On Sunday, the kids were exhausted, but we decided to sight-see our way out of town. We let the girls sleep in and then got a slow start over breakfast before making our way across town to the Tennessee Aquarium. After I realized we would have a few extra days in Chattanooga, I reached out to a few highly-recommended children's attractions and we were gifted tickets in exchange for a mention on the blog and social media. This is not a sponsored post, but we were so thrilled to visit Chattanooga's Tennessee Aquarium and share our experience with you! The aquarium is divided into two different buildings showcasing the Ocean Journey and River Journey. We began with the Ocean building (because it's our favorite) and started our morning with a quick break in the photo booth. Paige ...
dance
Where to Visit: Chattanooga (Part 1)
This past weekend, Ella & I set out on a road trip adventure with a few of our favorite friends. She was dancing in her first competition of the year and we were thrilled to find it was in Chattanooga because we had such a great time dancing there last year! We were lucky she was out of school on Friday, so we planned to leave bright and early and enjoy a little non-whole30 breakfast on the way. I need you to know that those Chick-fil-A Chicken Minis did NOT disappoint. These three girls were so excited to see each other and to be on the road. They were nervous about dancing the next day, but were super excited to spend the day sightseeing together. After I realized we would have a few extra days in Chattanooga, I reached out to a few highly-recommended children's attractions and ...
Lights Up at The Summit | 2015
It's been a few weeks now, but just before Thanksgiving Ella got to dance in a holiday parade at our local open air mall. Every year they have a huge event outside with a parade, fireworks and Santa Claus where they "light up" all of the trees and buildings for the holidays. We were lucky enough to be the only dance studio in the Birmingham area to participate, so the girls felt like royalty. The entire place was packed and it was super hard to get photos while they were dancing. I was literally running down the sidewalk with my camera trying to catch up with them a few times along their route. Obviously, the studio isn't named after our daughter, but I figured we should mind our internet safety, no? We were lucky enough that Spark & Arrow does a ton of work with The Summit and ...
Recital Recap | Six Years
I made the joke on Saturday that Dance Recital day is one of my favorite days of the year and one of the other moms raised her eyebrows and said "Really?!" It's probably hard to imagine because we spend twelve hours running up and down flights of stairs, swapping out tights and costumes and hair accessories with no thanks and I'm pretty sure I didn't manage to eat a bite of lunch until sometime around 3:30. The thing is, it's a day spent with little girls smiles and glitter and any day spent watching them do what they love best is a day well-spent in my book. Since Ella's team performs in all three recitals, we were up early with a full face of makeup and a car packed to the gills. We left Sophie lounging at home with her daddy while we grabbed Chick-fil-A for breakfast and headed ...
Chattanooga Bound
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 ...
Recital Recap | Five Years
It might take a week or more to catch up on all the things that happened while I was away from the blog, so I figured the best way to do it was to rewind and start from the beginning! Originally, my trial was supposed to start the first week of June and the girls' recital would have fallen on a weekend in the middle. As things in the legal system are prone to do, our trial got bumped a week and the recital ended up being the Saturday before we went to court. Not good. I had scheduled everything as well as I could considering I was working around the clock, barely seeing the girls and they were about to leave for a two week vacation with my parents, but the pressure of work and the stress of so many dances left me feeling like I needed a redo. Thinking back, there are some things I would do ...
Dance + Beach = Ella’s Perfect Weekend
This past weekend was Ella's last competition of the season. We were scheduled for one more next week, but (thankfully) it was cancelled because of a scheduling problem. Our other competitions have been mostly local, but we headed south for the beach this time and spent a few days together in the sand. At the last competition, I forgot to pack Ella's fishnet tights and caused quite the commotion. We danced in tan tights instead, but I vowed never to forget anything again. I had checked her bags against our check-list twice before we left home, but the first thing I did when we got to the condo was to lay everything out and check it all one more time! We started our day in swimsuits and crazy hair and spent some time out on our balcony before trekking down to the stage area to set up ...
Platinum Dance | In Ella’s Words
This weekend was a whirlwind. Josh had baseball games, I was wrapping up design orders, our family welcomed a new baby into the mix and we spent the better part of our Saturday watching tiny people dance. When Ella started dancing five years ago, I had no idea competitive dance was even a thing. I was vaguely aware of the television drama that follows a group of dancers around, but that was so far out of my daily norm that it probably didn't even register. Last year was her first year to compete and we were clearly the new kids on the block. In all honesty, after the complaints about being exhausted all year long, I never expected her to want to do it again (let me interject that she LOVED competing, it was the practice she tried to avoid). The fall of this year was what you'd expect ...