We had to be at the theater when doors opened on Sunday - 6:15 AM! Avery got up around 4:45 AM to get all her hair and make-up done so we could head out by 5:40 AM. Avery is great at doing her own stage make-up, but I still do her hair.
Ready to go!
Almost empty dressing room... yesterday this was packed wall to wall with dance bags and people!
Sunday was teen and senior age groups, so it was a little less busy. We got a great spot in the dressing room since we were one of the first people there.
Matt and Morgan even made the early call time for Avery's first dance!
Avery and Kendra recreating their ID Comp picture from last year!
Avery's first dance was her Lyrical Trio with Kendra and Raelynn at 7:35 AM. It's called Grow as We Go (Novice Teen Duet-Trio). She does a headstand in this dance (it's become her signature move - ha!) See official pics and video below.
One of her friends sent her this pic from the balcony:
They had awards for the solos/duets/trios around 8:45 AM. Avery's trio placed 3rd overall! (Only 0.4 points off 2nd place - the scoring is so tight in these comps!) Great job ladies! They take turns going up to accept the awards and this comp was her turn.
After awards, she joined the rest of the team to warm up for the next dance.
Next up was the jazz dance 4+4 (Novice Teen Large Group). They did awesome! Avery does a headstand in this dance too! :) See official videos and pics below.
Finally, was Avery's lyrical group dance Leave a Light On (Novice Teen Small Group). Another great performance! Official video and pics below.
Awards for the group dances were around 11:30. For Jazz they got Iconic Platinum adjudication, 1st in category and 2nd overall! They also got a special award called "Artistic Execution Award". (From the ID website - The Artistic Execution Award recognizes routines that demonstrate exceptional excellence in artistic expression and performance quality. Open to all genres, this award honors dancers who execute their artistry with clarity, intention, and elevated performance presence.) For Lyrical, they got Iconic Platinum adjudication, 1st in category and 3rd overall! They were 0.1 points off of 2nd place (282.7 vs 282.8) - that's how close the scores were. Great job!
Such a fun weekend! Can't wait until the next comp!
Avery's first dance competition of the season was this past weekend at the Copernicus Center in Chicago. She had Hip Hop on Saturday and her other three dances on Sunday.
Snackle box ready to go!
We didn't have to be there until 12:30 on Saturday, so most of the nearby parking lots were full. We had to park on the street and pay the meter.
Took this so we would remember where we parked!
The dressing room situation at this comp was a trainwreck! Way too small! We could barely find a spot for Avery to set up and get changed. I would've loved to take a picture, but that would just be creepy. (On a side note, she picked the far back corner to set up. So, when she was trying to leave later she could not get out. She texted me, "Mom I need help". I had to lift her dance duffel over my head and carry it out that way because there was no room on the floor.)
They kicked off the comp with their Hip Hop dance - called The Rhythm (Novice Junior Large Group). See official pics and video from the competition below:
Dance Dad and Mom! :)
Such a cool theater (Morgan asked me if it was a church because it was so ornate!)
They got Iconic Platinum adjudication (which is based on their individual score). They didn't place in the overalls (which is when they lump all the dance types together and take the top 10). I think they were a little disappointed because they thought they did well. Their dance teacher thought maybe the boxes were too far off the center so they were dancing too far in the wings on stage. Not sure, but they have some time before the next comp to work on it.
Milo is not feeling well again. At the end of January, he ate another sock and ended up sick for a few days. We got past that and he was doing so well. Then, this past week, he started throwing up again, which coincided with the HUGE storm we had. So, we thought maybe that was it because he has gotten so fearful of storms, wind, rain, you name it. But, he didn't get better, just worse over the next day. He couldn't relax and just kept moving from one place to the next in our house. We could tell he was not himself. So, I took him to the vet. No apparent causes for the illness, so they did x-rays to see if maybe he had eaten something again. They said the x-ray of his intestines was "concerning" and there might be some blockage in there (like a sock or non-digestible item). They gave him a dose of Cerenia for the vomiting. We've gotten this a few times. It stops him from getting sick so his stomach has time to heal from whatever nonsense is going on in there. If he continues to get sick while on that medicine, then you know it's an emergency. They had said they may want to do another x-ray a few hours after the first one to see if things moved through his intestines just to make sure there was no blockage. But, we decided to hold off on that and see how he did with the Cerenia shot.
He vegged out on the couch, ate his bland diet of chicken and white rice and slowly got better.
And this is how I know he's feeling better... all sprawled out in his favorite spot! 💖
Avery really wanted to make homemade chocolate chip cookies. The girls did all of the work and the cookies turned out delicious! They had a little bit leftover and made one giant cookie! :)
Herrick soccer tryouts were this week. We really tried to sway Morgan from trying out for the team, mainly because it's a new program and we haven't heard many positive things about it. And Morgan is already busy with travel soccer and travel basketball. But, Morgan really wanted to be on the team.
We had asked her to put together the pros and cons of trying out for the team so we could discuss it with her. She was pretty honest about them! I love that she put "waste of time (kinda)"! :)
Tryouts were on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. There were 34 girls that tried out (the team is a combo 7th/8th grade girls team). The coach said she would keep 17 girls. She made the first cut after Wednesday's tryout and kept 22 girls. Then, she announced the final team tonight. Morgan made the team... she was so excited!
Dance competition season is in full swing! Avery had her all day dress rehearsal on Sunday. This is the day they get all their costumes, shoes, make-up, jewelry, etc for the upcoming competitions. They start off at 10am and dance through all their numbers with costume changes, etc. Then, starting in late afternoon, they have three "recitals" for the parents. They get lots of practice performing in front of people and working through their costume changes. They break up the parent shows by last name, so we were the last parent group to come. It worked out nice though because we could just take Avery home with us afterwards (instead of making another trip back!)
Matt put together the highlights from the Team MC Gold season from all the videos he'd taken this season. We had the girls over to our house for a pizza party and to watch the video together. It was fun to see their reactions to the video - and hear their commentary! The coaches were also able to make it for the watch party.
