Showstopper Dance Competition - Battle Creek

We just returned home from Allison's second dance competition of the season. We were in Battle Creek at Kellogg Arena for the Showstopper Dance Competition. Luckily, all three of her dances were on Saturday afternoon so we didn't have to do an overnight. Grandma Anderson and Breanna were there to cheer Ally on. Allison was FAR less nervous this time around compared to her first competition. She was having a ball and even went up on stage to dance during breaks just for warm-up. The kids did a great job and ended up winning a couple trophies and medals. Allison had the honor of receiving the awards for The Shoop Shoop Song (tap). They took 1st place in the division and 10th overall for that song. They were 9th overall with their Hey Daddy (jazz). For Scooby Dooby Doo (hip hop) they took first in their division but didn't make it into the overall.

One dancer gets to receive any awards for each song and Allison was lucky enough to have the teacher pick her for The Shoop Shoop Song. When they announced it, she went up to the center of the stage and the announcer asked her a couple questions and then had her say her name and the name of her studio. She spoke up clearly into the mic so everyone could hear "Allison McDaid from Body Language Dance Company!". It was too cute! Congratulations to all the little dancers who are pretty impressive!

Also, Allison is considering doing her tap dance for the school talent show as well. We'll see if she follows through on that and does it by herself. Here are some shots from the day. Click on a picture to enlarge.

Warming-up on stage by doing "The Freeze". It's a move they do in the Scooby Doo routine...
The ending of the Scooby Dooby Doo performance... (hip hop) Allison is front & center.
The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)... (tap) Allison is on the far right.
The beginning of Hey Daddy (jazz)... Allison is on the far left.
Accepting the 1st Place award for The Shoop Shoop Song...

Lansing Capital Field Trip

Today was the annual Bauerwood 4th grade field trip to Lansing. Heidi got to go along for the chaos... er, fun. All three 4th grade classes took charter busses to Lansing and parents tagged along in cars. They visited the Capital Building and the Michigan Historical Museum. Sounds like it was a long day but interesting for the kids and the adults. Sorry to say Nathan didn't get a chance to question any of the legislatures on why they passed that simulus bull... I mean bill. But that's a topic for another time. Here are some shots from the trip.

The Capital Building...
Nathan's class at the museum...
Nathan next to an old logging cart... look at the size of that wheel!
David, Jonas, and Nathan hanging out "on the farm"
Nathan rolling up his sleeves...

Bauerwood Sock Hop

Tonight was the annual Bauerwood Elementary "carnival". But there was an added twist this year as they hired a DJ and held a 50's Sock Hop! Early on, dinner was served followed by carnival type games in all of the classrooms (and lots of candy prizes of course). After the games, the music started in the gym and the kids got to dance to the music. Allison LOVED it and couldn't resist doing the Hand Jive which they've been learning in music class. Unfortunately, Nathan was a bit under the weather but still went and even joined in for the Chicken Dance.

Allison cutting it up on the dance floor with Abbie...
Chester Chicken showed up during the Chicken Dance...

Championship Weekend!

While Allison was starting her dance competition season, Nathan was finishing up his hockey season. This weekend was the Big Bear Spring Showdown Hockey Tournament at Soutside Ice Arena in Grand Rapids. There were 6 teams in our bracket. Our tournament started out on a sour note Friday afternoon with a 4-1 loss to the Chicago Jets. Saturday morning, we played the Kalamazoo Flames and beat them 6-3. Then, Saturday night, we played another Chicago Jets team and beat them 7-2. Nathan played defense during the entire tournament. He's been doing a good job of getting back and forcing the other team wide to prevent easy shots and it's been working pretty well. Based on the first three games, the top four teams went into the semi-finals on Sunday morning. We were the number three seed and had to play another Hawk team in the semi's. That game was a nail-biter because the other Hawk team is pretty good. We beat them in the district play-down game at Walker but it was a close game. They play solid defense but our boys were working great together and we ended up winning 6-4 to head to the finals for a rematch against the Chicago Jets team we'd lost to on Friday afternoon. So we went home and called/emailed everyone in the family to let them know there was a championship game this afternoon.

The Championship Game: Nathan was a little giddy prior to the championship game because the team has been so close to making it to a tournament final and they were finally going to play in one. This weekend has been great to watch. For some reason, after Friday the boys finally have gotten the feel of how to play together as a team by playing positions, passing the puck and spreading the other team out. Everything sort of came together. Additionally, they've all been skating hard and back-checking to prevent the other team from getting easy scoring chances. They've learned passing the puck makes scoring goals a LOT easier and results in more scoring chances for our team.

In tournaments, they typically begin the championship game by lining up both teams on the blue lines, announcing all of the players, and playing the National Anthem. For some reason, they lined up the players, didn't announce them, and then realized they didn't have a national anthem to play. That's where the fans in the stands came to the rescue (man, I wish this one was on tape)... Someone began singing the national anthem and the entire crowd (which was pretty large and loud since this was a championship game) joined in. We sang through the entire anthem while the players stood at the blue lines. Too funny!

Once the puck dropped, the boys picked up right where they left off from this morning. Everyone was skating hard, doing their part and playing as a team. We jumped out to a 1-0 lead and held that until the middle of the third period. We scored another goal to go up 2-0 with about 4 minutes left. After a mix-up in our end, the Jets scored to make it 2-1. We were still doing a good job of stopping their rushes. They pulled their goalie and really put the pressure on and shot a game-tying goal past our goalie with 24 seconds left in the game to tie it 2-2. Talk about taking the wind out of our sails!

But... immediately after the face-off we went down in their end and put a shot off their goalie. Our center slammed the rebound off the goalie and in the net to go up 3-2 with about 10 seconds left. From there it was a matter of running out the clock. When the game was finally over, the ice became littered with gloves, sticks, helmets, etc. as the boys were celebrating a hard-fought title. They all jumped into a big pile and were screaming along with the crowd. It was great that they were able to end the season on such a high note. I know for Nathan it was extra special because he's been pretty bummed knowing the hockey season was about over and he wouldn't be playing with alot of these boys next season. Most of them are a year older and will be moving up to the Pee Wee age bracket.

After the celebration was over, they lined up each of the teams on the blue lines again. They announced all of the players from both teams to get their trophies and shake hands then they presented the team trophies. After all of the hoopla was over the entire team went out for dinner (and drinks for the parents). I'm completely worn out and I'd imagine the kids are feeling the same way after this weekend. But it couldn't have been scripted any better. Both of the kids did a great job at what they do.

Congratulations HAWK #1!!!
2009 Big Bear Spring Showdown Champions!!!
Nathan is in the front row just to the right of the goalie...

The celebration... I wish I had pictures of the crowd going crazy after that game-winning goal. It was pretty insane!

Congratulations for everyone. I must say the Chicago Jets team was very good. The parents and team were a class act and good sports.

Coach Jim took photos of each of the players and their family with the trophy before heading out for dinner...

Allison's First Dance Competition

Ever since last fall, Allison has been practicing three dance routines for competitions:

Jazz: Hey Daddy
Hip Hop: Scooby Dooby Doo
Tap: The Shoop Shoop Song

This weekend was her first competition where her dance team performed their routines. The Talent On Parade (TOP) Kalamazoo Regional competion was held at Miller Auditorium on the campus of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. It was pretty cool to go back to the campus Heidi and I both graduated from. So much has changed since we left (about 14 years ago... yikes!!!). Anyway, Nathan was playing in a hockey tournament this weekend so after his early game Saturday morning we zipped down to Kalamazoo to catch Ally's dances. Her first routine was Hey Daddy. It's kind of a fast country number. All the girls are dressed in jean skirts, jackets, and lots of sparkles. Her whole group did a great job. We could tell she was pretty nervous. Who wouldn't be nervous performing for the first time in a giant auditorium with tons of people, judges, photographers, and videographers watching?!. But she kept smiling at the judges during the whole routine and looked like she had fun. Even with all that she did great.

What was really funny was I think Nathan was more nervous for her than Heidi and I put together!! He was always asking when Ally was up and when she was coming up he would get all serious and focused hoping she did good. How cute!

The second routine she did was Scooby Dooby Doo. It is a hip hop mix. The girls wear white hoodies with Scooby Doo airbrushed on the back along with white tennis shoes and visors and a purple sparkled skirt. During this dance, Ally looked less nervous and was clearly starting to get a little comfortable. The last number was her tap dance. The girls wore very poofy skirts with bright pink and even more sparkle. By this time, Ally didn't look nervous at all and did great! I think this was their best performance of the three. It's funny... there were probably about 20 girls in the routine and I didn't ever watch any of the other ones. At the end, her groups did well in the scoring and won some awards. She brought home six ribbons. But I'd be lying if I tried to say I understood them. I don't know if they took 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in anything. Everything was "First place", "Top First", and "Elite Top First" whatever those mean. In addition they also won awards for overall categories. Hopefully the instructors can explain how that all works this week at practice so we at least know what they're shooting for. But for a first competition it seemed to me like they all did a great job. We've got a few weeks before the Battle Creek competition. Here are some pictures of Allison back stage before the performances.

"Hey Daddy" - Jazz

"Scooby Dooby Doo!"

"The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)"

Goalie (for real)

I previously posted about Nathan playing goalie in practice. Well, today, one of the other kids on the team was planning to play goalie but decided he didn't want to yesterday so the coach asked Nate if he would. He was excited to give it a try in a real game and wouldn't stop talking about it for the entire 24 hours. We were playing East Grand Rapids at home. He was nervous at first but had a lot of fun. I have to say watching your kid play goalie is about as stressful as anything I can think of. Even though it wasn't a tight game, every save was a relief!! He did great and the team played solid defense in front of him. We ended up winning the game 5-2. Of course, now he wasnts to play goalie a few times next year too.