The whole dance thing always starts with getting that dang bun perfected! We used a hairnet this time and it seemed a lot easier:
This is Lauren's first year participating in IBA. She's doing the Greased Lightning dance (swing), which Emma did in 5th grade. Here she is all set to dance:
Landon, Nana and I sat and watched the kids during their stage practice time, several hours before the show. Later, Nana and Landon left to go shopping and get dinner for us. We ate Jimmy Johns sandwiches, sitting on the floor of the dimly-lit hallway of the high school that the auditorium is attached to. It was magical.
Here is a poorly-executed video of Lauren dancing. She is the cute one in the middle, in the front. She's really bouncy. She eventually moves to the back and then comes back to the front again. She smiled the whole time and I was actually moved to tears with pride when I was watching her! She was just soooo cute up there.
This is Lauren's first year participating in IBA. She's doing the Greased Lightning dance (swing), which Emma did in 5th grade. Here she is all set to dance:Landon, Nana and I sat and watched the kids during their stage practice time, several hours before the show. Later, Nana and Landon left to go shopping and get dinner for us. We ate Jimmy Johns sandwiches, sitting on the floor of the dimly-lit hallway of the high school that the auditorium is attached to. It was magical.Here is a poorly-executed video of Lauren dancing. She is the cute one in the middle, in the front. She's really bouncy. She eventually moves to the back and then comes back to the front again. She smiled the whole time and I was actually moved to tears with pride when I was watching her! She was just soooo cute up there. Emma danced to Another One Bites The Dust (paso doble). Her class had only gone through the entire routine two or three times before this performance. It was a little rough, but still fun to watch. Emma loves her costume. She looks about as "bad-ass" as she'll ever look, I'm guessing. (She's at the very back, on the right side. It's hard to see her.)
At the end of the show Nana gave them each a bouquet of flowers! It was such a nice surprise for them and something they've never gotten before, so they were pretty happy.
At the end of the show Nana gave them each a bouquet of flowers! It was such a nice surprise for them and something they've never gotten before, so they were pretty happy.
Then Emma chose the Logo game that Kristen gave us for Christmas.
This is where it turned ugly. The girls started acting mouthy to each other and Mom and Dad started getting irritable. We suspended family game day and watched Storage Wars for Dad's game choice. 
One of the last days of the break Landon wanted to go shooting. The girls had no interest since we have a free 3-month subscription to Netflix (thanks to Jenny!!!!), so Landon and I went out to the desert and shot about a dozen bottles we had been saving for just such an occasion.
The bottles were very safe. Neither one of us could shoot them unless we were about 10 feet away. The gun was way more powerful than I liked, so Landon did 99% of the shooting. (Notice all the snow on the ground! What the heck is going on around here? It feels like October, ever since October.)
New Year's Eve was spent at Jenny and Justin Bate's house. We played Skipbo and Logo and ate lots of leftover (and fresh) appetizers from Christmas Eve. I felt like I personally mowed through most of Jenny's spinach dip. The kids played and watched TV downstairs in the Bates' basement. It's such a treat to go somewhere where all the kids like each other and have as much fun as the adults. We had a lot of fun laughing and partying it up until about 10. Perfect way to end 2011.
I made homemade granola bars. They're really good after about 10 seconds in the microwave, but to get them out of the pan I found that using a knife and hammer works great. Emma thought it was funny and took my picture. (Notice the big fleece robe is being well-used this winter, whether we have snow or not!)