The slipper fits

Aubrie has been taking dance lessons for seven years, but his year is a special year for her because she started pointe shoes! This picture was taken her first time ever going up on pointe, while her teacher Cheryl checked her shoe sizing. The verdict: the slipper fit!

Her ballet instructor is extremely detail-oriented and gave all the girls precise instructions on how to care for the shoes, how to sew on the ribbons, and break them in. The girls were so excited and nervous!

 The other big jump with ballet this year is that now she dances where the big kids do, at the studio downtown. To me, that means more rehearsals and more driving! But, for Aubrie, that means not only pointe shoes, but contemporary class, new teachers, new friends, more parts in the Nutcracker, and a new level and intensity of ballet! Because of this, she hasn't stopped bouncing and smiling since she started ballet this Fall! My two ballet dancers are so cute--they are definitely cut from the same mold!

1st Day of School

Fifth grade for Aubrie -- one more year until middle school (oh my goodness, are you kidding me?).

Third grade for Ellie this year.

First grade for sweet Teyah!

Teyah has a new teacher this year, named Mrs. Dobbs.

And Ellie also has a new teacher named Mrs. Larsen.

Kyler had a first day of two-day-a-week Joy School.

I'm biased, of course, but what a cute boy!!

Here's his Joy School crew for the year: Lexie, Jordan, Kyler, Rui, Benson and Lincoln. Kyler is the shortest and third oldest. This is my eighth year in a row of teaching Joy School!

If we are taking a million pictures, we might as well get a foot shot. Speaking of feet, Ellie who is four pants' sizes smaller than Aubrie, has almost the same size feet as her. I hope that means there's growing hope for Ellie!

My kids need to stop getting older! Life is just flying too quickly!

The soccer star

Ellie started competitive soccer this year. But, because when she started she was only seven, this meant she 'played up' with the kids a year older than her to what's called U9.

During her Spring season, she was the leading scorer. In fact, her coach told her she was only allowed to score 2-3 goals per game. Ellie never quite understood the purpose of this request, but she certainly developed as a complete player, and her confidence soared.  Enjoy this highlight video (you will need to click & watch in Youtube)

The Spring/Summer season lasted until July. At that time, she needed to 'tryout' for the next season. We went around and around about whether or not we should have her play up again. The tryout process became an adventure! The club we thought she was going to play for ended up not having enough people for a team, so during the very last minute, we raced across the city to attend another tryout -- all the while, Dave and I were wondering why this was such a big deal when she's only eight! When that tryout didn't go well, she decided to try for her same club that she had already been playing with. The drawback with this club is that the first day of tryouts was on Sunday. Ellie has chosen to not play soccer on Sundays, so we got permission to attend only the second day of tryouts. We realized that her chances of being allowed to play up and make a top team were basically impossible with her missing the first day of tryouts. But, Ellie was so resolute that she didn't want to play on Sunday and that she was just going to go give it her all and hope for the best. 

She definitely did just that and had an amazing tryout. With all odds stacked against her, she not only was allowed to play up, but she also made the top-level competition team with those girls! This girl sure is good at soccer and she definitely loves it!

One of Ellie's Fall season highlights is winning the Coerver indoor tournament in a shootout! This was her first experience in a shootout, and it was a nail biter for all of us, but so much fun! Ellie's biggest disappointment was the prize of a T-shirt, instead of a trophy!