Baseball

 Its been a rough baseball season.  Most of the games have been canceled because of snow so I have only been to 2 of the like 4 games that they have actually been able to play.  New coaches and playing for the HS team has been a hard adjustment and Kaden isn't really happen with his season (what there is of one) so far, but we have hopes that it will get better.
 He had been on a hitting dry spell and finally after some "words of encouragement" he finally got a good hit out to middle and was able to steal bases and make it home!  And they won that game too!

Spring storm

 We have had some fun Spring storms, some almost storms, and some real ones!  This one was real and the kids got to enjoy some snow time with after school activities being canceled, which meant no dance for Maddie, so Malia had a play pal and I had Kaden home who went out on his own to clear the driveway!  Though by the time Rich got home from work you couldn't tell that he had spent an hour out there completely clearing it!

 We had some wild animals out in the back yard too!

 These gorgeous girls make my day!

Photo dump

 We have had glimpses of beautiful weather in between some late season winter storms, and on these days we have enjoyed the great outdoors!

 The girls got kites for Easter and every time we take them out the wind goes away, but on this day we got lucky and had about 20 minutes of good kite flying weather!

Time

Heres the thing with time.  Time can fly when you are having fun, or time can fly when your heart is still stuck in February.  And even though events and things happen around you, you aren't fully aware.  I have not blogged since the end of February.  We had a tragic death in our family and my heart is still trying to figure out how we got from that day all the way to about 2 months later.  I still think it is February and when it is pointed out that it is indeed almost the end of April I am stunned.  There are probably multiple things I have forgotten about, I am always rereading emails trying to make sure I haven't forgotten anything so I should apologize!

I don't know that Im ready to open up about it yet on here, but I need to do some major catch up, I have a new computer so I have some photos stuck on my old one so there will be multiple posts that are all out of order.  I started with this one because these are my March photos on this computer.. pathetic! 

I love these girls, they make me smile when smiling seems wrong or painful, so enjoy!

 



 This is in between sneezes!

 This sassy girl cracks me up with her tude!

 She loves to pose but has a hard time looking at the camera so when I actually get her eyes I get pretty excited.  She always poses herself!

HOF

A couple weeks ago Maddie competed and Hall Of Fame Dance.  It was an exciting and important competition because all of their dances needed to qualify to take to Nationals later this summer.

On Friday we went and supported some of the older girls who all did amazing and then Saturday was a big day!  Maddie danced in African Beats, they did really good they got Platinum and 1st place!  I love how fierce she is in this dance!

She then had to rush to get ready for her solo... I cant get that video yet but she did awesome.  She has some cleaning to do, I could tell the excitement and nerves got to her a little but she got High Gold and 1st in the hip hop catagory!!  She then rushed for her duet Where'd you learn to dance, again they did amazing!  They got 1st in their catagory and platinum and 2nd place overall!! 

Next was their trio tap Jump, Shout, Boogie, these 3 work so well together and killed it!  They got platinum, 1st place and 1st place overall high score!!  Super awesome job!! 

We were there pretty much all day Saturday and got home late for some rest because Sunday she had 1 more dance.  Their production number "Mirror Mirror" I LOVE this dance, I love the music and LOVE IT!!  Again love when Maddie gets to be fierce!  They got 1st place, platinum 1st place over all high score... so ya they cleaned up and did really really good!  It was a great comp and all of the dances qualified for Nationals!!  

Now they just need to continue to work hard to get there, clean a few things up and raise the money!  You can go here to help them if you want!! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/142483316/starbound-extravaganza-dance-performance

WCDE Convention/Competition

 This weekend Maddie had a dance competition/convention!  It was the first of the season, we had to head to they Hyatt Regency in Denver on Friday.  Maddie had 2 dances to compete on Friday night and they started at 9 pm, yes pm!  Their tap number was the first one of the night and I was sooo impressed with these 3 kiddos!  They did amazing!  Seriously they looked so good and it was so dang cute!
 Maddie and Austin had to do a quick change for their duo, I have to admit I was really nervous about it, but OH MY GOSH they stole they show, no really it was so amazing!  They had us all on the edge of our seats ewwwing and awwing at how dang cute they were!  When they were done Rich and I were all grins and so was Austins parents!  The parents sitting behind us all told us how great it was and that it had made them cry it was so cute!
 When it came to awards I was hoping for some good scores, and the judges did not disappoint!  The tap got 4 out of 5 stars, and their duo got 5 stars!  AND got high score over all which was quite exciting!  Austins mom and I hugged each other, I think we were both kind of in shock, we knew it was cute but these 2 kids really pulled it together and have a really good dance.  I am so grateful to Maddies teacher who has put a lot of time into this for them and worked a lot with them!
  I wasnt able to get video but I will at the next comp which is next weekend!

 These cadets were just slightly excited!

 After a late night on Friday we had an early morning wake up for classes.  We had to be ready by 7:30 to meet with the team and then off to classes.  The classes on Saturday all went well, Maddie was the only one in her age group so we were kind of loners but Maddie stays so focused it didnt bother her, I was a bit bored!
 This is their tap outfit, Maddie and Jess are pretty cute!

 Team meeting

 All cute and ready to perform!

Proud parents!

                                           

 Lunch break

 My cute little hip hopper

 After classes were over at 2 we jetted of to get her hair and make up done.  First was their African Beats dance, which is a really cool dance!  They did really good!  It was different from other dances which made it stand out, the girls all did really good!  It ended up getting 4 stars!

 A little down time with friends!  They pretended they were falling the 15 floors lol

 Award time.. Maddies the tiny image on the right dancing it up!

 After a decent break in between dances it was time to get ready for the production number.  Because they had a lot of time they met and then everyone gave each other massages, it was pretty cute!

 Everyone massages Maddie because she squeals because she is so ticklish!

 Girls giving Austin a massage is icky so this is how Mia decided it works!

 The production number was AWESOME!  It gave me the chills I loved it so much!  It didnt do as good as I thought it would but it still did really good they got 4 stars!

 Day 2 of classes wasnt as good, after a long night... getting to bed at midnight Maddie was exhausted but excited for classes and the teachers seemed to be teaching more for the youngest kids rather than the older so it felt like a little bit of wasted time unfortunately, but she still had a lot of fun!  She had a cute little 6 year old that was a little fascinated by her that followed her everywhere.  She got noticed by a bunch of the teachers which is always good!
 At the end of classes on Sunday there is a end show where the teachers perform and then scholarships are given from auditions that they do during one of the classes.
 Well Maddie won one of the scholarships!!  I was so excited, and it means next year we dont have to pay for this convention!!  YAAA MADDIE!!

 Maddie and Mia both got scholarships!  So proud of my little muffin!  Seeing her work so hard makes you just want to work harder for her to do what she loves, I just get so filled with joy and am so proud if she asked for a pony I would get her one, seriously its that awesome!