The Doeschers

Sunday, July 8, 2012

July 4

The Millettes invited us over on July 4 to hang out in the pool and eat awesome food with all of our friends.

Everybody had a lot of fun... but maybe a little bit too much sun (as you can see in this picture that I took on our way out).

Here are a few more pictures from earlier:

By the time we got home everybody was passed out.

Even the fireworks outside would not wake anybody up.

Upside Down

Lennon can never do anything completely normal, and sitting on the couch upside down is just one example of that.

Friday, July 6, 2012

http://progressiveearlychildhoodeducation.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Nationals, Day 4 - Time to Dance for the Juniors

The competition was held at the Riverwind Casino. I am going to spare the readers my rant about second hand smoking,...knowing we should have gotten judged better and how tired I am of looking at girls of all ages wearing Victoria's Secret underwear, lingerie and swim suits as costumes...

Here are the results for Katharine's dances:

My Guy, tap Platinum and 1st runner up for National Champion - the girls also got to participate in the extreme dance challenge with this number and dare I say it, they kicked you know what!

Lay Your Head, lyrical Platinum

Wild Party, production Platinum and National Champion

With Chelsy and Rachel who are heading off to college in fall.

Katharine, Emma, Chelsy, Mattie, Madison, Rachel and Claire

Extreme Dance Challenge Awards Ceremony

I am so proud of all the girls and boys on the team of Sheena's Dance Academy. They have my utmost respect. They are such wonderful young men and ladies that dance from the heart, and with integrity without the need to flaunt their bodies on stage. They are setting an example and I belief that some of them have a bright career in dance ahead of them.

To Katharine, my wonderful dancer: You give me a gift every time you are on stage. I can see the beauty of you. Dance is your happy place. I am so proud of you!

To Erik: Thanks for giving up a lot of weekends this spring and watching at least 3 kids while Katharine was gone for competition.

To Kassidy: You are a little mascot of the team. Your easy going personality made it so easy to take you along on all the competitions! Good job singing "Wild Party."

To Lukas, Lennon and Keira: Thanks for supporting your big sister and cheering her on. She couldn't ask for more!

To the competition team: You have given Katharine the chance to form new and stronger friendships and given her the chance to grow as a dancer and person.

To the parents: Thanks for the new friends I found.

To Sheena, Anne, Angie and all the teachers: Thanks for giving Katharine and our family this opportunity. Thank you for teaching and challenging Katharine and helping her grow into the person she is supposed to be.

I want to end this post with two quotes by Martha Graham

Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body.

Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.

Nationals, Day 3 - Throwing in some Education

On Saturday morning we headed over to the OU campus to visit the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History and Science, which, by the way is FABULOUS! Admission was free, which makes it even better!
Our family was joined by Claire and her mom Jennifer as well as the Katie and her mom Ellen. The first thing we did was go on a scavenger hunt through the dinosaur exhibit. The cool thing about the museum is that everything is in chronological order and very hands on.
Us girls split early as we had to be at the theater to support the older girls during their solo performances.

After a long time of watching lots of dances, awesome, easy going Kassidy fell asleep on the floor:

Erik stayed a little bit longer at the museum with child number 2, 3 and 4 and then headed back to the hotel for some swimming. We enjoyed a quiet dinner in the room, consisting of fabulous left overs, and the kids got to watch cartoons, a special treat.

Nationals, Day 2 - Trip down to Nostalgia

On day 2, some of us Moms decided to take 3 cars full of girls a trip down Historic Route 66 just North of Norman. We started in Arcadia where we visited the Round Barn and ended with a yummy lunch at Pop's Diner, the best place to buy sodas of all colors and flavors. We tried to give the girls a little History lesson about Route 66, but they were not into it...I guess driving by the "Rock of Ages" etc down Route 66 meant more to us moms...

Front, left to right: Emma, Abby, Paige

2nd row, left to right: Katharine, Claire, Ashlyn

3rd row, left to right: Katie, Megan, big Katie and Lauren M.

The inside of the roof of the barn is absolutely amazing! It looks and feels like a giant basket.

On the second floor of the barn. It's beautiful, the perfect gathering or rehearsal space/ art studio, if I had one...

I took the pictures of these old machines for my sister and her husband.

Pops

left to right: Katharine, Katie C, Megan, Lauren M, Abby, Ashlyn, Emma, Katie and Claire

I rarely get excited about diners, but Pops is worth a trip, and the food is good, too. The windows are lined with soda bottles in all colors and flavors from around the country and the world. The inside of the diner is the soda lovers ultimate super store. I am not a big fan of soda, but just the colors, labels, shapes and sizes of bottles makes me happy. You feel like a part of an Andy Warhol painting! I could have spent hours just taking pictures of all the bottles, alas, we had to head back to the hotel...will sure go back there...Anita, definitely with you in fall!

I had to take a picture of the bacon flavored soda. Could there be anything grosser than that?

After the road trip, we all headed for the hotel pool. Erik came up with Lukas, Lennon and Keira Friday night for some family fun and Saltgrass Steakhouse, the pool and the casino, I mean at the competition.

Odyssey Dance Nationals, June 28th - July 1st, Norman OK

Ok, so I wrote three blog posts and tried to upload them from my phone many, many times. It didn't work. Now I have to start all over again, bummer, oh well, but Nationals need a post, or two, or three...

I drove up to Norman, OK on June 28th with big K and littlest K to go to the team party at Andy Alligator's Fun Park. Oh boy, did we have a lot of fun! Katharine's favorite rides were the bumper cars and riding the go carts. Kassidy had a blast watching all the big girls, and I got to hang out with other adults.