Memorial Day Weekend 2012-Dance Rehearsal and Thereafter

Let me get this out of the way. This year's show is not as spectacular as the past years we have been with Gold's. It is still great but lacking, something.

Every year, KC's dance school hold their recital on Memorial Weekend. Don't know why but I feel it ruins the long weekend for families. You see Memorial weekend is the unofficial start of summer. AND if you are New England-er---these days are rare and precious.

Anyway, I requested days off at my part-time job because I know it will be very hectic. Saturday is dress rehearsal day and you-can-take-pictures-now-because-you-can't-by showtime day. Which means, I need to be really be fast, which also means---it makes for a whole day of fussing and forced smiles.

I was unable to take lots of pictures like last years, but it is still fun. Again, KC did 3 dances--tap, jazz and ballet. Enjoy the photos.

The costumes are wicked expensive but all worth it! I just hope there is a way for her to wear it again. This jazz outfit is so beautiful.


Jazz costume

  I know my daughter loves dance. She may not be a natural dancer, but she does love it. That's what's important. Loving life!

all pretty girls

 She is a natural showgirl. Always smiling.


She always enjoys it

  My heart melts.... i know these girls will soon be beautiful ladies. If only I could keep her this way.


loving their dance and their last day in school

  They dance to the tune of Rihanna's umbrella for their tap dance.


Tap costume

 Their ballet dance number is absolutely beautiful. She loves her costume too. I am so tempted to buy the DVD, but for 32.00 buckaroos? So expensive!

Ballet

As you probably already know, we are always with the Llaga PE---my fave people in the world. Aside from my beautiful family, of course. Here are Preshie-Boo's photos. I can tell you, this girl is amazing! She will truly be a star. Cue....awwwww.

Can you say cute? She is the star of the show! In fact she can be the teacher.

 A true show performer. Her hat fell off and she went on to dance. That's our baby!

Rock it girl!

 Here she is in her ballet costume. I remember, my fave costumes of KC are always the ballet ones. Don't we all wish out little girls are ballerinas?


I love little ballerinas

 What did I tell you? STAR! Joshua and Precious loves each other. They may fight but they get along so well. I am just so happy my kids have cousins who are close by. I just hope AJ and Joie are so much closer in Boston so KC and them can bond. AJ is in Montreal and Joie is in Edmonton---both in Canada. Sigh. Please sister Babes and Ban, let us stay closer?

I'm a STAR!

Of course, we take this opportunity to spend time together. Dance rehearsal is a family thing-y for us. My 2 boys did not want to attend dance school this year so I did not force them. During rehearsals, Fridah commented that the hip-hop class is not as good as before, Josh said " Because, I am not dancing this year." Oh ha? Braggart much? As you can see Pherry is on his iPad. I don't care if he is really not paying attention as much as long as he spends time with us. Don't they look like Korean boy band members? The hair! Mr. Hubbs hate it!

Here is Preashie-Boo with my niece Fridah. Hmmm, I wonder what she is asking mommy? I betcha a book? NOT!

As you probably guessed, I took lots of pictures after the rehearsal. It was a photo-op for me because they have their cousin Lovely ( yup, that's her name) and Preshie-Boo. Lotsa prodding and lotsa bribing. Yes, they may be looking good on pics in this blog, but believe me---it's hard work! Hahahhahah.

KC was so tired, she does not want to smile --AT ALL. Nope.

But she smiles once they are outside, together. Cousins!

 I asked he if I can take a "few" pictures and she reluctantly said "ok, ok...mom, you are so embarrassing." Me? Embarrassing? When did that happen? I thought I was cool? Oh boy.

After I begged.... here they are. Can you tell they are excited? NOT!

 Ok, this is much better because I said it was the last one. NOW, they are happy.

Afterwards, we headed to Hingham, a charming upscale seaside community----- to Wahlburgers! We love this place. Cool music, chic interior, outdoor seating and yummy juicy burgers.... what's not to love? Did I tell you this is by the Walberg brothers? MArk Wahlberg, Donnie Wahlberg, anyone? WHat about NKOTB? You got it!


With cousin Lovely

  Uber chic with the hat, ha?

Just to show you how much we love this place... here...

Check out this charming fisherman's lantern lighting, couple that with smooth  music... yumm! I am not paid to endorse I swear.

My family likes going to Hingham Shipyard. It is very metropolitan chic but with cool breeze and clean open space. And the ships and the boats. You can just sit and daydream. Like we do. Sit. Daydream. Go home.

Here is the view from Wahlburgers overlooking a portion of the marina. The unmistakably New England building is Alma Nove, a fine dining option here at The Shipyard--again owned by the Wahlbergs, named after their mom Alma. If you have the dough, head to Alma Nove, if you want to be in and out with great food, head to Wahlburgers. Deal! Guess where we are at? Wahlburgers!

Can't resist going to their quaint little shops. I love this kind of shops. Not your big box type ones.

After the burgers, we headed to Red MAngo. Our new guilty pleasure! They separate themselves from me and Mr. Hubbs. hmmp. I love their cousin bonding time!

Afterwards, og course they need to burn all that sugar---we headed to the kiddie park acroos from red mango. There is also a mini golf here but you ahve to pay. If you know me... that is a STOP sign. Hahahhahha. We had so much fun though. At this point, Mr. Hubbs was so tired, all he wanted to do was sleep so headed out to the car. Take a looksie how foolish we can be and what fun we had!

PreshieBoo showing off her strong legs. The girls were like, " oh, no... stop, that just doesn't look good neneng." They crack me up!

 Then they say, " come her na lang, we take pictures" and then start to giggle again.

 We had a lot of these moments. Poor Lovely carrying Karmina.  How I wish my friends and sisters are with me. I did not have cousins my age while I was growing -up that's why this is so precious to me.

 ...and these are the Llaga geeks. No girl or boy talks. They rather talk about Princeton and some nerdy stuff. Wait, they talk about some cartoon show and some Korean MTV. Not so geeky. Hahahhahah.

 Here is KC asking her "ah-tey" to massage her because she was tired dancing. And "ah-tey" Lovely oblige. Sweet. On a completely out of topic matter... can I have one of these adirondack chairs? My Gucci Sukey is centerpiece. Woohoo!

 The beautiful cousins.

 Can I make a confession? Me and KC watch Fashion Star. We think is dead (no pun intended) but we like watching stressed out people. Then I would chide her and ask her if she wants to be a model and she says, " designer, mom, I want to be THE designer. Look at those models." Snob? I think she will be a good designer if ever.

 "what you watching KC?" Here, One Direction. She is so in love with One Direction. I might just have to buy tickets if they have a concert here in Boston.

 Me and the pretty girls. She is only 11 but she is inching up on me already. Wow!

 Now, for the parting shot.... the Llaga cousins.

After the park, we dropped off Mr. Hubbs and headed to the mall so the girls can window shop. The boys went to Apple Store and poor me got stuck with Precious at Lego! Nope... I love being with Precious. She is a sweetheart. For real! Then we headed to Target where Precious goes, " Mamu, so you can save, you can buy me this book and not give me flowers after my recital." And who said I was going to give her flowers? Hahahhhaha. I was dead tired but still need to go to brockton to get sleepwear for Lovely so she can sleep over! Woohoo!

Then I was really tired. From 12pm-10pm with these kids and their energy? Even Hulk would give up!

Part 2 coming up!

Dance Recitals 2011 Part 1 -- the rehearsal

It is that time of the year again when everyone is so busy with family events---graduations, weddings, cook outs... and yeah, dance recitals. At Gold's Dance School where my kids go, they hold the annual dance recitals every Memorial Day weekend. So yeah, that means we are not available for ANY event during this long weekend. But I love it. I love shows where my kids showcase their talent and hardwork. We live about 25-30 minutes away from the school and they go twice a week. KC stays for more than 2 hrs for the classics--- ballet, tap and jazz and then goes for an hour for hip-hop. Let me tell you though, I never heard them complain. Next year she said, she might not do hiphop anymore because she plans to the more intensive program. We'll see.


Anyway, Saturday was the dress rehearsal and it is only that time where you are allowed to take videos and pictures--which is good and bad. Bad because I want to take lotsa pictures... LOTSA pictures. LOL. Good because I do not want to be distracted by someone taking pictures during the show. I wrote about this here. I might have to order the DVD this year which is a whopping $32.00 per show! My kids performed on both--- are you @%%? I will be ordering only the second show though. Back to what I was saying ( I easily get distracted)-- Saturday was rehearsal and we needed to be there by 1PM. No big deal-o, right? NOT. I worked 16hrs the night before and I have to get up by 1030am to prepare them. I put KC's make-up, fixed her hair and prepared all her costumes. Why can't it be easy like the boys? Like it will happen, no? After grabbing bobby pins, scrunchy-s, hairbun maker, make-up bag, costumes, shoes --- I can go on--- we all go to the venue. I love all the costumes and every kid is indeed a star.

Can they be any cuter?

I love the fact thay the performances are really great. It is more than a recital, it's a dance concert. It is well organized and the show flows smoothly. The audience got a treat because America's Teen Male Dancer of the Year performed a solo dance number.

So, anyway, we all troop to the rehearsal and here is where you will know my family--we all go and carry half our house--except that i am the only one carrying everything and I am supposed to know where everything is---all at the same time." Oh--- where is my water bottle Mom, how about my bun, are you going to do it now, mom, mom---my sneakers is tight, i need a new one--- we are supposed to wear red white and blue mom...red lipstick only mom, i don't want to wear shorts, we need to be there 1 hour ahead of time mommy, where was my bottled water mom--I asked first AND my bodysuit is missing." Lemme tell you this, don't they realize they have a dad too? LOL.  Of course my response to all these brilliant querries is a loving (NOT) "ok, ok hold on-- here, is your bottled water and your red lipstick is still ok and we did your bun already and Josh,  we go buy shoes after the practice, i know you need to wear red white and blue but you need not wear all 3 at the same time Christopher and yes we are heading right there now, so we are early and sweetie, KC,  your bodysuit is not missing- you don't have any --yet." Smooth mommy, ha? Very smooth. NOT! I kid you not, my body just seems to automaticaly function like I am suppose to know the whole world. Every.little.thing. in.this. big. big. world!  In fact KC's classmates said that I am the coolest mommy in the world because I have the biggest make-up haul. Yes, I am the coolest mommy in the world because I do not sleep---I am cold, not cool. The worst part I tell you is that when we get there, they seem to not need me. Like all is cool. You know-- they stay away, far far away from me as possible. I remind them to go change now because you are next, blah blah and they just slide it through. Uhmmm, you make me look like I am the panicky one but awhile ago, you can't seem to function kids? Oh, brother!!!!

Here are the rehearsal pictures. Oh, let me not even discuss the pictures I wanted to take. If you have been reading this blog, you know my.kids.hate.me. Yup, they hate me because I take lotsa lotsa pictures baby. But I "threaten"  them that I will blog their pics and they'd look ugly and that it will on the internet forever-- and they all smile.

Did you say supermodel? She is my star, my own supermodel and superstar. The thing with KC is, she is not  too self conscious. I see lots of kids her age who are too fashion conscious or acting grown up already. You let her dress up with anything and she's game. Wal-Mart, Abercrombie or MArc Jacobs--- to her everything is ok, just don't let her wear those dresses with itchy underlay.

Tap dance costume

 I love seeing she is having fun. I hate it when kids are just forced to do things and you can actually see they are unhappy about it. KC may not be the greatest dancer---heck, I can't dance myself---but I always believe that for as long as you have passion about anything in this world, you'll have FUN and that's all that matters.

My ballerina. Someday, she will not be my baby anymore but I will always treasure the days where she depended on me so much. Oftentimes, we focus so much on the big picture we are forgetting the little details. I don't really care if we don't look the greatest when we go out, for as long as we ultimately have fond memories. What's the point of having grand vacations when half of it is spent worrying if you look great or spending too much time planning. Let me tell you something, I believe that the kids will remember the moments spent with you and all those times you focused on them--- they won't as much remember half of any sparkling floors  you have, nor will they know you make the most delicious spaghetti in the whole town. 

Ballet dance costume

 Here she is embarrassed when her Dad called her out. Apparently, "I love you KC" scream in the presence of everyone is not cool. Yeah, Dad, that is just not cool.

Jazz costume

 

Here are the hip hop dance pictures. Joshua was unbelievably great. He improved a lot, and boy, did my baby have stage presence. He owned the stage. I had to ask him many times if he wanted to dance and repeatedly he said no but after finding out he will be alone on days the other two are dancing, he reluctantly said yes--- and he is so ggod now, after only a year. Pherry is a natural dancer--he got that from his Aunties on the Llaga side.

AND did I say we were with the Llagas of PE? Of course we were siily boos. Let me tell you this... Icee is so good and such a ballerina. Although she is the smallest, she seems to be the leader of the group. 

We spent the whole day for this rehearsal while everyone is having family barbecue because Memorial weekend is the unofficial start of summer. But it is all worth it. Take a looksie....

and to melt your heart with a cutesy boy--- of course Joey Gem Gem...

He sure knows where the beautiful girls are...

After all the craziness, the day was over and I asked if I can take pictures now that the day is over....they said no but who's the mommy here?

My favorite people in the whole wide world!!!!!

 Afterwards, I treated them to McDonald's---because I am a bad mama. McDonald's it is.

 How about you? Do you have activities for your kids? Do you force it into them believing you know best? Do you hyperventilate like me when the bill comes? Do you bring your kids to McDo? Are you worn down after all these activities? Do you focus more on sports or academic stuff? Please tell me... while waiting for your response, let me drag myself and get me some ice cold soda. Just writing about this stuff tires me so much.

Good night peeps. Be bold, be beautiful.