A Banner Day For Princess P!

On top of the fact today is Princess P’s birthday, she also participated in her school’s Ballroom Dance event this morning. Like Kevin, she and members of her class showed off what they learned and performed the six dances for parents and friends. She did the waltz, merengue, foxtrot, swing, rumba and tango. As a bonus at the end, they performed the heel-toe polka, which was great.

After the performance, the teachers and instructors picked their choices for the school’s competitive team. Kevin was lucky enough to make the team last year, and Julia was chosen this year! She’ll join a handful of classmates and compete against local schools, and if they get past the first round, they’ll compete against schools throughout the city.

She also told Mrs. Earp she wants to continue ballroom lessons, like Kevin did, for the foreseeable future.

The Bronze Age

You may remember this post from last week, where Kevin’s school ballroom dancing team competed in the city semifinals. In that competition, Kevin’s team – all fifth graders – captured the gold, and moved on to the city finals.

The city finals were held yesterday at a charter school in the eastern part of the city. Kevin’s team – he and his best friend Grace are captains – was going against eight other schools from across the city. The moderator said the competition would be intense, and the judges would be more strict. They weren’t lying.

Kevin and Grace danced the waltz in their first routine, and the merengue in their second. They and the rest of the team were fabulous, in my opinion, and we all felt pretty good about their chances. The judges announced the bronze awards, silvers, then golds.

The first school they called was Maternity BVM – Kevin’s school. You would have thought they were being called to the gallows. The team glumly walked to receive their awards, many, including Kevin, were crying. After a semester’s worth of work, they missed out on gold, and it was a very long ride back to school.

I tried explaining winning a bronze in a city competition is pretty impressive, but he wasn’t hearing it. Hopefully, he’ll realize how well he did after a few days’ thought. Either way, we’re all very proud of him.

Dance The Night Away

For the past few years, my youngest son Kevin has been participating in dance lessons held at his school. It’s a program which reaches out to local schools and teaches those interested to dance – from everything from the waltz to hip hop. Kevin has always enjoyed the lessons, but we had no idea how good he actually was.

Last week, they put on a show for the parents – I was working, naturally – and Kevin moved on to the semifinals. He will be dancing the waltz with his partner and best friend Grace. Not only that, but the pair have been chosen as the captains of their dance team.

The semifinals are set for tomorrow morning, and sadly, he’ll be dancing while I am getting my biopsy results. Mrs. Earp bought Kevin a new shirt – it needed to be blue – with an accompanying bow tie. We’re trying to keep him grounded, and reminding him if he moves on, that’s great and if he doesn’t, he focuses on his accomplishments so far.

The fact he’s dancing with Grace is a good sign, so he’ll see this more as fun than as a competition.

UPDATE: Mrs. Earp sent video of Kevin and Grace’s waltz…

Kevin and Grace are in blue.

UPDATE 2: GOLD!!! Kevin, Grace and the rest of their team are moving on!!