Charleston Figure Skating Club Spring Show

Sunday, May 7, 2017

Tonight was the Charleston Figure Skating Club spring show!  This year's theme was "A Night at the Grammys."  This was the first year that Emily was eligible to skate a solo in the show.  The kids have to pass pre-preliminary moves in the field before they can do a solo. In addition to her solo, Emily also skated a duet with Kelsie, her skating BFF and she skated in Amanda's coach's number with the rest of the Sugarplums too.

Her first number was her duet with Kelsie to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper, the 1908's smash hit.  The girls were adorable in this number and they both skated great!  I hate that some of the pictures are a little blurry, but they let the kids skate under the spotlights for the first time so that low light coupled with speedy skaters equals less than outstanding pictures.

   

After her duet, it was time for her first solo in a club show.  She skated to "Ever Ever After" by Carrie Underwood from the movie "Enchanted."  This was also  the first time she attempted some of her bigger jumps that she has been working on including a full loop and a full lutz (her biggest skill).  I was  really proud of her because she went for both of them and landed both of them too!!

  

Look at this jump!  Go Emily!!

Then her final number was the coach's number - "Thriller" by Michael Jackson.  This girls all got to dress as zombies - not Emily's favorite costume at all.  Luckily for her, the time between Ever Ever After and Thriller was too short for her to get to wear all the zombie makeup!  That made her quite happy.  It was a pretty ambitious routine complete with choreography from the original music video.

They did a really good job and it was a terrific show!  Can't wait until Christmas show...

Fun Spring Weekend at Home

Friday/Saturday/Sunday,  April 28-30, 2017

We had a blog-worthy super fun weekend with friends!  Friday night Emily headed over to the McCormick's house to check out their backyard play area.  We had heard about the zip line they installed, but this was Emily's first experience and she loved it!  She also loved their big swing!  So much fun for a Friday night!

Saturday evening Abby had her birthday party at Revolution Gymnastics out in Cross Lanes.  Emily loves to go to parties there.  It was funny because about half way through the party I looked at Emily and her big smile and she said "I kinda miss gymnastics... but I still love skating."  If she wasn't so cute, and her smile wasn't so big, I would have reminded her what we just paid for her new figure skates.  :-)

  

  

Then on Sunday afternoon, it was in the upper 80's and the sun was shining so the kids all went out to play in the hose, the baby pool and try out Reagan's new slip-n-slide.  Unfortunately, by the time we got it all set up, a little thunder shower rolled in and we had to fold it up, but somehow I have a feeling today will not be the last afternoon we spend on the slip-n-slide this summer.

    

Teacher Appreciation Week

Friday, April 28, 2017

I pulled all of my Pinterest ideas together on time this year to prepare for Teacher Appreciation week at school.  I am definitely proud of my efforts this time around which is good since Emily has basically 2 teachers and a student teacher this year.  

  

  

Celebrating Daddy!

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Happy birthday Daddy!  Tonight we celebrated Daddy's birthday with dinner at Red Lobster (Emily's favorite, go figure) followed by presents and cake with friends!  Emily got Dan a new Star Wars t-shirt with the classic Star Wars logo on it for a future Disney trip.  I got him a new outfit from Vineyard Vines for our trip to the Bahamas.  My parents got his a new computer part for his Christmas light show and a nice plaid shirt from Carbon to Cobalt (one of his new favorite stores).

    

   

After presents, it was time to have The Johns over for cake and singing.  We are so lucky to have such amazing friends as our neighbors.  I think Dan definitely had a happy birthday.  44 suits him just fine.

Easter 2017

Sunday, April 16, 2017

This was a big Easter for us.  This year we got to celebrate with friends and it was so much fun.  We started our morning with the annual Easter basket hunt.  Emily was thrilled to find Lush bath bombs, Pusheen the cat coasters, scented gel pens and macaroon sponges in her basket along with lots of Easter candy and other treats, too.  I'd say it was a pretty good haul!

After our morning Easter celebration it was time for our friends, Abby, Josie, Molly and Paul to come over and share in some Easter fun!  The weather was a little iffy most of the day but right after lunch the  skies cleared for a bit and the kids got to go outside for an Easter Egg Hunt!  And boy did they have fun.

    

   

After all the eggs were found, we headed back inside, just beating out the rain, for cookie  decorating and egg coloring.  The kids had a blast! It was fun to decorate cookies that aren't for Christmas for a change.  The spring colors were super fun and the Easter sprinkles were too cute!

 

  

Then we shook off our table cloth and reset everything for an egg coloring eggstravaganza!  The coloring kits this year, for whatever reason, really made some beautiful eggs.  I feel like some years the colors are not so good, but this year...Wow!

  

  

Then it was  fine for our big Easter dinner, complete with ham, potatoes, green beans, and rolls that looked like bunnies (kinda).  Then for dessert, I made my first ever bunny cake.  Not to bad for a first effort.  Definitely an eggstra special Easter!

  

ACSI Speech Competition

Friday, April 7, 2017

Once again this year Emily was selected to attend the Association of Christian Schools International fine arts festival and compete in speech.  She used the same piece she did in the drama performance earlier in the week and she did a great job!  This year the festival was held right in our backyard at Bible Center Church which was very nice  and super convenient.  This year they also let the parents come into the room to watch the performance which was nice too.  The only disappointing part about the competition is that they don't let the kids know how they did.  They have to wait a couple weeks before they get their scores and ribbons.  They can earn a ribbon for Superior, Excellent or Good. Emily always works for the Superior ribbon.  There is just something about a blue ribbon...

   

UPDATE:  The ACSI school assembly was today, April 26.  Emily received a gold medal for her drama recital performance and a superior ribbon for the ACSI competition!  GO EMILY!!!

She's a blur!  Can you tell she was a little excited???