Memorial Day Weekend 2018

We tried pretty hard Memorial Day weekend to rest and relax. The next few weeks are even busier than usual with year end performances and event and birthday parties.

There was slime making as promised - some new slime made with clay. Ally loves it!

I threw away the slime we made a week ago - it never formed up correctly and was too liquidy.

Lots of time on the couch - even using Cloey as a pillow.

Or surrounding Cloey with pillows!

Guatemala Girls on Monday to celebrate Gabi's 11th birthday.

Then it was back to school on Tuesday - looking like the fashion plate tween that she is. I even curled her hair. She was thrilled!

Our cat Carl.

Slime

Ally like most kids her age in America is enjoying slime.

Sunday she whipped up a batch before bed.

She loves this stuff. The recipe we tried used contact solution instead of the usual Borax. It wasn't a huge success so we are trying some other kinds this weekend.
We are all looking forward to 3 days off for Memorial Day.

The past week

This time of year is always so busy. End of school year performances, parent gatherings all wound up in the usual craziness of practice, appointments and its just busier than normal. But busy isn't bad. Its just busy.

But not too busy for some typical fun and usual antics of our pets.

I found some biscuits at WF that taste like British scones and Ally has been eating one with raspberry jam every night. Honestly she has been going to bed pretty early around 830 and then waking up at a few hours later hungry and having this as a "midnight snack".

Cloey and Carl love to hang out in Ally's room, especially when Ally isn't home.

Becky and I were busy on Saturday while Ally was a practice. Can you spot the difference in the two pictures?

We traded in our blue CRV in the lower picture for a  dark gray Pilot (upper picture). We decided we'd like to try something bigger for a while. We picked it up on Monday. Ally came straight from ballet to the dealership with us, so she has on her tights and gym shorts.

The best thing so far this week has merited what I am calling "Celebration Fro-Yo"
Ally had PT last night (she went to practice from 4-6pm, I picked her up at practice and brought her to PT for 630-730 PT) and at physical therapy she did some jumping. And no pain.
She has been running at practice the last few times, and even ran to the spring board for vault yesterday.  This is just what we thought and had hoped would happen. That as Ally got back into full participation that if she could work thru the pain, the pain would eventually go away. We talked about it some in the car yesterday - and she said the pain is basically gone at practice. She thinks what she feels as pain now is because she hasn't been doing things - and while she is much stronger than ever before, her endurance for repetitive skills and drills is lower.

I was so happy for her that I suggested fro-yo to celebrate. So of course she got her favorite and usual order of original with chocolate chips and gummy bears.

Ally still has lots of work to do to keep up her strength and continue with stretching to keep her body in top shape. And we will be working with her physical therapist for a while still so that Ally has some support.

Fun News

We learned some very fun news recently.

Ally's beloved babysitter and our very good friend Lauren is pregnant! She is having a baby boy at the end of July. Lauren is still living in Hawaii, working at Hawaii Five-O and loving life. Her boyfriend just started a 2 year position with Teach for America in Hawaii so they will be there in paradise for a while.

Ally was in PT while I texted with Lauren and learned the news. I gave Ally my Ipad on our way to the car and documented her reaction to seeing pictures of Lauren obviously pregnant.

Of course Ally is thrilled and asked when can we go to Hawaii again. I will admit I am trying to talk Becky into a short trip to Hawaii in August instead of a week in California like we planned.

5th Grade Ballroom Dance Showcase

Tonight was the 5th grade ballroom dance showcase. In Ally's school district all 5th graders learn ballroom dancing. At the conclusion of the unit there is an evening performance. The students get dressed up and parents all come and watch.

Last night there were 5 elementary schools performing. The students walked out with a partner from their school and then formed a circle - girls on the inside and boys on the outside. I say boys and girls, but at the start of the unit students were asked to choose which part they wanted to learn - the Lead (typically boy) or the Follow (typically girl) in this day of gender fluidity and equality each student could choose which part. In Ally's school about 5 girls chose to the Lead and about 4 boys chose the Follow - so during each dance there were boys dancing with a boy partner, girls dancing with a girl partner and girls dancing with a boy partner. Same sex and opposite sex couples. Wonderful to see.

Ally and her two closest friends this year wanted to go together to the performance - so we hosted the girls at our house for pizza before the event and then drove them to the High School gym.

Willow, Catalina and Ally - they knew exactly how they wanted to pose!

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Ally chose the Follow position.

She marched in with Max R as her partner they danced the Merengue.

Each dance they changed partners by have the inner circle rotate one position.

Ally was partnered with Erik for the last dance - the Tango! Erik and Ally have known each other for 8 years now - since they were 3 years old and in pre-school together.

They all shout Ole a few times during this dance and I caught Erik mid Ole!

After the 5th grade performances there was a performace of some professional ballroom dancers and awards given out for Citizenship.
The final piece was an all group line dance "Cotton Eye Joe"

Ally and Willow were upfront and had so much fun!

Family picture before we left - we went out for ice cream after with her friends.

It really was a great event - what a fun time to see everyone dressed up and having a good time. Ally had been dreading this unit - "Dancing with boys...some of them are disgusting" she would say, but in the end she loved the unit on dancing and is sad to see it end. We sat with many of our fellow parents (and friends) who all said their children enjoyed it too - boys and girls.