Festival of the Stars

McKenna had her first show of this dance season over the weekend. Its where the students get to show off the piece's they will be competing with, so mostly solo's, duo's, trio's, and some groups. It started with rehearsals at the Yates the Sunday and Friday before the show. They practice their routines on the stage with costumes and lighting. Everything went well except McKenna's jazz group routine. They danced the whole dance on the wrong side and kept getting confused. After they were done I asked her if she realized she was on the wrong side and by the time they figured it out, no one wanted to say anything. Its so funny how dancing in a different direction confuses them so much on where to start. During our break we went out to eat at Taco Del Mar with Tamara, Mackenzie, and Elliot. We love hanging out with our dance friends.

Saturday night they had their buddy party at the studio. This is McKenna's favourite. They usually feed them pizza and then they do a bunch of team building activities. The younger kids get an older buddy for the festival season. Its a way for them to get to know someone new at the studio. They usually support each other at festival and get them a little gift. From the beginning of the year McKenna was dying to get Nali as her buddy and ended up getting her. She is so excited. She had a great night and had so much to tell me when she got home.

Sunday was show day. For every child participating you have to purchase 5 tickets to pay for the rental of the theatre. Because her show was on a Sunday I didn't know if we'd even use up the 5 tickets we had. I only force the boys to go to year end show, so they were out. That was 3 for Hayley, Ry and I. I ended up asking M's teacher and she came, and then my brother Cody also came. Then my aunt texted me and told me that she and her two daughters and my Grandma wanted to come. My sister was also in town, so I ended up getting 5 extra tickets. It was so nice to have all that family support there. I know Sunday is a sacred day to a lot of people so it made my heart so full of gratitude that my family chose to celebrate that day supporting McKenna. They even stayed for the whole show so that they could see McKenna's duet which was closer to the end. Honestly I can't express to them how that made me feel. My Mom would be first in line to get tickets to any of my kids events, and to have them there was like having her there. Love you Connie, Maddy, Emma, and Gramma! Really, is there anything more important then family. Thanks to Cody and Ginger too. They are so good to my kids and they love them dearly.

The show was amazing as always. It was busy and chaotic for me running back to help McKenna change her hair and costumes. We went from a bun, to a curly ponytail, to a braid, to half down half up, and back to a bun. But I love every minute of it. I love being on this dance journey with McKenna and can't wait (well I am happy to wait atleast another year) until we add Hayley to this crazy world. I love watching McKenna's talent shine through, I love her energy, confidence, dedication and hard work, and couldn't be more proud of her. She rocked each and every dance. Now only 3 weeks till the first competition.

Thank you Joys Dance Factory for a great start to competition season. We love our dance family too.