Top Ten for 2014!

I know I haven't blogged in a year and my girls are not happy about it! I promise to do better in 2015, but we couldn't not post our top ten from this year! 2014 has been an outstanding year!!!! Filled with so many memories that we will forever cherish in our hearts, but we know 2015 will be just as fabulous if not more!!!! These are in no particular order and we decided on them as a family this evening as we were enjoying our great meal of homemade pizzas and champagne.

 1 Royalty Dance Academy has become our second home. All three girls were involved with dance this year! Weegie was dance captain and even went to two competions with here team and they placed in both! She graduated from dance and now helps out whenever she can. Speedy joined Teen Jazz and really did well in it and was in her first recital.  Squiggler moved up from Combo classes to Pre-Everything. She does Tap, Jazz, Hip Hop and Ballet. She loves it and is always practicing. She did 4 different dances in this year's recital.

2.  Speedy Cheetah lands the lead in the school musical as a freshman! Speedy was cast as the lead in her school's production of Into the Woods.  She played the Witch, same role as Meryl and earned the final bow. She was so awesome and a star has been born! Well we always knew she was a star, but now the rest of the world knows it too!

3. Weegie graduated from high school!!! AAAAH! Where has the time gone? It was just yesterday that I dropped her off a nursery school and she cried! Her first teacher was Miss Agnes and she was so patient with our little Weegie. Now she's all grown up and graduated with Honors. We are so proud of her and she was happy to get out of that place! LOL!

 

4. Squiggler graduated pre-school!  I absolutely loved her teacher, Miss Irene! Best pre-school teacher ever!!!! She is awesome, caring, kind, patient and just an overall outstanding person. Squiggler really learned a lot and came out of there ready for Kindergarten!

5.  The Adventures of Speedy Cheetah and Daddy in the Big Apple! Speedy did not want a quincenera. Instead she chose to take a trip to New York. For Spring break her daddy and her got on a plane and traveled across the country for 5 days. They stayed with the most wonderful friends and sight seeded around town. They became real experts at getting around on public transportation and were able to see 1 off broadway show and 2 broadway shows. It was all that she hoped for and more. She is ready to go back and live there.  I don't know how I feel about that. :(

 6. Speedy Cheetah met her favorite broadway star, Jeremy Jordan!!!! I asked Speedy if she wanted to take a friend or two out to dinner on her birthday and she asked for this instead. Jeremy Jordan came to LA to give a performance at dinner show type place. We found out about it through her amazing drama teacher, who also happens to be good friends with him. After the show, he got Speedy and some other drama kids backstage so that they could meet their idol. I think it was a night that she will always remember!!!!

 Honorable Mention: Disneyland!

 7. Make Up School! Weegie started her path onto her career. Her love of make up has only intensified and she has learned some amazing things!  She is doing well and earned an A her first quarter. She loves it and we couldn't be happier for her!!!!!

 8. Weegie got her license! Since she had to get to school we also got her a car to go with the license.  She has to drive 30 minutes to and from school and take a big old make up case with her. She is also able to help her dad and I out from time to time. She is very happy with her BAE!

 9. Squiggler started Kindergarten! Our baby girl is now in school all day now. She loves it and has learned so much. She goes to a great school, with a great teacher and great friends. We couldn't be happier for her.

10. Us! My honey said to put us down as one of the ten because we are able to make it happen. We joined a gym, went on lots of dates, get to spend time together and work hard to make it all fall into place.  We have had a great year and couldn't have asked for more. Thank you God for all our blessings! We hope 2015 is an even better, more loving, joyous with continued blessings!!

Valedictorian 2013

This girl, named Speedy Cheetah, walked across the stage at her 8th grade awards night 7 times! She received an award in Science, English, History, Outstanding Citizenship, Presidential Excellence, Principal's High Honor Roll and Valedictorian! She had a perfect report card for all her 6 semesters at Pacoima Middle School! It was so cute to see her have to walk in her heels across the stage and shake everyone's hand. When they announced the criteria for Valedictorian, she whispered to herself that she thought she had all A's in all her report cards and then they called her name! She has had an awesome year in 8th grade! She was an officer (assistant director) in Musical Production, she had a solo in every show and in the big show she had 5 solos, a monologue and danced in all the other numbers. She also won a poetry contest and numerous prizes from various teachers. (Especially Dr. Nurnan) She is such a great girl and we are so proud of her! Many people came up to congratulate her father and I  which was so sweet! I don't take credit for her except that she came out of my womb. She has been a firecracker since she was born and I hope she keeps the momentum going. She has already decided where she wants to go to college and what she will major in. I will do what it takes to make sure her dreams come true! Love you Speedy Cheetah!

Happy 14th Birthday Baby Girl!

Today is Speedy Cheetah's birthday! She's been so busy that she says she actually forgot her birthday was coming up when I reminded her on Tuesday! She had school, CST testing, practice and then we went out to eat at her favorite place, Soup Plantation.She is getting a new phone for her birthday, but it's not here yet. She is also going to Magic Mountain this Saturday to compete and she just came back from Chicago for four days. I think so far this has been a good birthday for her. She is excited to be starting high school in the fall, but will miss her friends from middle school. (She is the only one from her class going to her new high school) I know this little girl will do great things in her life! She always had a special bond with her paternal grandpa and I have no doubt he is looking over her and guiding her every step! He would be so proud of her and her philosophical ways! Love you Speedy Cheetah!

Beautiful Smile!

Speedy Cheetah got her braces off today and she is a very happy girl! She was very good and did EVERYTHING the orthodontist told her to and she got them off in exactly two years. She actually would have gotten them off in May, but there was a slight glitch in the communication. The first thing she did was ask for some gum and the ortho gave her a "goody" bag that contained things she hasn't been able to have in the last two years. Now we have 3 beautiful girls with 3 beautiful smiles and no more braces for a while we hope! You're beautiful Speedy Cheetah, but you always have been!

Vancouver, Canada Day 2

 Day 2 started bright and early! The kids had to have their daypack packed with their jazz shoes, black socks and jazz pants and anything else they were going to need for the day by 7:45 AM. We were ready too! The kids really respect and listen to Dr. M. Our first stop was Capilano and the suspension bridge. Okay, I am afraid of heights, but I conquered my fear and did it as well as the treetop bridges and the rim walk.  It was very beautiful, but I didn't look down much. Speedy spent most of the time with her friends and didn't really pay attention to me. I was with the other moms and we had a good time. We got to go shopping a little there, but I didn't find anything for me to buy for myself. I found a little something for my mom, Squiggler, my honey and Nessa.

 They call their "Indians" First Nations and there was a lot of history there. It was really cool and I would gladly go back.

 Dr. M and his wife Melodie, they are the cutest couple! She is the sweetest thing and I think she really balances him out. I really got to know him this weekend and he really loves what he does! He really cares about the kids and how he handles the kids is really top rate! He yells a lot, but he wouldn't if he didn't love them so much. This I am sure of!

 The group picture! I know I have a lot of pictures, but it really was an amazing place. I can't decide if I like this place better then Grouse Mountain. I wish we would have been able to explore this place a little more.

 This is the tram that took us up to Grouse Mountain. We went straight there after we left Capilano. They are really close to each other and we were able to get on the tram as a group. I had no idea what we would see over the mountain and trees, but it really reminded of me of where Heaven and Earth meet.

 I had the pleasure of sitting in the front thanks to my new friend Lynne. She was so funny and I could see us being really good friends if we worked in the same place. She was the official photographer of the weekend and has passed the job on to me for next year.  The company makes a video for all the kids of all the pictures she took of the weekend. I think she took close to 600 pictures and she was very good about getting everyone and everything.

 The kids couldn't believe that there was snow up there! Some of the kids had never seen snow and they had a ball throwing it at each other!

 Dr. M does this everytime he visit Grouse Mountain. He tells the 8th graders to get into this tree stump statue so that they can take a group picture. He then whispers to the 7th graders  to pelt them with snowballs. The 8th graders are kind of trapped in there and it is hilarious to watch. It's funny because he tells them to do it and they always do and fall for it.

 There were two grizzly bears that have been raised at Grouse Mountian and they are sooooo cute! They put on a great show for the kids of wrestling with each other.

 This is as we were leaving on the tram. I had the pleasure of sitting in the back so we could see how far we had been. It was cool.

 Our bus was the blue one and said Noah's Ark on it. We were next to a red one that said Where Heaven Meets Earth. I thought that was so cool because it was Dr. M's description.

 Speedy and her friend Tiana, her mom was my roommate Teresa, and she is also a kindergarten teacher. T is kind of a free spirit and keeps everyone entertained.

 After Grouse Mountain we went to the University to get ready for the competition. The kids had to change and had an hour to prepare themselves. Dr. M had them do warm ups and gave them a pep talk. He had me almost crying.  I was very sentimental this whole weekend and had been the week before because of Weegie. (That's another story for another time.)

 The kids did awesome even though they were really tired from the morning activities. They did very well and Speedy did an amazing job on her solo. She really gets into it and often people tell me that you would never guess she has the voice that she does.

 After the performance one of the judges gave them commentary and feedback on how they did. He was so positive and singled my baby girl out to congratulate her and he said that if he didn't know better he would easily mistake her for one of the actresses on Glee. She was beaming from ear to ear! She was so happy about all the nice things he said to her.

 They won Gold and had the highest scores. We don't attend the real awards ceremony because we are traveling and aren't able to stay for it. They understand and gave us our own little awards assembly.

 Afterwards we went to the Science Center in Vancouver.  It was very similar to the Science Center that we have in Los Angeles and the kids had fun. They had a really good exhibit on DaVinci and I found it to be fascinating. The kids liked playing with all the different stuff and didn't even bother to go to the exhibit.

 For dinner we went to Granville Island Market which is like a smaller version the Grove's Farmers Market. There were a lot of little booths and places to eat. I wasn't impressed with the food, but it was fun to walk around and see all the cool things they had.

 From there we went to an Improv Comedy show and we were asked not to take pictures there so I don't have any, but I did snag a pamphlet.  It was so funny and they had audience participation. They had a lot of the kids and Dr. M come up in different parts of the show. For one skit they had everyone come up and it was hilarious because the kids were suppose to be in the way and they were, just like in real life.

After the show we were supposed to go to Stanley Park, but Dr. M decided to take everyone out for ice cream because of their success. The kids are not allowed to have dairy up to a week before their performances because it causes flem and it 's not good for singing. The kids really enjoyed their ice cream and the adults got some too! We then went back to the hotel to pack up and get some sleep. We were going to have another early morning for our journey home. Dr. M keeps them really busy and they definitely get their moneys worth.  I think he keeps them so busy so they never have down time and can't get into mischief. We never stayed at one place too long either for the same reason. Dr. M has been doing these trips for a long time and really knows what he is doing. Day 3 tomorrow!