Tie Dye Dancer

Paige off to dance the other night in her full tie dye apparel!

Ballerina Cupcakes

I saw these adorable cupcake toppers on Pinterest and was so happy to have an excuse to make them! The competition dance team had a practice/pizza party before the start of the season's competitions. The girls agreed that these were perfect to take, especially for the little competitors like Erin. They turned out so well!

Getting Sassy

Lindy & Helen

Lindy and Helen have been friends on the competition team for the last 3 years. They both have a goofy sense of humor and love to hang out with each other. I love their dance team because these girls are so supportive of each other. It has been an awesome experience for them to develop these friendships while becoming great dancers and performers.

Angels

Paige and Lindy ~ Time of Wonder

A Stitch in Time

Thank goodness Lindy has her basic sewing skills. Being a dancer also means being able to make some adjustments and whip out that needle and thread. That's not something I am very good at doing but I'm learning! Until then Lindy is helping me out and Erin was very grateful!

Tap Girls

Erin and Megan are besties! They love to hang out at co-op and when Erin found out Megan would be in her tap class this year she was thrilled. Just an extra bonus to the week to have your co-op BFF be in dance too! They have had such a great time together dancing and hanging out while their mom's chat when class lets out. Their song this year is If Your Happy and You Know It which suits them just perfectly. They always have smiles on their faces!

Happy Together

Marinne and Erin ~ So Happy Together! 

Erin and her friend Marinne have been together in dance for the last two years. This year they are on the Tiny Tots competition line and they are very excited to be part of the competition team with all of the older girls. Dance season is in full swing and they are having so much fun!

Don't Worry Be Happy

Paige and Grace ~ Tap Don't Worry Be Happy!

It's been a great year in tap for Paige. She has been able to share the class with one of her best friends and she loves the pace of tap. Fast dance is definitely her favorite!

Blinging it Up

Lindy's solo costume has required some serious blinging. She had a blank canvas and her dance teacher told her she could do whatever she wanted but to add plenty of sparkle. After about 150 rhinestones later I think she will shine!

Dance Week

Erin and her "big sis" Gabbi.

Sunday the girls and I went with their dance team to lunch and a show. A close by dance studio does a benefit for breast cancer. It was such a great afternoon and the girls really got to relax and watch others dance. Usually they are running around behind the scenes, changing, fixing hair, practicing, and fighting nerves. Sunday they got to sit back and watch routines and check out costumes. I had a great time spending the day with my girls. It was the perfect way to start the week of dance craziness, pictures and extra practices.

Celtic Ball

Kyle and his friend McKinley went to the Celtic Ball tonight and had a fabulous time. They spent the afternoon at the practice dance session where they learned Irish and Scottish dances, so cool.

The great thing about boys, they were ready in 15 minutes! I told them to get dressed and off they went and put on their suits, brushed hair, and we were out the door. In a few years it will take us forever to get ready with all these girls.

Parents got to watch the procession into the dance where a bagpiper led the dancers. That was really neat but hard to photograph. By the time I saw them coming by, they had passed. We also got to watch the first dance which was really fun. I was talking to another mom about how we wanted to go to a ball like this and how fun. We only had one or two proms when we were growing up (poor us). This ball is primarily home schooled kids. So, whenever people say things about home school kids missing out on high school type experiences, they have no idea what they are talking about! Kyle has two formals this spring as a freshman! Sometimes I think as home schoolers, our kids often have more opportunities for experiences.

 Kyle said he danced all night. I don't even know if he took a break, he absolutely loved it! I'm so glad that he wanted to go (I didn't even have to talk him into it he really wanted to go!) and so happy he had a good friend to share in the fun. They were already talking about going next year.

Erin being Erin. McKinley being part of our family, we love him! 

Not a good picture, the bagpiper led the procession of all the dancers into the ball room.  So cool.

The back of Kyle escorting Jenna in the procession. 

Kassi just passed, Kyle waving on the left. If I put a couple pictures together I can kind of get a whole one of him in the procession!

Dancers at Heart

Friday night was girl night around here! Lindy has been wanting to have Helen, her good friend from dance, sleep over for awhile. She and Paige have both been wanting to have Helen and another friend, Grace, over together. They are all on the competition dance team together and love seeing each other.

Everything is about dance! They didn't watch any movies, really didn't do anything except dance, all night. There were dance contests between them, dance shows, and dance talk. All night long! They obviously have a huge passion for dance and I love that. Dance has done so much for all my girls. It has given them such a big boost of self confidence and self esteem. They have a close group of girls that they dance with and they are so supportive of each other, it has been such an awesome thing.

Lindy wanted to make a shirt for Helen and decided to make a matching one for herself. She was so cute picking everything out, putting lots of thought into how she wanted it to look. They turned out so cute. They are all going to have the best memories from being together on this team. I'm so excited for them!

Where We Spend Our Week

I  was dropping the girls off at dance last week, watching them smiling and laughing, while running in the studio. I thought what a cute picture that would be. So here it is!
They spend so much time at dance and look forward to every night they are here (which is almost the entire week!) that I wanted to capture part of their every day routine.

Dusting off my Dance Shoes

A brief hiatus due to various reasons, began with a broken toe in August, which is really hard to dance with when you can't get your shoes on! Which led to one delay after another, but the shoes are out and on, at least once a week, and it makes a huge difference in how I feel!

Someone Loves Dance

It's Erin but it applies to all the girls in the Miller house. It's how they spend most of their free time at home.It's what they chalk on the driveway. It's how they spend 4 out of 5 nights, someone is at the dance studio. It's how they spend Satuday mornings. It's how they spend most of the money around here! It's pretty much life. But they LOVE every bit of it!

Dance Celebration

 Since the girls were little we have always had family back to our house for dessert after the recital. Lindy and I only had 45 minutes before we had to be back at the next show since she has to dance in both recitals. We had time for a couple of quick pictures with Grommy, some cake and then we dashed out the door. The rest of the family enjoyed dinner and cake and a relaxing evening.
I admit I was really tired the next day. Between all three girls I had 11 costume changes, 4 hair style changes, many, many accessories for Lindy's costumes to keep track of, and different make up for everyone. It was incredibly busy but I'm proud to say we didn't lose anything, (which is a small miracle since Lindy has chokers, wristbands, hair ribbons etc for every costume) including my mind. Everyone got on stage on time, fully dressed and ready. They all had a great time!

 Grandpuppies!

Dancing Queen

 Lindy is the dancing queen of the family. She just wrapped up her second year on the competition dance team and she loves every minute! Being able to dance all the time and have a good group of dance friends has been an awesome experience for her.
Tap, jazz, and lyrical were all of her classes this year and they received High Gold awards at both the competitions they went to. Next year she is looking at doing a solo and a duet and adding a couple more classes. She is sad that dance will be over for 3 whole weeks! Being on competition they dance through the summer, she just doesn't want to have a 3 week break. She has definitely found her passion.
Her recital was so fun for her since she had performed these dances twice already. She could relax and have fun! Great job Lindy, you are truly a beautiful dancer. I can't wait to see all the things you do next year!

 THE LIFT - The girls worked for months on this. Since I usually drop Lindy off and leave there were times I came back and was told how she was dropped etc. Never hurt, always laughing about it, loving every minute. As hard as it can be to always be the smallest everywhere there have to be some perks somewhere and being lifted across the stage is one of them!

The finale is perfomed by both the Junior and Junior'ette comp. teams. Lindy loves being a part of a dance with her older dance friends. Comp teams with Miss Brittney below.

 Teams with Miss Sandy, Lindy and Miss Sandy below. Miss Sandy has been Lindy's dance teacher for 6 years.

 Lindy and Lexi her Big Sis.

Lindy and Miss Brittney