Dance Magic Competition

On Saturday we had the big competition, which was, after all, the reason for our trip. The girls danced very well. In fact, they danced much better than the week before, but scored lower at this competition. The judges were very strict and there weren't but a handful of "Platinum" awards given. They had fun anyway because they got to dance at the beach! Bright and early Saturday morning, ready to dance!

"Freakazoid" received an "Elite Silver" ranking, which is not great. You either want an Elite Gold or a Platinum ranking in order to receive and overall award.

On to the second dance, "Proud Mary," SEVERAL hours later. The thrill of dancing on the beach is gone, because you can't play on the beach while waiting all those hours!

This dance received a "gold" ranking.

FINALLY time for the last dance of the day!

The chaos of getting 50 dancers of various ages lined up and in their correct groups!

"You Know You Want Me" also received a gold ranking.

My Bootleg Pictures!

As I've said many times before, taking pictures while the dancers are on stage is a big "NO-NO," however, when we got there Saturday I noticed several other people taking pictures during the competition. I thought I should join the club! So, here are my bootleg pictures, taken with me hiding behind a tent. I got the first two dances, but there was a group disqualified while we were waiting for our third dance, so I decided I'd better not risk it!

A Day At The Beach

Friday we spent the entire day on the beach. Ahhhh....8 hours of uninterrupted beach time, just sitting in my chair, reading my book, taking in some sun. Just me...and two kids who insist they need to go to the pool 10 minutes after we get all set up, then decide the pool water is colder than the ocean and they want to go BACK to the beach after we're set up at the pool. Yep, just me and these two angels and my loving husband, who came to my rescue after the third trip to and from the beach and just let me stay on the beach.

We really did have a great day at the beach Friday. The kids played in the water and attempted a sand castle, but got bored after a little while and gave it up.

Awww....doesn't this just look so sweet? A sister and brother playing so well together and doing the unspeakable...SHARING....

Think again! Check out the look on Kaylyn's face. This look says "Stay back or you are shark-bait!" Pesky little brother, always hanging around!

I think she's got the same look here. I'm sure he was doing something to annoy her...you know, like, breathing! How dare he!!

Luke concentrating really hard...probably thinking up his next move of aggrevation for his sister!


Stay tuned, more to come!

Boingy-BOOOIIIInnnggy-Boooiiiinnnggggyyy!

Thursday night, after spending a few hours on the beach we went to eat at Hammerhead Fred's.
After Kaylyn devoured 3 entire clusters of crab legs BY HERSELF, we went to Pier Park to walk around.

*Side Note* We had only ordered Kaylyn 1 cluster of crab claws as a side item to one of our meals, but when our meal came the waitress had a surprise for her and there were 3 clusters on her plate. You would have thought Kaylyn had found gold!

Okay, back to the point of this post. While we were walking around Pier Park we came across this Super Jump thing. After watching several other children and one grown man jump, (and live to tell about it) I decided the bungees would hold my 40 and 50 pound children just fine and allowed them to take a turn jumping. The kids loved it! They jumped and flipped over and over.

Getting all strapped in! "Hey Mister, be sure those are extra tight....No cracks in your bungees....Okay, you're ready to go!"

My little acrobat! He loved flipping!

This one.....Notsomuch! I couldn't believe my little daredevil was afraid to flip. She had fun jumping though!

And he continued to flip!

And she was content to just jump REALLY high!

Here was an attempt at a flip, but she chickened out before she could complete the flip!

And here's another attempt

More pics to come!

We Took A Little Trip...

...down to good 'ol PCB this past weekend. Although this was a trip intended for Kaylyn's second dance competition, we were able to squeeze in a couple of extra days at the beach. We left early Thursday morning and got to the beach in the early afternoon. The kids had a blast playing on the beach and even played in the freezing water!

He loved digging in the sand with all of his new sand toys, compliments of the Easter Bunny.

She had just been hit by a cold wave!!

Stay tuned for more pics...

Competition #1

Yesterday was THE LONGEST day! The day started bright and early with the first of Luke's ball games. His team won...thank goodness they won quickly because Kaylyn and I flew home to get ready for her dance competition at the Alabama Theater, were we spent the next 10, yes T-E-N HOURS! Now, don't get me wrong, I love the Alabama Theater. It's beautiful and there are lots of cool things to look at, but around hour 5 of sitting and waiting and running backstage for costume changes, up and down stairs about 32 times, I was a bit stir-crazy! Speaking of backstage, I'm not sure if any of you have ever been backstage at the Alabama Theater, but let me tell you a little bit about it. It's old, and dusty, and stuffy and CREEPY with it's dark and narrow hallways and winding stairs. After our first song, we were stuck back there for about 45 minutes awaiting the awards ceremony! Not a pleasant experience! Anyway, the day is over now, and the girls did great!

The first dance was "You Know You Want Me..." In this dance all 4 competition teams are dancing together, for a total of 50 dancers, ages 6-18 all on the same stage. No easy task!
This dance received a ranking of "high gold" and won second over-all!

Waiting backstage!

Our next song was "Freakazoid" In this song the girls were robots. This song received a "gold" ranking. Yeah, it needs some work!

A little robot action!

Kaylyn and Kensley waiting between songs...4 hours!

Ready to take stage.

The next song was "Proud Mary." A very cute dance. This dance received "high gold" ranking.

Next week we're headed for Panama City for our next competition.