Intrigue

Paige competed/participated in the Intrigue competition/convention over the weekend at her studio. Like last year, the company came to her home studio instead of us having to travel to another location, it's a nice way to ease into competition season! Day one started with competition and Paige and Maya got to perform their duo for the first time, followed later in the day with solos. On day 2 the kids participate in four classes and also have the opportunity to compete in an improv competition. Paige decided to try it for the first time this year and won 4th place! The kids don't know what song they'll get, they step out onto the stage and the music starts and they have about 40 seconds to dance. Paige got the toughest song we heard, an instrumental violin piece, and she danced beautifully. I was so impressed! Day 3 was more classes and then awards. Paige ended the weekend with platinum for both of her dances and 7th (or maybe 6th?) overall for her solo, 1st overall for her duo. 

Ready for duo! (Their new costumes weren't ready so they wore the lyrical costume from last year)

With Zoe and Miley

Maeve, Paige, Olivia

Ready for solo!

Paige and Maya

With Miss Erika

Day 2

Day 3

With her awards

Duo

Improv

Solo

 

Misc.

Buddies

We basically found Jamie's first and middle name at the store

Playing the Survived expansion pack with dolphins and squids!

I finally figured out how to do the mantle decor to my liking. Except I have one deer facing the wrong way in this picture

The kittens were fascinated by Paige's yo-yo

Paige performed a flute concert for us

Training group party for dance and Paige and Maeve wore the same shirt!

Griffin needed to relax directly on my hat

 

Wicked

We had one last event to fit in before break ended...Paige got tickets to see Wicked for Christmas (Owen has tickets to an undetermined sporting event) and we got to see the very last show before it left Cleveland. It was up in the air for awhile whether or not the show would actually be performed because a lot of performers were getting covid but they pulled together a cast a few days before we went and everything was settled by the time our tickets were up! The show as fantastic and I loved getting to experience it with Paige, we have plans for more shows in our future!

Dressed up and ready to go

It was chilly but Paige stopped to take a picture before we went in

This doesn't do it justice but there were giant Christmas trees everywhere

The curtain was a map of Oz

Ready for the show to start!

We couldn't find a big sign to pose by but these doors were covered outside so Paige stopped here before Pat came and picked us up!

 

Christmas 3

We had one more celebration to do before break ended and this time it was with my side of the family! We were so excited to see everyone and I'm so thankful that we had time to see everyone. The only thing we didn't make time for was baking a new Christmas dessert! We started off with a salad/pasta meal, opened a ton of presents, celebrated my mom's birthday and ate a ton of desserts!

Checking out the tree

Ready to eat!

Cleaning up!

Opening presents

There was a dancing train winding through the house

Grandkids

Playing with presents

Happy birthday Mom!

 

Christmas 2

 

Our family Christmas celebrations got pushed back because of Covid but we were able to fit in time with Pat's mom and brother on January 1st! We started off with our traditional soup meal with options of Cheesy Vegetable Chowder or Sausage Tortellini soup and some French bread rolls. So good! Every year I wonder if we should stop the soup tradition but then when we sit down to eat I'm so glad we did it!

Afterwards, we exchanged presents and we all watched some football game that didn't go very well...but we had fun anyway!

New Year Hike!

We've had better weather for our New Year's Day hike but we've also had much worse! We knew rain was coming later in the day so we got out fairly early and by the time we were heading to the car it was starting to mist so we timed it just right. We chose to go hiking near the nature center because we knew it would be muddy out and this would give us some choices. Of course, the kids chose a flooded path to explore anyway and did most of the hike in wet shoes but they didn't complain and were really good sports about the whole thing, that made it extra enjoyable and fun!

The kids jumped and maneuvered over this giant puddle to get to the bridge while Pat and I opted to watch. They both ended up with wet shoes when they made their way back

Hug!

Stopped for a quick picture

We walked across a lot of fallen trees, luckily they weren't too slippery

Stopped for a picture again

It's more fun to walk across fallen trees than to go around

So many stairs!

We made it to the top!

 

New Year's Eve!

We had a pretty low-key New Year's Eve at home this year but what made it extra fun was that Jamie joined us! We ordered our traditional Chinese food dinner, played a game of Fluxx, watched Encanto and cheered the New Year! 

The Chinese food was excellent!

We played Pirate Fluxx but I can't remember who won

It turns out that yes, Paige and I can both fit in her Comfy

Ready with our sparkling white grape juice!

Ha ha! We didn't leave Pat out there too long!