Parent Observation Week 2016 - Natalie's classes

The same week when Evan watched Henry's dance class, he also sat in on Natalie's dance classes. Yep, I missed both ballet and jazz due to work travel, but Evan took TONS of photos and videos for me. The challenge has been sorting through them all!

Since the photos were all taken with Evan's phone, I think I'm primarily going to focus on videos. Let's start with ballet, and some barre work:

I absolutely adore this video of the girls going through barre warm ups.

Then some work across the floor:

Compare these videos to the very active jazz warm up videos! Natalie is in all black, third in on the front row.

And check her out in this great routine! Since this was taken (over two months ago), Natalie has gotten even better with her jumps, keeping her arms and legs straighter and her lines cleaner.

Fortunately, I arrived home on Friday in time to take Natalie to her Friday night class, Ballet Repertoire. I took a bunch of photos with my real camera at repertoire, and again the next day at lyrical. I then, in going too quickly, managed to reformat my SD card before I transferred them all over to my computer! I felt like such an idiot, and almost started crying. But then I realized I still had a lot of photos and videos from my phone, and since there was nothing to be done, I (slowly) got over it. It's not like I don't have a ton of other dance photos, right? Make do with what I have, and be happy with it.

I'm actually going to wait and post a video of Natalie from her repertoire class in a separate post, as it's rather long and I want to do further explanation - so that will be up next!

Moving on to Lyrical on Saturday. I watched that class, followed by Showkids. Lyrical was so much fun to watch, as it's quite obviously Natalie's favorite class. This first video is them using the space as they move across the floor.

And then their recital piece (a portion of it). Absolutely beautiful...I can't wait to see it in June! It'll be stunning.

Turns out that we weren't supposed to take photos during Showkids, but I had snuck just this one before I found out. This is a pose from the piece they will be performing this coming weekend at West Coast Dance Explosion (the one dance competition she does each year) - I cannot wait to see it on the stage. I'm definitely going to cry. Natalie is in the back, farthest away, with her hand in the air.

As I said above, it's really incredible for me to see the difference in her from the beginning of the school year to observation week, and then from observation week (November) to now. This has been an incredible year of growth for her in dance, and I can't wait to see it continue!

Thanksgiving 2016

I didn't take too many photos over Thanksgiving this year (I have way more from all of our Christmas festivities). We actually had a "short" Thanksgiving trip this year - my parents hosted, and since they are now less than two hours away from us, we just went down overnight (Wed-Thurs).

On Wednesday, Evan and my dad went out to see some of the nearby battlefields. Mom and I hung out in the backyard while the kids had fun in the massive piles of leaves in the woods behind their house.

Who doesn't love  good leaf jump?!

That night we introduced the kids to Apples to Apples (and my family too, who hadn't really played before!). The concept of the game was easy for them, but it was a little difficult since they didn't know most of the items on the cards. But, it was a lot of fun as a family activity for the night...and Santa then brought the kids Apples to Apples Jr for Christmas!

On Thanksgiving day we went for a nice family walk. My parents' house is on the 13th hole of the golf course, and since no one was playing we could walk across the green to the golf cart path in order to walk some. We took both dogs, and my aunt came with us as well. She snapped this lovely family photo for us!

Later that night, Evan and I headed home. Meanwhile, my parents kept the kids until Saturday! That gave us two nights of just us. We celebrated Friday by relaxing, and then going to see Fantastic Beasts (and where to find them). Yep, we were the dorky folks who had our Wizarding World wands with us at the theater!

In support of thigh highs

I know the ladies who are reading this are thinking "thigh highs? Is she really saying she supports the wearing of thigh highs? Those things are awful!" I know, I used to agree...but read through this and bear with me to the end. Maybe I can change your mind!

Some backstory...

While I was traveling last week, a memory popped up on my Facebook feed. It was, in fact, this post from a year ago, where I talked about a medical issue that I was going through at the time. I read back through it, and it brought back how I felt last year: in pain, frustrated, not sure that I had made the right decision...and wondering about whether I should share with people. Now that everything is done with, I'm ready to open up about what I went through.

About 18 months ago, I was diagnosed with venous insufficiency in both legs. It was pretty severe - darkened, bulgy veins on both legs in a few spots, and ultrasounds revealed a lot of backflow of blood. I was embarrassed because I thought it was an "old lady" problem: I was self conscious of how I looked, and I knew no one else my age who had gone through this. But it's a medical issue like many others, and so I'm opening up about it!

My doctor and I came up with a treatment plan, but before insurance will cover the treatments they require you to wear compression stockings for 3 months. Because some of the veins that needed to be closed were in my thighs, that meant 3 months of thigh highs. The only other solution is compression stockings permanently (without subsequent treatment)...so I decided to suck up the 3 months and then go through treatment.

The treatments were tough - it was after the first big week of treatment that I wrote that post last year. I was in a lot more pain than I anticipated, I was horribly bruised, I felt pretty terrible all over, and I was starting to wonder whether I had chosen the right path.

The photo shows how I looked after treatment number one. I'll spare you the bruising photos. The right leg was worse than the left leg anyway, at least in terms of my reaction. But see all those dark veins down on both calves? They're gone now, yay!

While the treatment did take a bit longer than we originally mapped out (I had a couple of veins that were stubborn about closing), and we ended up spending more than I anticipated (lots of copays), looking back I have to say it was ultimately the right thing for me to do. If anyone is contemplating the same, I'd be happy to talk to you about my experience.

But, before the treatments (and throughout), I began my hate-to-love relationship with thigh highs. I originally purchased 3 pairs of medical grade, prescription-only thigh highs through a medical supply company (that was in and of itself a major hassle). I purchased two pairs of nude and one black; two pairs were open toed, and one close toed (that was a mistake - I should have bought all close toed, but I made it work).

Side note: I ended up buying a lot of LulaRoe dresses and skirts last winter, which helped to provide me with a good wardrobe under which I could wear the thigh highs. In fact, I think I likely would not have purchased nearly as much LulaRoe if not for the thigh highs! 

It turned out that it wasn't a case of "wear thigh highs for 3 months and you're done." During treatments (which were scheduled twice a week for about 6 weeks), I had to wear the thigh highs consistently. You're required to wear them 3 days after treatment, as it keeps the veins from opening back up. So 3 months turned into 6 months...and then when I went in for spot treatments I had to wear them again. I also had to wear them while flying (helps to prevent clotting), and eventually I reached the point where my legs felt better when wearing them than when not.

I should also mention that as the need for thigh highs decreased as treatments wound down, I also started wearing calf sleeves. I cannot recommend these enough - when you're walking a lot, or exercising, or just standing all day. I wear them under jeans, leggings, boots, and definitely while exercising, and they make my legs feel SO much better. Get yourself a pair!

So how did I go from being horribly uncomfortable in thigh highs to promoting them, and actually somewhat enjoying the experience? The medical thigh highs come up VERY high (at least on me) - right up to the junction of my thighs to pelvis. This mean that I didn't get a "muffin top" of thigh skin at the top of the thigh highs, but instead had full leg coverage without being squeezed at the waist by panty hose. Once they had stretched out a touch (making them easier to pull on over the ankle), I really didn't mind wearing them anymore...and now I would support any lady in wearing them, certainly over regular pantyhose!

Of course, wearing 3 pairs of thigh highs nearly every day for months makes them wear out, even if they are thicker due to the compression. After the summer, I no longer had to wear them, but I had gotten used to them. And as it got colder this winter, I wanted to wear them again, but really didn't want to shell out the medical stocking price. Plus, I no longer needed the higher level of compression. So...to Amazon!

Yep, you can buy them on Amazon, and at half the price of my co-pay for the prescription ones. I ended up buying these in black, nude, and suntan. I knew they were likely to be tight due to the compression, so I bought a large to ensure that they fit around my thighs. They don't come up as high as the Jobst thigh highs did, which was a bit frustrating (as that's one of the things that I liked the most), but the black and nude pair hit at a nice place just above mid thigh and don't go anywhere. The one time I've worn the suntan pair, they wouldn't stretch up quite as high and kept rolling down as I walked (as cheaper thigh highs have done on me in the past), so I'm worried I bought the wrong size. But overall, for the price, I'm happy with what I purchased for occasional wear. It's amazing how much more comfortable I am in thigh highs now than I ever am in panty hose.

I guess the sum of all of this is: if you've tried thigh highs and didn't think they worked, or you were uncomfortable, it might be that you didn't have the right ones, or that you just didn't try for long enough. I know that the cheap Hanes thigh highs I've bought in the past were terrible; it's definitely worth spending a bit more money. And I know that if I had only worn the medical ones a few times, I would never have come around.

Ladies, I really do think that thigh highs are the answer when you need to wear stockings...and if you find ones that fit properly, they don't look half bad either.  ;) 

These kids are rocking school!

I have to say, I'm pretty proud of my two kiddos this year. They've always done pretty well at school, but this year we have even more reason to be proud.

Let's talk about Natalie first. Third grade is special because she actually earns letter grades this year, and her first report card was so great- all As and one B! And frankly, the B wasn't even really her fault - we messed up helping her study for one of her social studies tests (I read the date wrong and she never studied), and her poor performance on that test gave her the B. But that's ok, because she'd done so well on everything else that we told her one test did not matter!

Here are a few examples of her work from over the fall semester:

This was something she brought home (I'm assuming from a section they were doing on reading), and I loved what she wrote!

After the first reporting period, we were sent this letter - Natalie won an attendance award, and also the Principal's Award in her class for most improved in math! She's been so dedicated, working each night with us on her math homework packet.

Here she is earning her two awards!

Next we have Henry. This kid...check out the kinds of things he's writing in his daily journal.

He's doing great at math

And has received special awards ("smart beads") a couple of times. The first time was for this interpretation. I'm not sure I ever would have thought of that! I love seeing how his brain works.

And work it does. He got an "E" (exceeds the standard) on almost all subjects, and an M on all of the others.

Then there's reading. He knows how much reading he does! During the first round of assessments in the first couple of months, he tested past the end of second grade level (the farthest his teacher was allowed to test). He likely would've tested into third grade level (on everything except comprehension, which he just made to the end of second grade level on). He loves to read anything and everything, and it's showing by his ability at school!

Henry also won an attendance award, and the Principal's award for success in reading.

This was his first real awards assembly, and he was so cute shaking hands and getting his awards!

Finally, I end this with a visit Evan made to Natalie's classroom during "science week". She and her friends were trying to see how many books they can stack...I love her excitement!

Henry's 1st grade field trip

At the beginning of November I took a day off of work to spend with Henry for his 1st grade field trip to Great Country Farms. I'd gone previously (with both of them) during preschool, and Natalie went last year for her 2nd grade field trip (but I had to miss that one - thank goodness, as apparently it was gross and rainy the whole time!). So I knew what to expect, but we still had a lot of fun!

I was put in charge of Henry and two of his friends. They were pretty good kids all day! A little rambunctious (as three 6 year old boys can be), but they listened well.

Our group was assigned to first go on the hayride wagon out to the pumpkin fields. The boys wanted to pick GIANT pumpkins, but I managed to convince them that these littler ones were a bit more manageable!

 

We then went to hear about the pumpkin life cycle, have our lunch, and then some free playtime!

The biggest hit was the giant jumping pillow. 

Love this last shot!

The very last group activity, with all the first graders, was watching the pig races. The kids thoroughly enjoyed watching them run!

Parent Observation - Henry November 2016

As happens every year, in November the Loudoun School of Ballet held parent observation week. Unfortunately, I had plans to travel for work that week, so I missed all but two of the classes. That mean that I couldn't go to Henry's class at all, and I missed both of Natalie's ballet and her jazz classes. Luckily, Evan stepped in for me and took photos and videos with his phone. I downloaded them all, edited a few where needed, and have my favorites here to see.

Up first: Henry! He's taking Boys Hip Hop this year, and is super cute doing it.

You can't do any hip hop before you do your stretching!

His plank form is pretty darn good too.

And here we have a few warm up exercises. Working on those hip isolations! The ladies are gonna love it ;) 

Evan didn't get any videos of Henry practicing his recital dance, so you'll just have to wait until I film it during dress rehearsal and I'll post after that! His costume is super cute. Can't wait to see these boys!

Fall into Dance 2016

In October, Natalie had her second ever non-recital performance. The first was the 2016 Winter Showcase (almost a year ago), but this year was even bigger as she was in two dances! Her group (Showkids) was split in two, and so each group had their own dance, and a joint dance with all of the girls together. Do you think she was excited? Just look at that face!

Entering into the performance location (Franklin Park Arts Center), there was a large screen set up with head shots of all of the dancers! Look at my beautiful girl there in the middle.

There were also multiple shows that weekend - Natalie's group performed in both afternoon shows on Saturday and Sunday, and I took her to one of the evening shows so she could see the older dancers. I photographed some of the dancers during rehearsal, but was unable to get them all, so I did some photography during one of the shows as well (by request of the studio owner!). Because of that, I was in the audience during warm up, and able to grab a couple of pics (and a video) of the dancers all warming up together. There's Natalie right in the middle, in the pink skirt! Her group had never participated in the standard warmup before, and they did great following along with the older girls.

I snagged this one from backstage during a quick pre-show rehearsal; this was her full group (all Showkids together). Cracked me up that she was the one looking back towards the other dancers in that brief moment!

We had at least one parent from our group present backstage at both shows, to help the girls get ready, get them on/off stage, and keep them quiet. On Sunday's show, that was me, which let me get some great pics of the girls! Here's Natalie's group - Showkids II

And the other group - Showkids I

And then all of our Showkids dancers together! I loved this dance and costumes. The girls were big fans too!

Here they all are in the wings watching the dance before them. I loved how rapt they all were!

A couple of pics from offstage...

But of course I have better quality photos too! Love getting to photograph these dancers during their performances, even if it's dress rehearsal.They really give it their all!