Recital and Starpower Nationals

Last Saturday was the recital. It was Julia's 6th recital and Gianna's 3rd. I thought the girls did a fantastic job!

(Papa Can You Hear Me and Barnyard Boogie costumes)

with teacher and choreographer for "Papa", Miss Hope....

Ballet "A Dream is a Wish"

Tap "Cold Feet"

Julia and her friends, the Vigevani sisters

Vigevani sisters and Julia & Gianna

Leah, Onecia, Julia, Caitlyn and Sarah

Jada, Emilee, Leah, Alyssa, Julia & Sarah

Sarah & Julia

The morning after the recital, Julia and I had to drive down to Mohegan Sun for Nationals.  Her solo was on at 8:00 a.m.!!!!  She was entry number 12 out of 1493 entries!! That meant getting up at 4:00 a.m. and leaving the house at 5:15 a.m.!!!  And that was after a very long day of dancing in two recitals (and me running around doing a ton of costume changes)!  But our adrenaline got us through!

 

Julia did another beautiful performance of "Colors of the Wind".  It was just the two of us there at that crazy early hour.  I clapped and cheered like crazy for her!!  And here is a gorgeous picture of her dancing....

So there she sat....all alone on the stage....I was sitting right in front of her trying to keep her company....we made faces at each other.  : )

She won a trophy for winning the "open" division...

and then....she won SECOND PLACE OVERALL in the junior 9-11 all-star category!!!!!!  She competed against 35 girls!  Look how tiny she is compared to the girl who won first.

The trophy is bigger than her! 

I'm so proud of her!!!  Pretty awesome for her first solo!  

Then we walked through the lobby and Julia spotted a picture of herself on the wall!  (Far left...)  What a day!!!

Later that day as we walked through the mall at Mohegan, we saw people gathering around a stage and found out Derek Hough from Dancing with the Stars was going to perform!!  I love him!!!

He is so gorgeous and super talented!!

Here he is dancing....

The next day the trio competed.  The talent at Nationals was crazy good!!!  Julia's teachers were all nervous and edgy.  They wanted the girls to be super stretched out.  So here they are torturing my girl!!  ; )

Before they danced, we waited for the petite solo awards.  And Julia's teammate and good friend, Alyssa, took first place!!!  So exciting!!!  It was a really hard competition so it was huge that she won!  Look at the size of that trophy!!

Here are the kids helping her carry it back to the dressing room.  Yes, they walked through the casino dressed like that carrying a crazy huge trophy.  So funny!

Nicholas and Gianna had so much fun helping!

Shortly after, we found out the trio won FIRST PLACE in the petite division!!!

What a great day for the little ones!!!

And Nicholas won the trophy for being the most helpful, amazingly good boy there!!!

Here are the girls getting ready for an award ceremony...(Julia's in pink)

Junior Acro Team performed "The Matadors".  They won 2nd place!!  

And Julia's jazz team won 1st PLACE for "Steam Heat"!  So exciting!!!

Here is the winning moment!!!

I'm so proud of all the girls but especially my baby girl!!  Just 9-years-old.  She amazes me with her talent and poise!

Finale

I love finally getting to watch my girls dance side by side!  Practicing the finale...

Hurray for Hollywood

This is Gianna's tap dance (she starts 4th from the left)...

Sweet Georgia Brown

This is Gianna's jazz dance (she's on the floor on the left side near the front)...

Father's Day

DAD

By Nicholas

Lover of hockey, lacrosse and Lynwoods

Who needs my hugs, my kisses and my love

Who gives me support, hugs and love

Who fears peas, liver and Dance Moms

Who would like to see the Hockey Hall of Fame, Boston Bruins and the Boston Cannons

Who likes to wear shorts, t-shirts and fancy clothes

Dear Dad, 

I love it when we play outside.

You are funniest when you pretend to hit Mom.  (It's not as bad as it sounds...really!)

You are most handsome when you dress up for work.

Love, 

Gianna

Julia gave her Dad four coupons good for...

   1. Mowing the lawn but give me $5.00. (Smart girl!)

   2. Picking basil for dinner.

   3. Taking out the trash on a Tuesday.

   4. Getting the mail.  

Danny's a great Dad, a true family man, and a wonderful husband.  We are lucky.  

And to my Dad...how I wish I could have spent the day with you yesterday.  I walked around the yard looking at my flowers thinking of you.  The impatiens are so beautiful.  Father's Day will never be the same. I love and miss you every single day. 

Teach Me How to Shimmy

This is Julia's Monday class jazz routine. You can hear Hope saying..."oh yeah"..."stretch your feet"..."oh yeah"...over and over. And she's not even the teacher!! Funny!

Last Day of School

Yesterday was the last full day of school and all the classroom parties.  This day is always bittersweet.  I was so happy with all their teachers this year.  All three kids loved school and loved their teachers.  So that equals success for me!!

But backing up a bit....two days ago Julia's 3rd grade class got to display their animal habitat projects they worked so hard on.  Julia did hers on the white-tailed deer.

She did a great job!

Now back to the classroom parties...Julia's 3rd grade class had ice cream, colored visors and signed t-shirts....

Then it was on to Gianna's 1st grade classroom....they had cupcakes and did a craft...

posing with her best friend Brady....

And then it was over to Nicholas' 4th grade classroom....they had cupcakes, did a gooey craft and also signed some t-shirts....

My boy only has one more year left in elementary school.   Oh where does the time go?!?!

Then I had to go back to each classroom to collect my kids...here is the result of all her class signatures...

I take this picture every year...

We have one more year with all three of our babies in one school.  Monday is a half day and then it's summer vacation time!!!

I'm looking forward to making our "summer list" for this summer!  Here is our list from last year....

We didn't get to some of these things so maybe we'll do them this year?  We'll see...

"Little Red Running Shorts"

Gianna writes the funniest stories. Yesterday, she brought this story home from school. She made this up all by herself. I think it's pretty great!

"Little Red Running Shorts" by Gianna (1st grade)

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Little Red.  One day Little Red bought some little red running shorts.  When it came she put them on.  When she put them on she felt like running.  She went outside.  She started running everywhere.  When people looked at her, people started to make fun of her.  Little Red felt kind of sad and lonely.  She wished that someone else would have some little red running shorts.  She ran back inside.  Then she took off her little red running shorts.  She went back outside.  She went to the park.  She saw someone who had little red running shorts!  But he did not have red ones.  He had blue ones.  She did not know that there were blue ones.  She came over and said, "Hi".  He said, "You have red ones and I have blue ones".  They became friends.  The End.

Dance recital picture day

I always work up quite the sweat on picture day. Today I had eight costume changes, almost all back to back. I only took a couple pictures with my own camera. I really didn't have much time to take any more. I'm already starting to sweat about the recital costume changes. My girls have 6 dances in the afternoon show and 10 dances in the night show, 7 of which are in the first half. Yikes!

Julia's tap costume for "Cold Feet".  I absolutely love this costume!  It's my favorite of hers!

Gianna's tap costume for "Hooray for Hollywood".

Sister picture....left to right we have Ella and Olivia (sisters), Leah, Savannah & Sarah (sisters) and then my two girls.  Isn't that cute?!  Although, those snow white costumes are hideous.  Absolutely my least favorite costume of all this year.  They are doing a ballet routine to Sleeping Beauty but the costume company said they didn't have enough of the costume the studio picked.  So instead they sent...Snow White???  Ugh.  I think the girls are too old for them to tell you the truth and obviously they don't match the song.

The recital is only two weeks away!  And for my family...we have awesome seats this year!!  6th row!!  Although I won't be doing much sitting!  : )

Colonial Day

I've been so busy and never had the chance to post Julia's colonial day pictures. The third grade is a wonderful year.  They learn all about our town's history and study about the colonial days.  For Colonial Day, the kids dress up, learn songs, recite poems and then do some square dancing.  It is so cute!!!

Then the kids go back to their classrooms and they show us their "trades".  Julia was a "hatter" (a person who makes hats).  The kids barter items with their classmates and design their own shop.

My little girl is just the sweetest...I just love her so much...

Now for some random pictures!  : )

Rapunzel's arm in a sling...notice the satin ribbon for a sling....only the best will do for Rapunzel!

I came into the house to find this...Gianna at play of course...

Then when I came back downstairs a little later, look who was at the front of the line!

Yes, KoKo.  He loves to sit with Gianna's toys when they are all over the floor.

Nicholas just completed his final fourth grade project.  Just love those projects!!  (Not really.)  It was on state national parks.  He did Wind Cave National Park.  He had to write a paper, do a display board and present it to his class.

He did a great job!  And I just love my little man.  He is such a love...