Annika's Dance

Annika is also involved in dance this year. She does one dance with some younger girls that is really cute. Her partner in this dance was a little nervous, so Annika urged her on more than once. It was funny to watch, but also encouraging that Annika knew her dance well enough to know what was coming next.
She likes to play in class a lot, but her teacher this year has been great and helped her a lot. She doesn't love dance though, so this will probably be her last year.
When I asked her what she wants to try next (piano, tumbling, etc.) she told me that she doesn't need to try anything, she would like to just come home from school and read or watch tv or play with her DS.
Then we talked about hiding your light under a bushel.
She still didn't get it.
So I may make an executive decision and try putting her in tumbling. She has had a bit of a motor delay since birth, and still struggles with gross motor skills a little. I am hoping tumbling might help with that. I guess we will see how much she likes it.

Here is her dance:

Tangled

Adrienne is doing a dance to a song in the "Tangled" soundtrack this year. The girls all have wigs (which they hate, I guess they are hot). I love the costume though, they look so cute.
Adrienne has a problem looking at the camera. Sigh. Do you love the cheesy smile?

This is her dance group and teachers. I'll bet I can guess what these girls are going to be for Halloween (or at least what Adrienne is going to be).

Here is her dance:


Unfortunately, I got my own "tangle" of sutures. It was on my shoulder and pretty sore every time I moved my arm and pulled on them. They finally came out and the wound looks great now. My boys thought it was cool that mom had to get stitches.

All Dolled Up

Annika had a dance competition last Saturday.
She looked very cute and seemed to remember her dance better than she did last year.

She looked so cute, if I do say so myself.
Definitely an improvement.

So What?

Adrienne had a dance competition on Saturday. Her dance was called "So What" by P!nk. The little girls were so cute, but got a bad case of stage fright.

Their teacher couldn't come and I don't think they felt comfortable with dancing in a big auditorium.

I guess it doesn't matter much. Adrienne got a "Participation Trophy" at dance on Monday (I hate those). She hasn't let it out of her grasp since then, even sleeping with it last night.

Plus, she got to wear makeup. A big thrill for a young girl.

We took some pictures. I asked her to do a pose. This is what I got:

Then I asked her to smile:

We finally ended up with this:

Much better.

Here is her dance:

Fancy Dancers Part 2

Here is a clip of Adrienne's dance. Too cute.

For some reason, Annika's video is slightly out of focus. You get the general idea.

Fancy Dancers

Annika and Adrienne had their Christmas dance program a couple of weeks ago. They did a great job and looked so cute.
Of course they loved wearing makeup.

Adrienne saw me with the camera to video before her dance started and gave me a little wave. Her teacher didn't like that much, but the audience (and Adrienne's mom) went "Awwwwww".
I am having some trouble getting it to load, so that will hopefully come later.

Dancing Again

We started dance again this week. Adrienne was so excited; she had her dance clothes on two and a half hours before class started. She made sure she a cute bow in her hair so her teacher, Miss LouAnn would think she looks pretty.

Yep, she's a girly girl. Love it.

I didn't get a chance to snap a picture of Annika because of that whole running off to give Burke some keys so he could get home. (See post below). But Annika looked just a cute as this little munchkin.

Dancing Princesses

My girls are officially done with dance for the year. They had a great time and were more than thrilled to be able to wear makeup and perform for mom, dad, brothers, and Grandma and Grandpa on a real stage. A big stage with lights and a dark audience and a pit that rises and falls. Intimidating for a three year old and a six year old. They did a great job and looked beautiful.

This first video clip is out of focus and I'm not sure why, but it is the best I could do. It is of Adrienne's second dance, and she's wearing SpongeBob Pajamas. In the video there is a little encouragement by me for her to speed up her march around the pillows. She is always late to her spot and since she is in front, she makes everyone else late too. Sigh. But I'm not a stage mom, I promise.



Annika also did two dances, but I will only post the second because I think I already did the first one when she had a competition a couple of months ago.
I really loved this dance, but the class didn't know it very well because their teacher got really sick with mono and then had her gall bladder out. The poor thing was gone for about a month and the girls (especially Annika) didn't have enough time to learn it completely. I think you can still get the general idea though. Plus I really love the song; it is The Call.



Have I mentioned how much I enjoy having little girls? They are great. I had so much fun watching them learn about dance this year. It took me back... I would love to take an adult dance class. Maybe next fall.

Along with the yoga class I would like to take and the karate class that looks like fun too.

Too many interests, not enough time.

Annika complained nearly every week when it was time for dance, so I debated about signing her up for another year, but decided to make her do it one more year. If she still didn't like it after next year, then she could quit. Much to my surprise, after the dance review she asked me if she could do it again next year. I hope she will really enjoy it with a different teacher (Annika and Adrienne will have the same teacher next year, and I really like her). I think I will try to work with her a little bit myself. None of my kids believe that I know anything about dance or tumbling. Come to think of it, sometimes they don't think I know anything about anything.

Dancing, Part 2

Figured it out (see post #1 from Sunday, below). Like I said, I am a little bit of a basket case and it really bothers me when I can't get something to work.
Here is the video to Annika's dance. Unfortunately for all of you interested parties (Grandma), the video is chopped to one-third of the length of the dance. You don't get to see the full cuteness, but you get the general idea.
The little dancers aren't wearing shoes because this dance is supposed to be a tap dance, and the venue wouldn't allow them to wear tap shoes on the floor. There was a little slip-sliding going on...

Annika is the third from the right. She's the one either a beat early, or a couple of beats late. But she's also having a great time.

Dancing

About a week ago, Annika had a dance competition. Not really a big deal, except she got to dress in her costume and wear makeup!

I was still in the "death warmed over" part of my illness, but I dragged myself out of bed to do her hair and put her makeup on. And cheer her on, of course. She got a participation trophy (one of my pet peeves), but she was thrilled with it.

She did a great job, and her studio won the choreography trophy for their dance.

I have some video, but I am having difficulty trying to remember how to edit it. It is too long to upload right now. I will continue to work on it.

Christmas Dance Review

Adrienne is the smallest elf on the farthest left side. She did pretty well, considering she was not feeling very good at all.

As luck would have it, Annika is in the exact same location in her dance.

On the end, back row, left side. Her song is Christmas in California by the Cheetah Girls.

Again, Burke is the cameraman. 'Nuff said.

Friday and Saturday Night Fever

The big dance recital was today. The girls were adorable and so sweet. They were both so excited to wear their costumes and perform. The even got to wear makeup! It was quite thrilling for both of them.
Poor little Adrienne was not feeling so well, despite finally being able to dress up and wear makeup. She had been trying to get over a cold, but started with the symptoms of a GI bug on Friday morning. She threw up and/or had diarrhea all day Friday and was still sick this morning.
The poor thing had to wear some "back up protection" for her costume today just in case we couldn't make it to the bathroom in time. She was extremely unhappy about it, since she is a big girl and doesn't need to wear diapers anymore. I felt really bad, but you have to do what you have to do...
Anyway, it all turned out okay, and Grandma and Grandpa T even came to see them.
Now that Adrienne is on the mend, Burke has decided it is his turn to feel terrible. Hopefully he only caught Adrienne's cold. He is supposed to conduct Sacrament Meeting tomorrow and stay to do tithing settlement.
I have pics and some movies of the dance recital I will try to get posted soon.

Fancy Dancer

I may be just a little biased, but my girls are so cute. Adrienne's dance teacher had them do a dress rehearsal for their dance recital on the 13th. Adrienne has been looking forward to it all week. She finally got to put on her costume today. They are dancing to a song from the old movie Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It is the one that the elves sing..."We are Santa's elves..." You know, the tune that gets stuck in your head and you have to hum it the rest of the day because you don't know the words...

I digress. Here is a picture of my little princess:

Annika wasn't thrilled about not getting any pictures of her, so we had to get a shot of both of them.

I also have another cool hairdo I copied from The Story of a Princess and Her Hair, a hair blog I frequent, alot. In fact, it is one of my top three 'do blogs. Love it.

This hairdo is super easy, but has a very fancy look (until Annika changes her clothes 30 times and pulls five turtlenecks over her head).

By the way, in looking at my photos, I must beg your forgiveness for my poor photography skills, or maybe the bad photos may be due to the fact that my camera didn't fare too well on the deer hunt.
Maybe Santa will bring me a new one... Maybe he got lucky on Black Friday... With some help and urging from Mrs. Claus.

A Dancing Queen

Okay, I have tried for two weeks to figure out how to flip this movie I took of Adrienne at her first dance class, but alas, no luck. It is too cute to leave out, so just rub your neck really well when it is over.

Getting their groove on

It was the big day for Adrienne. All that "going in the potty" finally paid off and she was able to go to dance class for the first time today. She and Annika got all dressed up in their dancin' clothes and we headed out the door. Adrienne was so excited and was thrilled to be able to wear her tap shoes on the hard floor and make lots of noise. Annika was a little too excited and had some difficulty with doing what she was supposed to do without checking herself up close in the mirrors, among other things. I was shooting daggers at her, but she wouldn't look at me, and the observation area is a separate room enclosed with glass, so I couldn't say anything. Needless to say, we had some words on the way home, so hopefully we won't have the same problems next week...