The first competition of the year is always the hardest, but this year it was also an enormous amount of fun. The girls were dancing in Chattanooga and since Josh had a doubleheader on Saturday, my mom decided to ride with us so that I could take Sophie. The thought of managing her backstage while I worked to get Ella ready was a little more than terrifying.
We left on Saturday morning and made the three hour drive, arriving just before lunch. We had time to get checked in and walk to lunch at Panera (three cheers from my girls and a bear claw for mama) before we had to get dressed. The girls have to wear their hair in a sock-bun for both dances this year, which means Ella’s bun is crazy out of control. Not only is it almost down to her waist, but it’s crazy thick and wavy and it isn’t easy to tame!
Their jazz costumes are mime-inspired and they dance to Queen’s “Body Language”. I’m not kidding you when I say this is one of my favorite costumes to date – even after six years. They were easy to manage backstage, super comfortable for the dancers and adorable on. We used eyeliner to draw on mime faces and we were ready to go!
Ella asked to bring her Instax camera at the last minute and I’m so glad she did. We only took this one photo, but she loves it and I’m going to have it framed for her room. Of course, I had to ask her pose with the camera, too!
She also grabbed the selfie stick on the way out the door and these girls had a BLAST playing with it backstage. The other studios kept asking us about it and I know of a few girls who might be getting one in their Easter baskets. The number of selfies on my phone after the weekend was a little ridiculous.
Wanna see?
After their jazz routine, we had about 17 minutes to wash their faces, reapply stage makeup, move their bun to the top of their head, change shoes and costumes and feed as many grapes and strawberries into their mouths as possible. What that means is, I got virtually zero photos of them in the yellow raincoats.
They were the last number on stage before awards, so they didn’t have time to get their practice uniforms back on before they were called on stage again. They got High-Gold and first in their category for both dances, but didn’t place overall. I thought they were amazing (of course), but Ella was a little bummed that they didn’t get a trophy. The first competition of the season is always hard and I have a feeling they will make leaps and bounds in the next three weeks, before they get to do it all over again.
After we got back to the hotel, a group of moms took about ten of the dancers on a walk to a local restaurant for dinner. We might have had an almost two hour wait, but the selfie stick and a nearby cupcake shop kept them plenty busy in the meantime. They might even have convinced some restaurant patrons that they were the girls on the reality TV show “Dance Moms”.
On Sunday, we got up bright and early for breakfast, followed up with a few hours in the pool with some of our favorite girls. This little Taz right here was so thrilled to be included and Ella’s friends took such good care of her the entire weekend. She felt like a part of the team and only got teary eyed about getting left out of a photo once or twice.
Since we were already in a fabulous city (I seriously told Josh if we ever had to move away that Chattanooga would be near the top of my list!), mom and I decided to take the girls to the Tennessee Aquarium on Sunday before we headed back home. Ella had been once a few years ago, but she was excited to go back and experience it all again with Sophie.
The butterfly house was super cool, even though right after this Sophie said it tickled her and threw it on the ground?! Thankfully, no butterflies were harmed in the making of this blog post.
The jellyfish room was my favorite spot of the entire day and I’m so glad I snapped this picture of the girls. They stood here mesmerized for the longest time.
Of course, you can’t leave a museum without a pressed penny, so Sophie grabbed one on our way out the door. We ate at the aquarium food court which was very food-truck-esque and the nachos were pretty fabulous. The girls weren’t quite ready to make the drive home, so we let them run around the park and walk down to the river while we waited.
It was the most beautiful day and the weather was amazing! We weren’t sure what to do with sunshine and 75* after so many consecutive cold and rainy days. We were not ready to come home from our little getaway, but even the drive was nice. Gran and I devoured a insane number of chocolate chip cookies, answered one billion questions, planned Sophie’s birthday party and solved all of the world’s problems. I rarely get uninterrupted conversation time with my mom, so it was much appreciated. Now it’s time for a nap and a quick recovery before we do it all over again in a few more weeks!
