Spring has sprung

Or at least this week it gave a credible effort.

Tonight we're expecting snow flurries....

again.

But most of the accumulated snow from the winter has melted.

It was a glorious week.

Birds are back,

and their various chirps, tweets and honks are like music to my ears.

Ever noticed how quiet it is in the winter?

I am reminded every spring how silent everything has been.

I ordered some more Barred Rock chicks, 

pick them up Tuesday.

That's a sign of Spring, right?

Fluffy baby chicks.

And mud.

Oh, the mud.

It's a sign of Spring.

And although I have to wash my floor a bazillion times a day,

I'm not yet complaining about it.

Cause mud = Spring.

Here's a few pictures of something I mentioned I was dying to see again.

Happy ladies.

Not sure if they're finding much,

but they sure are trying.

Exploring...

going up.

And coming back down.

I love fluffy chicken butts.

She's pretty sure I have food.....

This is when I first came out.

They all come running,

even though I didn't call them.

They're just making sure they don't miss out if there is any food.

Cyrus is constantly muddy....

And he actually was clean in this picture,

but he is SO not clean now.

He rolled in a huge mud hole,

and is now a mud horse.

Literally caked with mud.

I am so glad spring is finally trying to arrive.

My Day

Went by pretty fast.

The morning lasted all of 3 seconds, I kid you not.

The afternoon we spent outside,

me cleaning the barn, burning garbage, etc.

Kids playing....

and playing and playing.

I got Pax out of his pasture and hung out with him...

took him for a little walk.

We explored,

and goofed around.

The kids were impressed with his cavorting.

He would trot around me,

turn and face me and rear right up.

Then we would both go for a run,

and he's give a little buck.

Ava said after,

"Mom, you were teaching Pax tricks."

Yeah.....

Now, he doesn't act like that all the time on the lead.

He's a very well mannered horse.

But we were playing,

and so the rearing and bucking.

And then we came in.

And Ava wanted a snack.

So she had the regular jar of peanut butter,

which was almost gone.

She got it all out, though.

And then I had to take a picture of her funny face.

She was telling me today that she really wants an ice-cream cone,

'cause she's never had one.

And she hasn't.

They are made of wheat, which she is allergic to.

Which I explained to her.

She said,

"No problem.  We tan just find some wif no WHEAT!"

I answered,

"Well, I can try to."

Then she yelled out,

"NO! I tan!  'Tause I'm da BEST!!"

Okay then.

She's still my baby.

She will be till she's dead.

She's a delicate flower,

but a wildflower, because she's also very tough.

Sometimes she just needs a nap.

And so she go's into the livingroom, 

and crashes on the couch.

She has gorgeous eyelashes.

And a hairy forehead.

Notice anything different in my Great room?

Look low.

Really low.

Cyrus, having a snooze.

Using a concrete pad as a pillow.

His goofy "just woke up" face.

Ahhh.  He sees what woke him up.

This spot on the counter always has at least one kid on it when I am working in the kitchen.

This was while I was making supper.

Notice something a little,

uh...

gross?

A closer view.

Even closer.

Can you tell he had fun outside?

Check his feet.

It was a good day.

Being out in the sunshine did me a world of good.

C'mon Spring.

It's a New Day

And it's all about perspective.

All this week, God has shown me that I see only through a tiny window.

I see a few threads of the tapestry He is weaving of my life.

And since that is the way it is,

I am to trust Him.

'Cause He knows what He is doing, and I totally do not.

I may think I do,

but I don't.

So,

I am to give the reins over to Him.

And I believe that when you do that,

give Him control of your life,

it doesn't mean you sit stagnant,

and say,

"Okay Lord....

work Your miracle."

No.

You search Him out,

through reading His Word,

and listening for His voice.

And then in Faith you step out in the direction you believe He is sending you.

And He will direct your path.

Much easier to direct something in motion than something at rest.

And so,

I'm stepping out.

I have no idea where I'm going,

but I've let go of everything except for Him.

And I know that He sees the big picture,

and I can rest in that.

He stays the same.

This really encouraged me this morning...

Hopefully it will encourage you too!

http://www.adisciplesnotebook.com/?p=306

My Tiny Dancer

Sorry,

I crapped out last night.

By the time pics were finished uploading, I was done.

Seriously could not keep my eyes open anymore!!!

But now.

Now I can share my wonderful tiny dancer with you.

All these pics were taken by my sister with her rockin' Rebel,

because I have a krappy Kodak, and would have gotten a bunch of black squares for pics.

I was the videographer. :)

All these pics are from Emma's solo,

(and actually Ethan filmed this one, I was backstage).

Emma performed 3 routines,

a Group Jazz,

a Hip-Hop trio,

and a Lyrical/Acro solo.

Today I will showcase her solo.

She was so excited this year to learn a solo routine.

She thinks solo's are way better than group routines..

First off,

what you need to know about Emma,

is that she is incredibly social.

She makes friends wherever she is,

and if she spends a day somewhere pretty much everyone will know her.

She performed her solo last, at the very end of the day.

I think she went on stage about 6:30.

Remember, she had been dancing since 10am, and she is 7.

So I was worried that she would be tired, and just, well, drained.

I got her all ready,

had to re-do hair and make-up,

and then she sat on my lap for a bit and watched some routines,

waiting for her turn.

Then her teacher came down and said we could go backstage,

that Emma was coming up soon.

And it was like someone flipped a switch on that girl.

Her eyes started sparkling,

huge grin on her face,

and she was positively bouncing.

As we made our way through the bowels of the building to get to the proper side of the stage,

she was skipping and cartwheeling along,

and I kept having to tell her to wait.

Eager and excited does not begin to describe her.

We finally got to the proper spot backstage,

and she was wired.

Jumping around, just not able to contain her excitement.

I, on the other hand,

was dying.

Shaking, nervous, just so.... I don't know.

Worried?

She kept creeping up to the stage, and I kept having to pull her back,

telling her she had to wait till they called her.

And finally they did.

She looked back at me,

flashed me a huge smile,

and out she went.

A huge stage,

bright lights,

in front of a bunch of people.....

she was so confident.

She got a big cheer when she walked out,

people saying, "YAY EMMA!"

All the friends she had made through the day.

And then she started.

This is her beginning pose.

Her solo is to the Mandy Moore song,

"We're Dancin'"

and it's about the love of dance.

Suits Emma perfectly.

One armed cart-wheel.

Some ball-changes..

I don't know what this is, but it looks pretty cool.

Same with this.

Yes the girl is freaky flexible...

but not naturally.

She had to work at it.

If you notice in her these pics,

her arms and legs are straight,

fingers and toes pointed...

very important in Lyrical.

It's all about the lines.

I think this is my fave of all the pics.

Her arabesque. 

She exited on the other side of the stage,

so I ran back down through the belly of the building to meet her.

I was shaking,

and I actually cried.

And I am NOT a crier.

I was just so freakin' proud of her.

And she loves dancing so much.

And she's my baby,

and she works hard for what she loves.

She met me half way,

ran up and gave me big hug.

She said,

"What did you think?"

I said,

"You were beautiful.  You did SO well, and I am SO very proud of you."

There was only one more routine after her,

then a short break before judging and awards.

I got her changed,

and everyone we met said,

"Great job, Emma!"

She beamed at every compliment.

I teared up at every one.

Finally, it was time for awards.

Emma got 3rd, which kinda surprised me.

But she was in a category with Hip-Hop dancers, even though her style was Lyrical.

There was no other dancers her age doing a Lyrical performance.

And those other kids did rock their Hip-Hop performance.

Hip-Hop is more high energy, and a lot about attitude.

Very different from Lyrical.

Anyway,

her teacher came over after and explained that Emma did extremely well.

She got a VERY high mark,

an 81.5

and the highest mark given the whole competition was an 85.

She got third by a matter of decimal points.

But really,

it's not the placing that's important, it's the mark.

And she did well.

She made a couple mistakes,

got ahead of the music 'cause she forgot one move,

but for the first performance of the year she rocked it.

She got to bring home a Crystal Trophy,

and as she said,

"It's no different from the first place ones.  Only a little smaller."

So she's happy.

And that makes me happy.

Here's her song:

Will post on other routines soon.

A Weekend in Windsor

I think I'm clawing my way out of the Funk.

Had an incredibly busy week,

(but then, I say that all the time...)

but it was.

Friday was spent readying for a road trip...

to WINDSOR!!!

Why in the world to Windsor?

Big Dance Competition/Conference.

It is a Qualifying Regional event,

for the World Dance Cup.

And the Judges,

who included Vincent Desjardin from Season 2 SYTYCD (Canada),

also were teaching some dance classes.

So my sister and I, and 2 of her kids, and 1 of mine,

packed up and headed out early Saturday morning.

Sleepy Emma

Chipper Becky

Not impressed Ethan.

He's way cuter than this picture, but it's the only one I have!

The Chauffeur

The Betty Handler

This Betty.

We borrowed her, and she made the trip way less stressful.

I would love one of these,

make finding all those little towns and their hockey arenas WAY easier....

On the road...

Almost there!!

And there is the USA, just across the river.

We arrived finally, found parking,

and walked in the rain to the venue.

And were told the conference had moved....

but luckily not very far away.

So, walked/trotted in the rain again, and got to the proper spot.

We went in to register the kids for the afternoon dance workshops,

and found out that the times had also changed, 

and instead of having an hour before the class started to feed and change them, etc.,

we had ten minutes.

No food for the kiddies.....

We got them in,

and they started the class, "Street Jazz."

It kinda looks like a cross between Jazz and Hip Hop.

Funky Jazz with attitude.

We left the kiddo's there,

and walked back to our hotel.

It was seriously a 3 minute walk.

It's a longer walk for me to go get my mail, than it was to the hotel.

So that was awesome.

We checked in, and carried some stuff up,

grabbed some food to give the children,

then back to the theater to catch the end of the class.

It was a cool bit of Choreo they learned.

There was a break then, for 30 minutes,

so we fed them,

and they got to change into their dance clothes before they started their second class.

Second class was contemporary,

Very cool music.

Still in my head.

It was at this point that I realized I had forgotten Emma's Dance Shoes for her Hip Hop routine.

Not good.

Not good at all.

And four hours was a bit too long to make the drive back home.

And nobody was willing to bring them to me

('cause I asked.....)

;p

When the kids were done we packed them up and asked Betty to show us the nearest Wal-Mart.

And she did.

And God loves me,

'cause we found a suitable pair,

(very hard to do!!)

for $10.

Whew.

Our plan was to go out to eat that night,

at Swiss Chalet.

The reason Swiss Chalet,

is it is one of the very few restaurants we can eat at, with all of our various allergies.

And guess what?

Not one Swiss Chalet in the whole of Windsor.

This was shocking to me.

I mean, Windsor's big.

If Stratford and Goderich have a Swiss Chalet,

I would have bet that Windsor had one, somewhere.

But nope.

So we decided to just go back to the hotel and eat there.

We had both packed coolers,

'cause again, with all the allergies,

it's hard to find food for our kids.

I think it actually was the best thing we could have done.

We all changed into our jammies,

and turned on the T.V.,

(Emma was super excited to have a tv in the room, and it was the thing my boys were most jealous about.)

(And that is really sad.)

We sat there, and ate out of our coolers,

and vegged out.

Then the kiddo's went through their routines,

Auntie and Mommy giggling all the way through.

This is my favourite part of their whole Group Jazz routine.

Makes me howl with laughter, every time.

Then we put the kids to bed and cracked open the bottle of wine,

and my sister and I chatted and relaxed.

It was nice.

The hotel room was really cool,

with a double bed, pullout couch, armchair and t.v in the main room,

and then a second room with a King bed and a small tv.

Both rooms had a door to the bathroom,

and there was a little alcove with a make-up table, and good lighting.

The room was perfect for us.

Adeena took the double bed,

Ethan and Becky slept on the pull-out couch,

and Emma and I shared the King bed.

The only bad thing I can say about the room,

is that when we pulled out the couch,

a bunch of Dorita crumbs,

and cracker crumbs fell out.

Kinda gross,

but it also spread wheat all over the floor,

which our kids are allergic to.

Other than that though,

it was great.

And that was the end of the first day.

Sunday was the hectic busy stressful long day,

and I'll cover that tomorrow.

A little taste....