Turn it Up Nationals

We spent nearly a week at nationals on Cape Cod.  It was lousy weather outside the whole time but the girls had a lot of fun with their dance friends in the indoor pool...

Julia did a master class with Twitch from So You Think You Can Dance...

Julia and some of her teammates were selected to be on a dance team to learn an opening number for the Dance Battle...

The entire junior dance team (Julia is front row, 9th from the right)

Julia placed 3rd overall for her solo...and that was out of 64 soloists!!  Most of the girls who placed in the top ten were going for the junior title too!  A lot of these girls travel around from competition to competition just trying to win titles...and most girls perform up to 3 solos.  Not my Julia.  She just showed up to one national competition with only one solo routine and walked away with 3rd place!  Pretty amazing!!!

1st Jaylyn D'Angelo (Express Dance & Acrobatics) 

2nd Jackie Lynch (Let's Dance) 

3rd Julia!!! 

3rd tied with Mia Pastore (Let's Dance)

4th Emma Graveline 

Julia also won a special award "pretty as a picture" for all her pretty poses in her routine...

Lots of fun to be had during the award ceremony...

The Dance Battle was very good!  They picked ten of the best ages "10 and under" routines from the competition and ten of the best ages "11 and over" routines to compete again in the Battle.  Our studio won 1st place for both "10 and under" and "11 and over" with "United" and "Taj"!  "United" got a standing ovation from the entire audience AND the judges which included Twitch!!!  So exciting!!!  The girls really brought the house down!  They also got a standing ovation after they competed the first time too!  Our studio won $1000 each for the winning routines!!  Gianna's acro routine "Curly Shuffle" placed 3rd in the battle too!! 

The winning moment...look at Julia's face!!

I don't know how Julia managed to wedge herself between the two big trophies...

Gianna did an amazing job too throughout the competition and the Battle!  She is quite the performer...

 

 

My girls got Twitch's autograph...I love him!!!

Celebrating after with a yummy dinner and hot fudge sundae...

 

5th place Headliners regional

1st place Turn it Up regional

4th place Starpower regional

7th place Dance Explosion regional

3rd place Turn it Up NATIONALS

 

And I didn't think she would even place in the top 10 this year!  : )  

 

 

Last day of school

Yes, we are STILL in school and it's over 90 degrees! The poor kids! We had missed three days for a blizzard and one day for a hurricane. Boy, it's tough living in New England sometimes. Today was the last full day of school and tomorrow is just a half day. Julia is done today however because we are off to Cape Cod in the morning for a dance competition. Gianna will join us over the weekend as she'll be dancing too.

First up was Gianna's 2nd grade classroom.  Here is Gianna and her "cool" friends...that's what she told me the other day...she said she and her four best friends are the "cool" girls in her classroom.   : )   I'm just so happy she made such nice friends this year.  

Gianna and her teacher Mrs. Nolan....

and her other teacher Mrs. Johnson...

 

 



Then it was over to Julia's 4th grade classroom...

Julia and her teacher Mrs. Finan (love her!!)...we were lucky to have Mrs. Finan for two years in a row as Nicholas had her last year.  I hope Gianna has her too!  She is a wonderful teacher.

Julia and her friend Tess.  This girl got Julia to love reading!!  Thank you Tess!!

Leah, Katie and Julia...

Julia and Emily...she made some really nice new friends this year too!

Nicholas with his buddies Cody and Jack...

Cody, Nicholas and Cooper...I know I've said this before, but I just love the way Nicholas just doesn't care about showing his affection for me.  When I walked into his classroom, he ran to me and gave me the biggest hug and kissed me...right in front of all his 5th grade friends!  How awesome is that?  Then when all the girls were laughing and the other kids were saying "awwww"...he turned around to smile big at all of them while continuing to hug me!  That's my boy!!  What a love he is! 

The room mothers made the teacher a really nice scrapbook....

Nicholas and his teacher Mrs. Neves...

Today was the very last day with all three of my babies in the same school for quite some time.  The next time they will all be together will be high school (12th, 11th and 9th grades)!  I don't even want to think about that!!  Yikes!

So my boy is off to middle school.  How in the world did that happen?  I just can't believe it.  His elementary school days are over... : ( 

I think we were all melting outside for this picture...

My babies keep growing up on me.  Bittersweet. 

Nicholas' musical

I just have to share this video of one of Nicholas' classmates singing a solo at the 5th grade musical.
Isn't he the sweetest???

Lots of happenings

I found this picture on my phone and it made me smile...Gianna in her glory with tons and tons of those tubes of plastic animals...

Gianna's 2nd grade biography on Neil Armstrong...

I found this picture on my phone too...my funny little girl who is forever telling a story...

Nicholas loving his baby sister...

the trio...it really is amazing how they physically match so well right now...

Julia at Dance Explosion...the most difficult competition of the season...

and she placed 7th!  Pretty amazing...

1st Brooke Colletti (The World of Dance)

2nd Hannah Winship (McKeon)

3rd Cassidy Becker (Starline)

4th Jordan Remillard (McKeon)

5th Charlotte Beaudrot (McKeon)

6th Brooke Hill (McKeon)

7th Julia!!!

8th Sari Thaler (Rising Stars)

9th Hannah Smith (McKeon)

10th Mina Micera 

cousins visited from California...

the girls...

the boys...

Julia's 4th grade state park presentation...

friends Emily and Leah...

and best friend Lizzie...

Spirit Day at school...Julia looks so much like Nicholas in this picture that it's kind of freaky...

my handsome boy...and no he doesn't look like Julia in this picture : ) 

Nicholas' 5th grade musical...they sang a medley of Beatle songs...

He was just so cute...they all were...

My girls had their dance recital...

They were both amazing.  I'm so proud of them...

Julia was a huge help to me this year with 15...yes 15 costume changes!!  Julia is fabulous with the lipstick!  Not me.  I get it all over the place!  She even helped Gianna into her costumes. Julia only had one meltdown last night.  Not bad for Julia!  ; )

Gianna's dances were the highlight of the night for me...

Look at those smiling faces!!  No nerves...just so much confidence and pure fun! 

and this dance was the biggest hit of the night...

They had the audience clapping right along with them.  Gianna is a true performer...

I can't believe Nicholas is moving on to middle school in the fall.  Honestly, where does the time go?  It feels like yesterday he was leaving Little Blessings.  But he is ready.  That's for sure.  He is growing up before my eyes.  What a wonderful boy he is.  So loving and thoughtful.  He still tells me about ten times a day that he loves me and that I'm pretty.  Look what he made for his teacher as an end of the year gift...a fabulous chocolate cake!  I guess she's a chocolate lover...she better be! 

Here are some videos from Nicholas' 5th grade musical...just the cutest!