a gymnast!

Our summer days seemed to be so full. I thought once dance was over it would get better. It doesn't seem like it. I seem to remember feeling this way last year. I think that once dive/swim is done things seem more relaxed. It is nice to stay busy, though. I think boredom makes a summer too long! The kids like the busy pace. Probably because they are used to it!

They are doing really well with their daily lists. They put their checklists in sheet protectors and check their lists off each morning with a dry erase marker. They just get up and do it. Of course, Ethan gets off track sometimes, but he, too, has done surprisingly well. I have been doing my own morning checklist. I have been getting up a few hours before swim, which gives me about an hour on my own before I have to wake the kids. I try to get a work out in every morning while they are sleeping. So far I'm good for about 3 days out of 5. It's been great to keep me on task! I actually get the important stuff in that I always forget about. Having scripture reading and prayer on there really helps!

So last Sunday we missed church because I was having ongoing episodes of bad chest pains. While everyone was sleeping, Aubrie woke up on her own and went downs stairs and made breakfast for the family. She made pancakes and fried eggs. What a sweet thing. After breakfast, I looked out my kitchen window as I was doing dishes, to see Boston cleaning up the backyard. He came in and said, "Mom, I cleaned up the backyard!" I started to think, "what is going on here?" We then watched family videos as a family and about 30 minutes into it Ethan asked when we were going to church. We told him we weren't going because I wasn't feeling well. He than scurried off. We could see him going back and forth from the kitchen to the living room. The next thing we know he comes downstairs in his suit (minus the white dress shirt, he had a white t-shirt instead) and with Sophia all dressed up. He asks us to join him in the living room. When we got there, he had a bowl with torn up bread and cups of water for all of us out on the coffee table. He also had the big Family scripture book out. What a sweet kid. Ben gently explained to him why we couldn't take that as the sacrament. That was a good lesson. Then we asked him what the scriptures were out for, and he said he wanted us to read about the Last Supper and the passing of the sacrament. We then sang a song and closed with a prayer. When it was over, Boston said, "I think this has been the best morning ever!" Not the best seller on the fact we didn't go to church, but he was right. It was awesome! It's moments like those that make you think, maybe we are doing something right as parents!