Showstoppers!

Showstoppers weekend! I really like Showstoppers as a competition because everything is so well organized and they put up individualized backgrounds for each song and just make it all feel special! Unfortunately I didn't love the location this year...we were in Dayton and there was no food nearby and walking in the city didn't feel comfortable so we were mostly just stuck in the convention center or the hotel. Besides that, it was a fun weekend! Paige ended up having to miss school all day Friday because trio performed at 2:45 but they placed 1st overall which was exciting! After that, the rest of her dances went really well too with 6 of them getting crystals, 6 placing 1st overall and her solo being 0.2 away from getting a crystal and placing 8th overall! 

Ready for trio

1st place!

I Don't Think About You

After solos

With Amanda, solo teacher

We ventured out of town a bit to eat at the Cheesecake Factory

Million Reasons

Eleanor Rigby

Easter!

We decided on an 8:30 wake up call for Easter morning! Owen felt like that was a bit early but we got him moving anyway so we would have time to find baskets and eat some cinnamon rolls. Paige found her basket in less than a minute after Owen accidentally found hers in the blanket basket first and it took him a few more minutes to locate his in Pat's office in the cat box. After that it was a typical Easter morning filled with lots of sugar before we headed to my parents house! The kids did their Easter scavenger hunt to locate their baskets, we had a yummy brunch, and we celebrated Paige's birthday too!

Good morning!!

Homemade cinnamon rolls

Found!

With the grandparents!

Reading clues

Happy birthday Paige!

Family selfie before heading out!

 

Crew vs InterMiami

We got tickets months ago to go watch the Crew take on InterMiami in Cleveland! It was such a bummer we had bad weather for the day but still so exciting to watch Messi play, even if he was against us. The Crew ended up losing but I'm so glad we had that experience together! Owen brought a friend and he saw a bunch of friends and old teammates at the game too!

 

Ultra!

We traveled to Toledo for the Ultra dance competition this year! Paige didn't have to miss any school since she was only performing Saturday evening and then Sunday. The girls did great and had so much fun!

 

Naples!

 Naples for the second year in a row! This was such a crazy trip! We started off with a very early morning flight. I think we got up around 4 am! The first sign this trip might be a problem was when we went to scan our boarding passes, the gate attendant told me we needed to step aside and check in for the flight...which I had already done. We waited there until she printed off the passes and boarded. Not a big deal, but a little annoying. Then we were speeding down the runway to take off and tha plane stopped and turned around because of unexpected traffic overhead. A little disconcerting but ok...then we tried a second time to takeoff and got stopped again because of some mechanical problem on the plane! They had us get off and kept pushing back the flight by thirty minutes until we finally rescheduled to leave the next night and went home. After that, we had a couple days of yummy food, the beach, Shirley Temple's, shopping and Paige's birthday before the girls ended up so burned that we spent our last day in the hotel trying to heal. I felt so bad for them and we learned some lessons about what not to do next time!! 

Attempt #1

Successful attempt #2!

We arrived!!

Paige's birthday morning

Picture stop on our walk to the beach

The hotel pool is so nice and usually empty

Birthday dinner-Italian

A stop in the hotel lobby before...

Gelato!

Cute little alley by the tea shop

Beach pic

Night swimming

Last night at the beach

Sunset!

Early Birthday!

Just like last year, we had a trip planned so we celebrated Paige's birthday a few days early! She had to go to school first and then solo practice but then we gave her presents on Friday night. She also had a few friends over on Saturday for a sleepover and that's when we had cake! Her theme was flowers and she wanted a pale yellow cake decorated with tiny flowers. It came out great!

15!

Happy Birthday Paige!!