Uppity-Mama

What Do You Think?

It looks as if I'll be doing some ice skating in a recital in April.  I have a solo program and now, well, a pairs number!  My friend Joe and I have teamed up and it is sooo much more fun skating pairs than skating solo! Anyway, it looks like I'll have to wear some (gulp!) skating dresses.  So I bought this pattern:

 
but I'm pretty sure making a skating dress would be an exercise in frustration for me, especially now that Capril isn't around for me to run to for backup.

So I'm considering these:

 

See that hair scrunchie on the side there? Don't worry, I'll not be sporting that!

 

The whole thing feels a bit ridiculous considering my age.  And I'm terrified of actually putting one of these on.  But if I don't do it now... well, I never will.  And if I don't do it at all, it will feel like a bit of a fail.  So, although I may look a bit silly in my outfit, and I may fall on my face, I'm gonna do it.  Won't you help me decide what to wear for this spectacular event?  Opinions and suggestions please!  Has anyone out there ever made a skating dress?

What's been happening.

Just a quick summary of events which have kept me away from blogging for so many weeks! 
It's all good, happily.

Zander and Violet competed in the La Jolla open on the weekend of April 25th.  They had a great time and did very well.   That's Violet in the Fedora and Zander in the "hair".
  It was also the 30th birthday of Zander's coach, Devin, so I made him a beanie which Zander is modeling  below.  The pattern is from Kody May Knits and is a free download!
Then we took Coach Devin out to dinner and got goofy.

And a great time was had at the hotel pool the next morning.

The next weekend we MOVED to a great new house...pictures to come in a later post after more unpacking.

Then Mira amazed us all with a performance!  On a real stage!  With lots of real people watching!  This was huge for her!  And she was wonderful!!!

Birthday, Crown and Some Confusing Cupcakes (April Fools!)

Violet turned 9 on Saturday.  I made her this crown from a great tutorial over at juicy-bits.typepad.com.

We made these April Fool's cupcakes from the book, Hello Cupcake. Spaghetti and meatbals, peas and carrots, and mashed potatoes with gravy...YUMMO! 

...and a good skating time was had by all, including the baby, with help from big brother, Zander!

And to continue with our April Fool's line of thinking the "goody bags" were Popcorn containers with popcorn on top but underneath were joy buzzers, fake poop, squirt rings, snap gum and fake cockroach peeking it's head out of the kernels.  I forgot to take pictures of them, unfortunately! 

Holiday on Ice

Forgive me.  I'm about to brag.

It wouldn't be the holidays around here without the Winter Recital at Culver Ice Arena.  Zander skated to Mr. Grinch and did a beautiful axel for the the first time in a performance.  He and his partner Leah did an adorable pairs number to Here Comes Santa Claus...their footwork was  amazing!  And Violet skated the best she's ever done to Hurt by Christina Aguilliera.  It was  gorgeous.  Did I mention how proud I am of them?

Competition on the ice.

Violet and Zander entered a skating competition. They both did a great job! Violet entered three categories: Compulsory moves, Artistic level III and Freeskate level III. She two 5th places and one sixth place. In between she found a very interesting way of keeping her ears warm, as you'll see below. Zander and his pairs partner, Leah, took first place. It was a bit of an upset because the only other junior pairs couple competing was a brother and sister team who skate together all the time and are very competitive. Leah and Zander have only been skating together for a few months. Then a second upset. Zander was doing a level IV artistic program, only there weren't any other boys to skate against so they put him with the level IV girls. His coach warned him ahead of time not to expect to place for a trophy (1st-4th) because these were pretty serious little girls and Zander should just have fun with it. Well he did. And he got 1st place! Oh, my! Some very sparkly little girls and their parents were pretty unnerved by this. One even made a formal complaint to the head coach. Wow! Lighten up people!
Anyway, here are some pictures.

More Ice Skating Goodness

Violet did a medley of Wizard of Oz songs and Zander skated to Wild Boys by Duran Duran. He's still on his 80's kick. He did some of his own choreography this time, too!

New Category...Ice Skating

Ice skating has become a serious part of our lives in the last year and a half. Violet and Zander take lessons and have started competing. They also love to perform in recitals.