Cream That Egg!

This guy has way too much time on his hands!!!
Cool video though.

The Kid's Kicked Butt Again!

Home from another competition, this time IDC in Tampa. Long week-end but it turned out well in the end.

Legally Blonde started off rough, they were the second number on Saturday. Two girls lost their hairpieces, someone lost one of the pom poms and one of the older girls lost her spin and had to stop. We all were devastated, thinking they had just lost their chance at high score or entertainment award. Later they received a Platinum and were asked to perform again in the Entertainment Challenge and Won! YEA

Then Rock'n the boat we all thought went well but they only received a High Gold. Personally I think they performed better than ever. Who knows, won't know what the judges think until the studio owners get the paperwork.

Ooh La La only got a High Gold, not sure what Shanna will do with this number, needs something I guess.

Big Bad Wolf Daddy kicked butt, they came out and wowed the judges. They received a Platinum and 2nd runner up to the Ultimate Challenge (overall high score) and High Score in their division.

Don't Fence Me In, did very well also, they received High Score in their division and received a Platinum.

The Seniors did well also, they took the tap the number that they had done a couple of years ago at a different competition to this one. Hot Chocolate and received a Platinum as well as were asked to perform in the Entertainment Challenge and WON!
Their other number I Run For Life also received a Platinum. Very powerful and all the girls were crying at the end. It's a song by Melissa Etherage about breast cancer, which one of the Mom's of the seniors just recoverd from. So as you can imagine it was very personal for all of them.

All in all it was a great week-end, long but exciting. Molly had fun and thats the thing that keeps us going. If she wasn't having fun with this we wouldn't be doing it.
Not as many good pictures of Molly, so I'll share just a few that were cute as well as the basket toss the older girls do in Legally Blonde. Bill sat next to the photographer (same one from last year that he chatted with) and told him when the shot was coming, so he also got one of Margaret in the air. They printed that up in a poster and had it displayed in the lobby!

Ooh La La

Well, I finally got around to viewing all of the pictures Bill took from the dance competition. He hadn't seen the dances all the way through so he missed some key shots. We have another one coming up this week-end so he will definitely get them there.
Here are some pictures of Molly in the Ooh La La ballet. They only gave this one a gold, missed the Platinum only by a point and a half. Bill was in the wrong position and didn't get many pictures of Molly, hopefully this next week-end he will get some better shots.

This shot I can't even see Molly but it is the end pose of the number.

Legally Blonde

Here are some shots of Molly in Legally Blonde which was a production number and included the juniors, teens and seniors, roughly 40 some girls. They loved this number and it received a Platinum award and Entertainment Award. Next time Bill will get some of the shots of the older girls doing a basket toss of Margaret, she got higher than the roof of Delta Nu!

This is Vanessa, one of the seniors, who played Elle in the dance. Molly is directly to the left of Vanessa. This is the part where she was "showing them the dress" and singing to them about being proposed to. The backdrop was amazing and turned into Harvard Law when it came time for that part of the dance.

Big Bad Wolf Daddy Dance

Here are some pictures of Molly in the tap dance "Big Bad Wolf Daddy", she is in the blue hat. This dance received a Platinum and nominated for Critic's Choice.

Don't Fence Me In

Here are the shots of Molly in "Don't Fence Me In". This was a Musical Theater dance and received a Platinum award and the Entertainment Award.

This isn't Molly but I thought it was a cute picture!

Wow What a Week-end

Well, the week-end at the dance competition was a success! Our studio only took 6 routines to the competition and we received 5 Platinum, 1 Gold and 2 Entertainment awards!

Molly competed in 4 of the dances, the mini dance "Don't Fence Me In" had the judges smiling, clapping and laughing. They received a Platinum, High Score and the Entertainment Award which is the 2nd highest award for the mini.

The Can Can Ballet received the Gold and the Big Bad Wolf Daddy Tap received a Platinum.
The Legally Blonde production number was in the Teen division won a Platinum and received the Entertainment Award also. The other two numbers that the teens and seniors did also received platinum's.

So our percentage of the numbers taken and awards won was pretty good. There of course were dominate other studios but when you take 130 kids and they all do solos, duos or trios and then do numbers in each of the categories you get a lot of awards. We are happy with what we won and the quality and originality of those numbers.

Molly had a blast, you wouldn't believe it's the same girl with all the smiling and facial expressions she did. All the kids performed their best and we couldn't be prouder of them!

Will post some pictures Bill took when he has them downloaded.

Dance Competition

Next week-end is one of the big dance competition in Orlando. Molly is in 4 dances and the first one is at 9:45 Saturday morning. At least she has some time in between all the numbers. We are then done for the first 3 Saturday morning. Looks like the 4th dance will be Sunday morning at 9:00 and then we have to wait around for the awards that evening. At least we will be able to see our other teams do their performances. Will post pictures after the week-end and hopefully the good results!

The Little Piggy that Could

Kingsford Goes to the Beach - video powered by Metacafe

What a cute piggy! I would love to have him, but alas I'm sure I would regret it when it became a big pig.

Saturday Flashback

Ok, it's not really a flashback but I had to name it something to cover the week in review.

This is NOT Cooper (although I'm sure he would do this if given the chance)

I found this picture on the website The Spiced Life. This lady has TWO Chesapeake's! Lord help her, just having one is more than enough for me! Maggie was a food hound too, we had to be careful what we left on the counter. In her lifetime she had eaten an Easter basket full of candy, brownies (more than a couple times), a 3rd of a roast, part of a Thanksgiving apple pie and that's just what I can remember of the top of my head. She only got sick off of the candy and threw-up chocolate on my carpet, twice. Cooper seems to be ok with just his food, although I dropped a piece of my cereal on the floor and now he seems to think when I have cereal in the morning I have to give him a bite. Not happen'n, we aren't going down that road. Maggie was quite the begger and we don't want Cooper to get in those bad habits.

Molly at dance

Molly in her Can Can costume for competition

Dance is going full force with the first competition only 2 weeks away. They are practicing an extra hour on Thursdays and now Saturdays for 3 hours, next it will be Sundays too (I hope not!). Molly received a complement from her dance teacher last night that she has been really working the last couple of nights. That's good to hear since she is one of the youngest in the class and she is also in the mini group as well. She is in 4 dances at competition so she is getting pushed to the max. She is in Acro as well and just told me she almost landed her front handspring. WOW, for a little girl who couldn't even do a cartwheel until last year she is doing great.

Today Bill is taking the team pictures for the Competition teams, all but the seniors who weren't all available, so he will have to take them next Saturday. It's always something, we wanted to get a full team picture so as to have one to put in the paper, now I will have to set up the rest of the team and then photoshop the seniors in. Oh well, gives me a chance to hone my skills.

Where can I get One of These???

I want this, complete with kittens! Ya, that would go over well with the other animals not to mention my husband. The dog would love it, he is enthralled with the cats. Tux the male cat has told the dog in no uncertain terms that he is the BOSS, and don't you forget it! Every time Cooper comes around Tux, whether he is just walking by or actually trying to get him to play with him, Tux growls and gives him the "evil eye". If Cooper gets too close, Tux bats him with his paws, mind you he has no claws but he still gets a good slap in (you can even hear it!).

Callie on the other hand has come out from under the bed and is interested in the dog, now that we have tried to convince the dog that he doesn't have to chase the cat every time he sees her. Callie actually went up to the dog and let him sniff her and Callie was acting like her old self. She and Maggie (our previous dog) loved each other and she would rub up against Maggie and let Maggie lick her and cuddle with her. I think Callie misses Maggie and is trying to develop the same relationship with Cooper. It may take a while for this dog to get the picture but Cooper just wants to play with them, doesn't want to hurt them (at least on purpose).

Molly and Cooper are getting along well, we are trying to get Cooper to not play bite. When Molly gets on the floor with him, he thinks she wants to play rough, so we are training him to not play bite so he doesn't accidentally nip someone other than us. That would be not good so we are "Nipping it in the bud" so to speak.

Cooper's New Blog

My husband has had requests to give Cooper his own blog, so here it is...
http://www.curlydog.com/cooper/

He's Ours!

Yes, we were finally able to bring Cooper home, he is a lovable big puppy. He's learning his commands very fast, so someone must have worked with him a little. If you would like to read the whole saga and see more pictures, visit my husband Bill's blog. www.curlydog.com

We think he may have been a case of abandonment, they posted the notice on the door of his last residence in Orange County but the neighbor said they hadn't been there since January 1st. So they may have lost their home and dropped him off at an Animal hospital as a stray. Anyway that's what it looks like.

He seems to be settling in, he and the cats have had a few discussions, he just wants to play and the cats don't! Molly and Cooper are buddies already and he and I have bonded as well.

Now the fun begins! Here is a picture of him and Molly's drawing of that photo. For more pictures visit www.curlydog.com .

Cooper our new dog???

Well, it's been a rough week without Maggie, I dedogafied (I know that's not a word but who cares...) the house a couple of days ago. The cats have been meowing for no reason, probably wondering where their friend is.

Then Bill was looking on the CBR Rescue site. There was a one year old male that was being fostered in Georgia. We had talked about it before and if we were to get another Chessie it would be a male and I really didn't want to do the puppy thing again. So he called on it and it had just been adopted but she just found out about a Chessie that was a stray about an hour away from us.

Bill called on the dog several times, we were concerned that maybe it was someone's pet and they hadn't found it yet, we really didn't want to adopt it and then the owners come looking for it. After we and the shelter were satisfied that no one was looking for him, we went up there (over an hour away, thought I would see banjos soon, that's how far out this place was) to visit the dog. We wanted to see if it was one that we could bond with and to see how well it did with Molly. They had named the dog Cooper and it seemed to fit him, he's a very rambunctious 1 year old, very strong and not fully grown yet. He did very well other than jumping up on you, which I expected. Molly was able to pet him and give him his toy without him nipping or biting. He of course was very playful and hasn't been trained to sit or stay yet, we will have to to a lot of work with him. He doesn't seem to have an aggressive bone in his body, he just wants to play.

So we pick him up from the vet's on Monday after he is fixed and bring him home. Here are a couple of shots of him that were on their website.I will have to let you know how the first night goes on Monday!

Tribute to Maggie

I am finding it hard to find words to write about Maggie, so I will direct you to my husband's blog. I think he said it all...

Saying goodbye is never any fun