All Diva'd out

Ali on day 2, modeling her new necklace


I have so much to say, that either you will be overwhelmed with words and stop reading or be laughing at our expense. Our weekend was hectic, frustrating, fun, exciting, tiresome all wrapped into one.

Friday, I planned to leave work at noon, to pack; pick up Jaxon & Ali from school and be ready to walk out the door when Rich got home. Well, not so much. I did laundry, and more laundry, then couldn't find a suitcase (apparently one of us decided that it was a good idea to put them in the attic, and seriously I am not sure if that was me or Rich but none the less its not a good idea). At 2pm, I was still working with no sign of an end, and still not packed, or even semi packed. Thank God that I have a great friend that was able to grab Alicyn from school and bring her here. Thanks to Andrea, I got pumped up enough to turn off my work computer, and get to packing. I walked all over this house, she followed and reminded me of things I had forgotten. All these things sat on the bed though, cause still no suitcase. Rich who wanted to get off at 2pm, got off close to 4, then we had to get Jaxon and then head out for Dallas. Note to self: traffic on the Friday before spring break sucks. Try not to travel in it.

So, we are on the road, Alicyn is fine and dandy watching her movies, reading, playing her DSi, Jaxon on the other hand is not. He is screaming, first its to tell us about every COW or tractor he sees. Imagine this for 200 miles...MOOOOOMOOOOOOOOOOMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO mama daddy MMMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, mama daddy MMMMMMOOOOOOOOO". Then with a little "tactor, tactor, tactor, tactor tactor, tactor". Its not enough that we acknowledge with "good job, that is a cow or tractor". He needs us to look at him, and talk about each one. There was an accident in Temple, so we did a little off-roading onto the feeder road to avoid another delay. Then there was traffic, then there were more cows, and tractors. Jaxon never slept more than 15-20 minutes, and that was while we were in Burleson almost there.

The arrival at the Gaylord could not have looked better, til we go in the mess of what was the biggest most popular place to be in Grapevine TX. There must have been 25 cars in the line waiting to valet park. Ok, I guess we are just poor or never stay in these kids of hotel, but really Valet? We self parked in the 5 story parking garage. Really? Is the hotel that big that it needs a 5 story parking garage? Well yes it is. We get checked in and get to our room, its about 930pm at this point (1.5 hours after Jaxon's bedtime to be exact). He proceeds to scream bloody murder for 1 hour. I mean inconsolable screaming. Alicyn and I run to find a store in the hotel that has everything, and bring back milk. Only to discover that cold milk is not going to fly for Mr. I need my milk warm. Rich ended up sitting in the bathroom, door shut, towel shoved up to the crack to avoid waking up the neighbors. (which by the way he did disturbed greatly). Finally, he falls asleep.

Saturday morning we were up and moving early - Alicyn's classes started at 830am but we had to get our wristbands etc, so we met the rest of the dance team at 730am. Alicyn was so excited to get to be with the team girls. She really wants to be a Lil Diva, but I will get into that later. The classes were great, she had 6 or so classes on the first day, all taught by really good dancers from all over. They had been on Broadway, etc. etc. After the first 2 though, Alicyn was all done. She wanted to go check out the cool hotel and swim in the indoor pool. Can you blame her? http://www.gaylord.com/ its pretty awesome inside. I told her that this was part of being on the team, so she would have to suck it up. Her tap shoes too tight, she's tired, she needs to pee. It was one thing after another. After lunch she was better, only because Shannon gave her some foot undies. These are underwear for your feet that dancers wear while doing lyrical or jazz. Anyway, the foot undies did the trick, and she made it through the rest of the classes. Rich took her and Jada swimming after classes, while the team girls got ready for the competition. Alicyn and Jada enjoyed the competition, and the Lonestar girls rocked the house. Not quite sure how my girl is going to fit in on the team cause they are really good and she is more of a beginner. Anyway, they got first place for production (the whole team Divas & Lil Divas). Jaxon sat through several of the dances but no where near all. He clapped but mostly wanted to run around like a banshee which doesn't really work for everyone else at the competition. After the competition, we ran over to the waffle house and the kids ate like they had never eaten before. I know you are thinking, waffle house??? Yes, here's the thing, it was open, there was no wait, and we knew Jaxon would eat eggs. Or Egga's as he calls them. Back at the hotel, we all went right to bed, no issues. Thank God.

Alicyn & Jada!! So cute!

Dancing during the Fusion Jazz class, I think its funny that everyone is dancing except Jada who felt the need to strike a pose. She and Alicyn are in the same boat.

Sunday morning was not a funday for Miss. A. The time change put a wrench in the sleep plans for the am, I got her up at 615 so we could be dressed, fed, and all the way on the other side of the world at the convention center by 730, I swear its a mile each way and I must have walked it 6 times a day. SB the owner of Lonestar requires everyone that comes to Tremaine to audition for a scholarship to come back the next year for free. That means, even Alicyn the non-team member. At 8am the instructors come in and teach all of the juniors (over 100 kids in her age group) a ballet dance. After practicing as a group several times they line them all up and 9 girls audition at one time, after they do their number, someone whispers to them, "please stay or no thank you". We warned her before this all started that only 6-10 kids would get a scholarship but apparently she didn't grasp that concept. So, its her lines turn, she does her thing and is all over the place, not saying in her position etc. (all normal in my eyes, she's 6 and has only seen the dance for a few minutes). They whisper to her, she goes and sits down and immediately melts to the floor. Its clear that she is crying although I cannot hear her cause I am on the other side of a huge hotel ballroom. I walk over close to where she is sitting and she runs over. She is devastated that she was not asked to stay. DEVASTATED. I explain again that only a few kids will make it out of the whole room, and she says "but mama, i AM a good dancer". I was so sad for her, its was horrible. I don't think anyone has every told her that she was not "great" at anything. It was way too hard for her. There were a few others upset and crying but not many. I think she just really thought she was the best dancer in the room. It was bad. Bad Bad Bad. Thank goodness Jada's mom sent her over to play a game with her on the iTouch or the devastation would have lasted longer. After that mess was over, she was ok and finished the day out with class. She was sooo ready to be done though. She knew that my mom, grandma and cousins were coming, so she must have asked 1000 times if they were here yet. I might have told her a white lie during the last 2 classes just to keep her going. After classes was the faculty performance, we all watched (except mom and JT), it was really good. Rich even enjoyed it, not sure if it was the dancing he enjoyed or the break from JT.

Alicyn getting her shoe autographed by the hip hop instructor Marty

Alicyn with Marty

Lil Divas with Alicyn

The girls & grandmas are all staying until Tuesday to enjoy some of the hotel since Alicyn got to do nothing but dance this weekend and it's their spring break. Rich and I headed home with wildman about 4, and didn't get home until after 830...traffic on 35 was not as bad as Friday night but not much better. Jaxon did take about 1 hour nap, but the rest of the time was pretty restless. He must have my traveling genes...

All and all, the weekend was good. I am not sure that Alicyn is ready for the pressure that comes with the dance team. We will talk about it as a family this week and figure out what to do. She technically has not been invited to join yet anyway, so this could be a non-issue. Its going to be a fine line between something she loves and something she will have to work hard to be good at. Not sure that 96 crunches at 6 years old will ever be considered fun. (that was the warm up for ONE of the classes, they warmed up with all of them). We will see what happens, if they do invite her to be on the team, it won't be until the fall so we have some time to think....