At the end of the ballroom competition in Utah it was announced that anyone who wanted to take the fish bowls from the tables could do so. Erika quickly snatched one up.
By the time we got them home the three little fishies in that bowl had survived the 11 hour bass beat of the competition, the falling confetti from the balloon drop and the 5 hour swish swashing trip home. Needless to say they were a little limp when we got them home but Erika was determined to love the life right back into them. She started by cleaning out their water, clearing a shelf for them in her room and thoughtfully naming them. Her silent, scared new pets were Fin (a black one with a little tear in his fin), Elle (a gold one that Erika was sure was a girl), and Spec (a black one with a little gold spec on his body). For two days they slowly began to liven up.
And then . . .
On day three we had a FINeral.
On day four we had a funerELLE.
On day five we paid our reSPECs to the final member of the fishy trio as he swirled down the porcelain grave to join the others.
On Valentine's Day Erika found a new mini-school of fish in a bright new bowl and to this day, six weeks later, they live happily ever . . . well, they're still alive.
Our 7th Annual Valentine's Mess was a hit once again. Because Valentine's Day fell on Sunday this year and we don't have church until 1:00 I decided to have it ready for after church instead of trying to get them all to wake up and enjoy it at the same time on Sunday morning. When Derek woke up he asked with a pout "where's my stringy valentine?" I just mumbled something about it being Sunday and left it at that. Then I snuck home from church and got it all put together. Levi wanted to help this year, since it is his last, so together we (along with help from Kellie and Caytlyn - this is a big house and that it alot of yarn!) . . . we strung up 7 balls of yarn throughout the whole house. After it was all over he said, with his arm around me, "no matter where I am next February you better call me to help with this. This is my favorite tradition!"
So here they are following their strings:
And here they are finding their treasures:
This was my favorite picture! Instead of just throwing his ball of yarn through the closet he thought he had to crawl through the closet. He might be nearly six feet tall and wearing a man's suit but he's still my little boy!
My Valentine present this year was seeing my boys in their new suits. Derek has wanted one for quite a while and with a surprise sum of money that showed up from the insurance for the accident that Erika and I were in, we were able to finally get him one. Levi has made it very clear how he feels about "churchy" things and had been making very snotty comments about suits but when we told him the day we were going to go shopping for one and invited him to come he took a minute to think about it and finally conceded, "a suit might be kinda cool, I guess".
Derek knew exactly what he wanted. We had shopped around in Idaho Falls and he had given it much thought and went right for the solid black with a pink tie. Levi insisted that he wanted a thick pinstripe (red pinstripe, mob style) but the Man's Image doesn't carry mob suits so he settled for a thin pinstripe. It was so helpful to have Caytlyn along for the shopping because she raved about how great Levi looked in a suit. I'm not sure he would have picked one out without her there. When it took 2 weeks from purchase to tayloring both boys asked me nearly every day when they would be ready. LeRoy and I were wondering if Levi would only wear the pants and the jacket would hang in his closet forever but it has now been 6 weeks since he got his suit and he has worn the full getup every week.
Man, these boys are handsome (and TALL).
And then for our evening finale we glazed a bunch of cookies and shared the sugary love with our neighbors.
January and February are crazy months for ballroom. With three major competitions, regular 3 hour practices, additional Saturday practices, and ballgame half-time performances . . . whew, I'm tired all over again . . . it is a bit overwhelming but in the end it turns out to be oh, so much fun!
At the Utah competition Erika's team won the overall, everything, I-don't-remember-the-title, trophy. In addition to this dance they also did a medley routine to a bunch of Mary Poppins songs but Erika is an alternate in it so I haven't recorded it yet. She will perform it for the spring recital (they better let her or I'm not paying that costume fee!) and I can record it then. Erika also won gold, silver and bronze medals in the syllabus dances (for waltz, cha cha and rumba). Syllabus is a little long and can get monotonous (for dancers and parents) but with the change up of different partners for each dance style and the occasional medal it ends up being worth the hours of waiting and watching.
Can you tell from the pictures which boy is "ok, for a dance partner", which one is "kinda cool" and which one she "would totally date"?
Kara, Caytlyn, Levi, Erika and I all had a lazy time during the 11 hour event. The highlight for Caytlyn was meeting Ryan and Ashleigh DiLello from the last season of "So You Think You Can Dance". It's a bit like "American Idol" with dancing instead of singing and Caytlyn got us hooked last season. She was all googly eyed over Ryan, leaving Levi a bit jealous and rolling his eyes, and it took me completely out of my social comfort zone to go over and ask them if the girls could have a picture with them. Oh, the things a mother will do for her kids!
We almost had to wipe the drool from Caytlyn's face. Then we found out that she wasn't really all that interested in Ryan, just the fact that she was meeting someone from TV and it gave her a really great picture to post of facebook. Still, it made for some good laughs during a really long day.
So, if you want to see any of it live come to the spring concert during the last week of April. You can see all the teams perform (from pee wee to seniors) and hopefully we'll see Erika all dolled up in her Mary Poppins costume. And for those who just wanna see it from the convenience of your home computer, here's a little YouTube entertainment for you.
* Be sure to notice how great her splits are . . . TWICE! For weeks she would sit in split position while doing her homework or reading or doing her hair trying to loosen up those muscles and get them ready for this dance. She did PERFECT!!
We all went to Arimo for Hailey's baby blessing and had a fun afternoon playing with cousins at Grandma and Grandpa Boyd's house.
With their Super Boyd Capes they are ready for anything.
Ride like the wind
It seems almost cruel that we will be splitting these two up when the Kellie and her family moves away. They have certainly become best friends over the last 2 months.
