Hard work pays off

As you all know, Kiley was chosen to be a part of the Jr. Troupe that performed in the Wicked Jig that was on Saturday October 26th.  She worked hard all through the summer and through these last few months to prepare for the big show.  During all that time she was able to perform in different settings and for so many wonderful people.  The first one they got to do was for the Daughters of the American Revolution in Wellsville, Utah.  She had so much fun with that.

After that came the Homecoming Parade for USU.  She got to wear her little devil costume for that one.  She had so many firsts with this opportunity.  It was the first parade she had ever been in.  

The next performance came for World Cultures Night at the Logan Tabernacle.  That was a fun night with all different types of music and dance.  Of course, they saved the best for last, and had the Irish Dancers be the finally.  They rocked it, like always!

Then came all the blood, sweat and tears.  During the month of October it was crunch time.  Lots of extra practices on top of the regular hour and a half of dance class each week (not to mention school, orchestra and activity days!!  Yea, holy cow!). She did great.  Oh ya, they had to learn the opening dance, the Mummers dance, with only 3- maybe 4 weeks before the show!  

They did an awesome job!  There were some stressed out and scared tears shed on her and mom's part, but in the end she totally killed it and put on an awesome show!

She had tons of fun the whole day.  It was a long day.  It started at 11:30 am and ended at around 10 pm.  She was such a trouper.  She got to share a dressing room with Chloe. They took some fun pictures together.

Then it was show time!  These are some pictures that Terena took.

               This was right before the show.  Ready for the Mummers dance!

                                                    Cute little devil!

After the show they got to go out and greet everyone on their way out.

I have to say that it was such an amazing show!  Everybody worked so hard and it payed off big time!  It blows me away that Kiley went from just starting Irish Dance in November of 2012 and was selected to be in the Jr. Troupe just a few months later, then was on the big, historic stage of the Ellen Eccles Theater!  She was truly blessed with great Irish dancing legs.  Awesome job Kiley!  We are all so proud of you!  You made it!

 

Pumpkin carving

We were asked to bring a carved pumpkin to the Ellen Eccles theater to decorate the entryway for the Wicked Jig on Saturday.  Today we bought our pumpkin and carved it.  It was a MONSTER of a pumpkin.  My little carving knife was long enough to cut through the thick pulp.  Oh well.  The pumpkin was supposed to say Velcome, but the "L" fell off, so it says Vecome.  Oops.  Connor was all excited to gut the pumpkin this year.  When it came down to it, he decided it still wasn't for him.  He did a great job outlining the design onto the pumpkin.  Isaac and Kiley had a blast gutting the pumpkin.  I saved the seeds and roasted them.  They turned out pretty good, not my best batch, but still good.  I carved the pumpkin with the too short carving kit saw.  I ended up using a longer kitchen knife to take out the parts that needed to come out, that's how the "L" fell out.  It still ended up looking pretty cool.

The Wicked Jig

I can't wait till the wicked jig. It will be so fun with live music, hard shoe soft shoe it will be awesome. There will be awesome costumes. I will suggest going to it. We have been practicing a lot. Hopefully a lot of people will be there. It is on October 26th. It is called the wicked jig,if you have not noticed. It will be at the Ellenecclestheater. At 7:00 pm. Anyone can go. Hopefully I will see a lot of people there. This post was from Kiley.  

Beautiful Cache Valley

As I was leaving work this morning, I was noticing how beautiful the sunrise was.  The clouds over the mountains were such a pretty red.  I had to take a couple of pictures on my way to the car.

World Culture Night

An Tus Nua was asked to be apart of World Culture Night at the Logan Tabernacle.  The Troupe and Jr Troupe performed.  These awesome Irish dancers were the last group to go.  They did such a great job.  Here the the video I shot of their performance.  

All About Isaac

I was looking through the blog and noticed that there isn't much about Isaac.  So I am dedicating this post to the most awesome 11 year old boy I know.  He has excelled at school.  I can go onto the school's website and access his grades.  I have been so impressed with how good he is doing!  He has all A's and B's!!!  I was so nervous about the transition into middle school, what with 300 plus 6th graders, changing classes every hour, and all the changes that happens in the emotional melting pot that is middle school.  He has done GREAT!!!!!  He blows me away with how good he is doing.  I have enjoyed taking him to school in the morning and picking him up by myself on Mondays and Wednesdays.  It gives us time to talk about school and stuff.  He is turning into an awesome young man.  He had his first band concert a few weeks ago.  I was surprised that they were having one so soon.  The kids had only been playing their instruments for 5 weeks!  They actually did pretty good.  Isaac is playing the trumpet this year.  He has to practice for 30 minutes every night for 4 nights, then he can have a 3 day weekend from practicing.  Here is a little video of the 6th grade band concert.  If you can't tell, they are playing Jingle Bells.

 

 
After school he loves to ride his skateboard.  He wanted to get some video of his cool new tricks.  I put them together in this cool little video.  I hope you enjoy them.  He was so excited to show me his new tricks.  He is getting pretty good at them.  No broken bones yet! (cross your fingers)

Crossroads Feis

Kiley and Connor had another Feis in Lehi on September 21.  They did an awesome job.  There were twice as many dancers in Lehi as there were in Wyoming.  Connor got 4th place in his single jig.  On his other 2 dances he got 5th.  He was only 2 points away from placing 3rd in those two dances!  Kiley got 1st place in her light jig.  Now she moves up to beginner 2 in that dance.  She got 2nd place in her beginner 2 reel and is now competing in the Novice level in that one.  She got 4th place in her beginner 2 single jig.  They are having so much fun!!!  They seem to have a natural talent for it.  They work hard all the time.  Here are some cute pictures of them before the competition.  Next time I will make them keep their dance clothes on and get pictures with the medals they win.

Wicked Jig

The Wicked Jig is coming fast!  Kiley and her Irish dance troupe have been practicing hard.  It is going to be awesome! We can't wait for Oct. 26th!