Celeveland Spring Fling - Long Program

Saturday, April 26, 2025

Today is the day that mattered.  Today Emily was skating for a stronger score to post for the Excel series (hopefully).  She missed a couple of jumps in Nashville so hoping for improvement there.  She did skate well, but she did have a fall and got dinged on one jump.  She did improve a little, but still only a 53.63.  We were hoping for closer to 55 or 56.  This lead us to consider registering for Skate Dallas - the last weekend of the Excel series.  That would give her 2 more chances to improve her score - once at Cardinal and then at Dallas.  The registration was still open (surprisingly) so we decided to invest in Emily and we registered her.  

   

  

But it was enough for the gold by quite a bit which was great! 

   

   

Then on Saturday night, we met up with Kinzley and Tierra and we headed to Pinstripes for dinner, some bowling fun and ice cream too!  The perfect fun ending to the weekend.

   

   

   

Cleveland Spring Fling - Short Program

Friday, April 25, 2025

On the road again this weekend.  This time, to Cleveland for the Spring Fling competition - the next competition in the Excel series.  Friday morning Emily had practice ice and then we headed to the local First Watch for brunch.  D and EE have an affinity for their yummy iced coffees...that are more like dessert in a glass, I think.

Then we headed back to the rink for Emily to skate her sort program.  She changed her short program music this season to Moonlight (a take on Moonlight Sonata) and I really like it.

   

  

You can tell from her smile that she had a great skate!  And it was good enough for a medal - second place!

   

After the short, we grabbed dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and then headed home to rest up for tomorrow's long program.

Georgia Tech Visit

April 19-20, 2025

I can't say for sure that he has dreamed about this, but I know he was really excited.  Today Daniel and Emily headed for Atlanta (on a delayed flight) to visit Georgia Tech.  They planned to tour the campus and the surrounding area on Sunday afternoon and evening and then do the admissions tour and informational session on Monday.  I wasn't there to demand photos, but they did take a few.  After the tour, despite the fact that they do not have a rink on campus, Emily said she REALLY liked it and would strongly consider it if she gets in.  They had a great time!  Who knows?  Maybe she'll be a fuzzy bee like her dad. Time will tell....

   

Daniel's Birthday

 Saturday, April 19, 2025

This guy LOVES birthdays and today was his special day!  We started out with lunch from Chick Fil A, followed by presents!

I think some of his favorite gifts included new tennis shoes, new shorts and shirt for summer, some biking t-shirts and puzzle sorting trays (he's into puzzles these days).

   

But, by far, Daniel's favorite thing about birthday is cake!  All the cake.  Any kind of cake, but especially cookies-n-cream cake and this one had a frosting to cake ratio of about 2:1 so he was beyond pleased.  I would say he had a good birthday, but I would also say he was even more excited about tomorrow and taking Emily to see his alma mater.  And he was leaving me all alone with the cake...and the cats.

   

Easter 2025

 Friday, April 18, 2025

This year we had to celebrate Easter just a little early.  Tomorrow is Daniel's birthday (and I didn't want him to share his special day) and then Sunday, Daniel and Emily were headed to Georgia Tech for a college tour.  So, Friday after school and work, we celebrated all things Easter - mostly Easter baskets - and Sasha approved.  I think she just smelled food.  :-)

This year, Emily's "big" Easter gift was a new pair of airpods, a Kendra Scott flower necklace and a hair towel.  She also got a couple new Easter friends and lots of fun candy and treats.

    

Daniel got treats and candy in his basket too.  No stuffed friends for him.  Also no airpods.

   

I got a basket hand created by Emily (with Daniel's financial backing) that was Hello Kitty themed. Very cute! AND I also got a basket from my Hallmark Cruise Secret Santa too!  It was also very cute!  My favorite items were the Reese's eggs in the basket from Emily and Daniel and the penguin and spring bunny in the Hallmark basket.  I think everyone had a very nice Easter.

   

Skate Nashville

Thursday, April 10, 2025

This year, Emily is skating in the Excel series and trying to qualify for nationals in Colorado Springs this summer.  She was set to skate Excel in 2020, with nationals in Cleveland, but it was not to be.  She will still also skate NQS this fall, but for now she has her eyes set on Colorado Springs.

I did not get to go this year and I was pretty sad about that, but work duties called so Emily went with Heidi and also Lily Kelsch, another skater from our rink.  Both of Emily's events ended up being on Thursday.  The short program was first.  This one doesn't count for anything in Excel, but she did use the opportunity to test out her double axel and triple salchow.  She went for both, but unfortunately also fell on both.  Not her best skate, but with two really new and really big elements we were very proud of her for trying.  And, she ended up in 5th out of 9 which wasn't too bad, really.

          

     

Between the short and her freeskate, the crew went out on the town a bit with lunch at JBJ - the Jon Bon Jovi bar and restaurant and then did a little shopping and sightseeing.

   

Then they headed back to the rink for Emily's Excel freeskate.  We were hoping for a score in the mid-50's and she almost got there, but she singled 2 jumps so she had to settle for a 52.47. But she did get credit for all of her level 3 spins!  Not bad for the first time out, but she was still really mad about missing two jumps.  Even so, it was enough to bring home the gold by almost three points!  She still has two more competitions to see if she can improve her score and we are definitely hopeful!