Happy birthday, Nana!

We always feel so lucky we can celebrate birthdays with Nana since there were so many years that she lived far away and we didn't always see her on her birthday.  

 She makes 72 look good!

2/22/22 Hike

 The kids have the whole week off.  We don't have much planned, and today was a little overcast and cold.  I still made the kids go on a short hike with me and the dog.  We've been there a few times before and we like it because the dog can be off-leash to run around like a lunatic. 

Weekend hanging with friends

Leo was invited to his friend Vivian's 14th birthday party.  She was having it at the local bounce house place, which seemed a little odd since these kids were way too big for it.  The last time we were there was six years ago for a five year old's party.  But I guess there is something to be said for teens wanting to recapture the silliness of their youth.  My cousin had her 16th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese.  

Here are the party people: Miles, Vivian, Hadley and Leo.  Leo doesn't know why he posed that way.  Miles and Leo were actually in Transitional Kindergarten together almost 10 years ago! 

Serafina's friend Mia came over on Sunday and I had them come with me to the elementary school while I let the dog run around.  Serafina liked showing Mia her old stomping grounds and they played on the playground. 

And here's Tom with his favorite friend taking a break from an intense game of fetch.  Just kidding.  Mousse is a big goofball about fetch and just wants to hold on to the ball forever. 

 

Spotlight dance competition

Yesterday, Serafina and I headed to the Spotlight competition.  Here's a shot with her lucky charm "macaroni".  I can't explain it; just the strange things sixth graders do. 

Made her stop for a picture before heading to the dressing room.  We ended up having plenty of time because the competition was running very late and she was one of the last routines to perform. 

Here's a backstage selfie.  The competition was held at the performance arts center at a high school.  The dressing room was the theater's green room. 

 This morning we had to wake up at 5:45am to get on the road to drive 40 minutes to be at the high school for her call time.  Their dressing room was in the choir room and she was on of the first routines to perform.  She did three more dances today, but we didn't stay for awards because we were both really tired.  We'll find out how they did and hopefully get some pictures from this week. 

Audition poster

Serafina's dance studio posted this promotional image on Instagram to hype up the competitive team auditions coming up in March.  They picture they used of the hip hop team includes Serafina.  I got very excited and sent her a screen shot.  I've circled her here since she's wearing a mask and may be hard to spot.  

The next day I pulled up to the drop off line at the dance studio and Serafina said "oh, I'm on a poster".  Of course I jumped out of the car (even though it was the drop off only line) and made her take a picture with it.  She was extremely embarrassed but that's my job.  

She said there were a bunch of them hanging around the studio too.  You know I'm going to ask if I can have one after the audition date has passed. 
 

Back-to-back Tahoe weekends

We don't usually do back-to-back Tahoe weekends, but because of Serafina's dance schedule, it made the most sense for us.  Unfortunately, there hasn't been any new snowfall, but there is a lot of snow pack.  The clear weather makes for easy driving and beautiful sunshine for taking Mousse out for walks.  

Here he is ready to head out in his little sweater.  He doesn't like putting his legs in so he ended up shaking it off after about half a block.  

Fortunately, since he's off-leash when we are in the neighborhood, he's running around so much that he doesn't get cold.  

When we are out, I stroll (carefully because of ice) down the street and Mousse runs back and forth checking out every house and jumping on every snowbank.  

Here he is in front of the Moose crossing sign.  

Mousse loves the snow even if he isn't very graceful in it. 

The kids and Tom had fun skiing, but there was a serious lack of pictures, except for this selfie from Serafina. 

Tom took this video of Serafina shredding it up.