School year wrap up

 This school year is coming to a close.  It's kind of fizzling out in a very uneventful way that makes me sad.  Serafina has no fifth grade promotion or parties or celebrations.  Even if she had been enrolled in the elementary school, they didn't hold any event to send off the fifth graders to middle school.  Leo's school has no in-person events either. Today they had a virtual magic show for the school.  On Monday, they will have a graduation ceremony over Zoom.  He's not actually graduating, but we will attend to see his teachers one last time.  It's heartbreaking that this school is closing permanently.  It feels extra sad that they will bid their final farewells over Zoom.  Oh well, we are trying to look forward to summer, and find some fun things to do.  The kids' new school is hosting some get-to-know-you events over the next couple weeks, which will not be easy for us since we are so out of practice of socializing, but I'll make sure we go so we can possibly start making some connections.  

Leo's final science project was a life-size anatomy drawing.  The class started it back in April and finished it this week. 

Serafina has been seeing her friend Sunny in person more and more, and it's really good for her.  It's fun to see this girls together and I have a feeling they will be spending a ton of time together this summer.  This makes me very happy.  

Yesterday they were putting making on each other while blindfolded.  It was about as successful as you would expect. 

Today they went to the park and then took a swim in Sunny's pool. 

Room 15 Reunion

 Serafina's fourth grade teacher has been hosting virtual reunions for her former students all year long. Even after Serafin was no longer enrolled in the school, she would send me the link directly so Serafina could participate.  They would chat over Google Meet and play virtual games.  The teacher, Mrs. Chang, would check in with the kids and it was really great for the kids to still connect with each other.  Today she hosted one final reunion before the kids move on to middle school. She had it in person at the school playground.  I think a lot of people were traveling or busy because she only had a handful of kids participate ,but it was still nice for them to get together.  It was hot out, but the kids didn't seem to care. 

When it was time to pick her up, Leo came too so he could say hi to Mrs. Chang who was also his fourth grade teacher several years ago. 

Hollywood Connection Dance Convention

 Last weekend, Serafina had another dance convention.  Since we are more experienced at this point, it was a much smoother experience than last convention.  We were back at the Hyatt where the first convention took place. 

The competition part of the convention happened Friday afternoon.  All the Dance Academy routines went back-to-back.  Leo went with us to see his sister compete.  Here he is in the hotel waiting for her performance. 

Once she had finished her first routine, he thought we were able to go home.  Oh no no no, son.  There was still another dance and plenty of waiting to do. We passed the time with a walk, a little homework and watching some of the other routines.  

Once she was done, we crept home in Friday night traffic.  

The convention shared the downloads of her two performances. 

The first dance has improved significantly since the first time they performed it for their video submission to a prior competition.  This routine won third place in their category.  Woo hoo!

The large production number was missing the male dancer that is a stand-out in the routine.  Even without Mateo, they placed second in their category. 

Here a a couple of still shots that the convention photographer took. 

At noon on Saturday we drove back up to Burlingame so she could participate in five hours of workshops.  We made the excellent choice to get a hotel room for Saturday night, so when she was done that night, we enjoyed dinner and watched a movie.  Then we streamed the award ceremony that was happening in the ballroom downstairs. 

Here she is enjoying the hotel life. 

 The next morning she had a 7:30am check in for more workshops so it was very nice to just have to roll out of bed and head down in the elevator. She danced until noon on Sunday.  It was a long, exhausting weekend, but we executed it better this time and that helped a ton. 

I'm very proud of her.  Next weekend is her final competition of the season. It's been an unusual experience because of covid, but she's had a chance to bond with her teammates and she's learned a lot. She auditioned for next year and made it onto four teams - two jazz, one contemporary and one hip hop.  

Super Flower Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse

One of the benefits of homeschooling this year is the flexibility to really explore a topic of interest for Serafina. She's still very interested in space, so she was willing to get up in the wee hours of the morning to see a special moon.  The Super Flower Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse, to be exact.  Super because it's the closest to the Earth during its elliptical orbit. Flower because it's May, the month of flowers. Blood from the red-orange light refracting through Earth's atmosphere as the moon aligns with the sun and Earth and passes fully in Earth's shadow. The west coast had a great view, but the kicker is that the best time to see it was right before dawn at 4:11am to be exact.  Serafina and I set alarms for 4am and were up.  I peaked outside to make sure it was worth it. It totally was, so I got Leo up and Tom was already getting it too.  And a few minutes later, we were all outside taking in the very cool view of the amazing moon. 

Of course, I couldn't get a good picture with my phone so here's a picture from the internet.  It was extremely cool to see in person. 

I was worried that everyone would suffer the next day from being up at such an odd hour, but the kids fell back asleep just find and did well all day.  I was really tired though.  Still worth it.  

 

Leo's first Covid shot

Leo became eligible for the Covid vaccine late last week.  Today we went to a vaccine clinic to get his first dose.  It was not crowded at all, so we were in and out very quickly.  He was nervous leading up to the shot.  He's done fine with shots in the doctor's office, but this was a different environment.  Also, his flu shot this past fall made his arm swell more than usual and I think that freaked him out a bit.  The nurse was very sweet and reassuring.  He got it in his right arm because he's a lefty.  The nurse is a lefty too. 

After 10 minutes of observation, we scheduled his second shot and we were free to go.  Yay for science and having at least one vaccinated kid.  Serafina has to wait until she turns 12 in September. 
 

Encore Dance Competition

 Serafina competed this morning at a dance competition in Burlingame.  This one was so easy.  The organizers had the studios in a block schedule because of COVID.  That means that all of studio's routines were performed back-to-back so that our studio didn't have to mingle with any other studios.  Serafina was in the first dance of the day at 8am.  We had to get up early to get on the road for a 7:30 check in.  Her second dance was less than an hour later, which meant we were all done with our dance day and made it home before 10am.  The early wake up made us both tired all day though.  

It was great to see her dance live again.  It seems like they are improving each time. 

Here are a couple pictures I forced her to take. 

First Dance Convention

 This weekend Serafina attended her first in-person dance convention.  It was two extremely exhausting days of dance and driving, but we survived and we learned a lot about how to improve the experience next time. 

We got up early Saturday and were out the door at 6:45am to drive to Burlingame (just south of San Francisco) so she could check in at 7:30 in the hotel lobby. 

Once she was checked in, she attended "workshops" in one of the hotel ballrooms.  She had four one-hour long dance classes with just a short break.  Here she is before it started checking the schedule.

During this time, I hung out in the hotel lobby and took short walks around the pool area so I could be outside and have a break from wearing my mask.  Once she was done with workshops, we ate some lunch, did some more walking around, and then she got ready for the competition part of the day.  Here's a quick photo before she had to change into costume. 

First up was her Pixie Jazz routine. They waited in the hallway until they were escorted to the grand ballroom to perform. 

Here she is about to go on stage. See her nice hair part and slicked back pony tail?  That was achieved with a small plastic freebie comb from the hotel front desk.  She managed to forget a brush and a comb. I was later told by a more seasoned dance mom that I should have a "kit" that has all the hair supplies, makeup and costume repair items inside.  We are working on assembling that for next time. 

I got to watch the dance in the ballroom but had to exit once their turn was done to make room for other parents. She did great.  It was so fun to see her perform live again. After that performance, she wasn't scheduled to dance again for close to five hours.  I made the questionable decision to drive home, even though it's 35 minutes each way.  After some down time and a walk with the dog, we headed back up to Burlingame. 

I had done a lot of research about where we should get dinner near the hotel and decided on a Mexican place that specializes in catering but does do take-out meals as well.  It was a hole in the wall, quite literally. 

We timed the food pick up to get us back to the hotel with plenty of time before her second performance.  At least, that's what we thought. After we were done eating, we were going to kill some time by walking around when Serafina noticed her team mates already in costume.  We went down to where they were gathering and it turned out that the competition was not following the published schedule and they were getting ready to perform close to an hour earlier than expected. She had time to change and there was no real issue, but I was freaked out by how easily it could have gone a different way if we hadn't returned to the hotel with so much time to spare. 

Here's everyone starting to gather way earlier than expected. 

Because they performed earlier, we got home a little earlier than I thought we would.  It was still after 9pm and we were both extremely exhausted.  

Here's the thing. We had to wake up the next morning and do it again.  Well she had to do more workshops, but no competing.  Sunday she still had an early check in, 7:45am, and then another four workshops back-to-back with no break.  Fortunately, she was done by lunchtime and we were home before 1pm. We were both absolutely wiped out.  I had expected it to be intense, but it was way more so than I imagined.  It also probably didn't help that we are so out of practice of being out of the house for that long because of COVID.  The next event is just the competition part.  It's also in Burlingame, but it should be more manageable because she's just there to perform the dances and doesn't have workshops.  Later in May, she'll have another full convention and I've booked a hotel room for that Saturday night.  I think it will help a lot to have a place to go between performances, and, of course, reduce the amount of driving I have to do. I'll probably pick up dinner from that same little hole in the wall because it was delicious. 

All in all, it was a good experience and we learned a lot.  In a non-pandemic year, the competitions and conventions are more spaced out in the late winter/early spring.  Because of COVID everything is pushed to May and June, so there will be a lot of dance related activities coming up.