busy, busy and birthday

well i am new to this blog thing and I don't seem to have time to write in it now that it is summer. The kids are in full mode of baseball and soccar right now. Shyla has her receital in two weeks for her regular classes. Her competitions are done right now for this year. She played her first soccar game of the season last Tuesday on a bigger field than last year. There is alot more running. She did well and made some new friends. Ryley's rep baseball season has been off to a slow start. Oshawa has played 4 games and have lost all of them. They have done well. Ryley is at a new position this year: Catch. He moved up a level in hardball and now there is pitching, and stealing. Last year they used a pitching machine. He loves the catch position and it certainly helps with the goalie skills. It is Ryley's 10th birthay today. It is hard to believe. He has grown up so much. We celebrated his family birthday yesterday and he is going to have a couple friends over to sleepover this Friday. On the long weekend in May we went camping. It was cold but good to get away. There was a river near by that the kids fished in and caught lots of fish, so they were happy. And I got to read a book! It is also my dad's birthday today. On June 16th at 12:30 Shyla will be doing her tap trio, singing a solo and dancing a solo at the courtice fair, down at the new arena on Bloor St. She is excited about it. Well that is about all for now.

Niagara Falls

Well, another busy weekend. Last week Shyla and Ryley had their open house at their school. Shyla performed her folk dancing and primary choir for us, while Ryley was the narrator of a french play entitled "the three little pigs". All went well. On Friday, Ryley had his first ever experience at track and field at the civic with his school. He absolutely loved it and it was a beautiful day to boot. He competed in Long Jump (4th place), shot put (first place), javelin (second place), 100m run (second place) and 200 metre run (2nd place). For his first and seconds he will go on to tryout for the school track team in which he will compete in the area finals in a couple of weeks. On Friday evening, we left for Niagara Falls for another dance competition. Unfortunately, we had to leave Ryely at home with his grandparents. He had basball Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and hockey tryouts for the 'A' division on Saturday and Sunday. We decided to take the 407 to get there quicker and had no problems but a few slow downs. We arrived about 7 and shyla immediately wanted to swim. We met up with a few of the other families and had a ball. The next morning we had a great buffet breakfast included in the price of the room. Shyla danced at 2:30, her 'talk to the animals'. They did great. She said that she had the most fun ever dancing on stage. They received a ruby award (high silver). We had a picnic lunch with some other families and enjoyed the weather. After adjudication we all went back to the hotel and ordered pizza and the girls all swam. We then had some drinks and shared some great stories when the girls all went to sleep. The next morning we checked out and went to the theatre for shyla's 'lollypop" for 10:30. They did well and received a 'emerald award' (gold) and a special award entitled "the little peanuts award". We then had a picnic again outside and Janice joined us (The dance school's owner and teacher). The girls all enjoyed showing off new moves they learned off of the older girls. We then decided to go across the border and shop at the outlets. We got some good deals. We then went for dinner at "old country buffet" and then went to the grocery store to get the things we cannot buy in canada. We got home around 9 from a tiring weekend. Ryley made it through both tryouts on the weekend as well as last night. He just has Wednesday left to find out if he made the team.

Dancing, parties and Hockey

Well this past weekend had our shares of up and downs. On Saturday we were up bright and early to be in Ajax for a dance competition for 7:30 am. Shyla danced her lollypop tap trio at 8:30 and they did a great job considering the venue. Usually the girls dance on a stage in an auditorium. This competition was the first year it was run and called Dancer's Choice. The venue was at a hotel in Ajax. The conference hall was suppose to be done by the time the competition took place, however, like all construction it was not even close to done. Thus, the dancing was done in the small ballroom, in the main hotel. The ballroom was very small with the dance floor being long and narrow. The judges table was right in front of the dance floor and the seats were to the sides of the narrow part. There were probably only 50 or so seats on each side, thus making the place very crowded, especially for the larger groups that had no 'backstage' to get on and off of. When the girls danced they were only about a foot away from the judges when at the front of the 'stage' (dancefloor). In both shyla's dances, she was right in front of the one judge. There are usually 3 judges for the competitions. The judge she was in front of happened to be really into it, bee bopping away to most of the dances and showing lots of expression. Some judges don't show any. Shyla also danced that afternoon at 3:30 with her musical theatre group 'talk to the animals" they did really well too and again shyla ended up in front of the groovy judge and with shyla's animated face during this dance, the judge broke out laughing at her. The venue was awful, however the competition was very well run with a lot of personal touches. We receive one free 5x7 and shyla got a silver necklace with a dancer's choice medallion to put on it for every dance she did. The groups did well: Lollypop scored a gold and a first (you get a dancer's choice (distinguished mark), high gold, gold, high silver, silver, high bronze and bronze). It is scored much like skating. they also scored a special award called "the too cute award". The "talk to the animals" scored a 1st and a gold and an overall award and a special award entitled the "grrrr" award. Also in the afternoon, Ryley had hockey tryouts for AA. He was released, so next tryouts for A is this weekend. That is where he really wants to play as he will have one of the same coaches as last year. Saturday night we attended a euchre party and had great eats and fun. We didn't win though. Sunday, Ryley had baseball practice and Shya went to a neighbours birthday party. Her name is 'teela' and she is turning 4 tommorrow. She is so cute. They went to planet gymnastics and had a ball and had some good homemade treats after.