A Whole New World: Pre-Season 2015-16

Wow, dumping a whole season is quite the task. Let's just start with the pre-season.

One of the most exciting parts of the season is meeting your new team and finding out team themes/costumes. Last season's theme was Aladdin. I was the team coordinator (so much work!) so Alyssa and I got to be the first to see/try on the costume. I took a pic for the rest of the team to see. These are crappy phone pics, but it was gorgeous! All year, people stopped them at competitions to tell them how beautiful this dress was.


They also kicked off practice season with team t-shirts...more crappy phone pics.


And new practice dresses

We had a handful of team fundraisers, one of which was at Panera

As team coordinator, I had to put together a team auction basket. We made it competition road trip themed with all the fun things you might need on the road like a travel bag, gas cards, American Express gift card, cordless charger, books, CD's, wine...okay you shouldn't drink wine on the road, but Seth gets them from people at work so we threw them in to up our value. I also made this rink blanket to throw in. I am for sure taking this upcoming season off from team mom or team coordinator roles. I signed up to be in charge of team spirit instead. Easy peasy!

We had some fun team outings, like a trip to Six Flags...
 
We had a large age range on this team. We had kids from 9-14. Chloe ended up being besties with some of the younger kiddos and their siblings. 











One of the moms hosted a cookie decorating/painting party...look at how good those paintings are! Most of this kind of stuff ends up in a drawer but this was wall worthy.

And then, just before the season started, we had our Pep Rally. All four teams performed at our home rink to unveil their routines.
 
I was a hair mom again this year. I really must learn to let someone else take a crack at some of these jobs. 
 
After every skate the MVP gets to keep the tape ball—made up of the tape that holds their laces down—and Alyssa was the first to receive this honor.
 
All 4 teams. The team in the purple and black is the team Alyssa skated with as an athlete in training. Double the skate time! Busy girl! 
 
I took a few videos this year since the routine tends to change as the season goes on, but here they are in their debut skate.   

And while I am dumping skating pics from last summer, here is Alyssa on her No Sk8 Coach D8. The coaches offer fun dates and the skaters buy raffle tickets and try to win. Alyssa dumped about 40 tickets in Coach Chelsea's raffle box and won. This is her private coach, and for their date they went to Six Flags. She was able to invite two friends, so she chose two of her skating besties who also train with Coach Chelsea.

 

The best part about being a year or more behind on blogging is that I could have turned all this content into 6 lengthy posts, but instead we are all in and out of here in no time at all. 

Chloe Johnson: Hobby Hopper

We are a couple weeks away from starting a new skating season, so I thought I should dump last seasons pictures and videos here first. However, before we get to Alyssa, did you know that Chloe started skating? After her recital last June, she decided to skate just for the summer to see how she liked it. Truth be told, she didn't love it, but she was good at it. Usually they test you at the end of every 8 week session, but in Chloe's case they moved her up a level midway through her first session, and then again 4 weeks later. So, after just 8 weeks she was already in Basic 3. I think that for this reason alone, she decided to stick with it in the fall. Her hot streak continued. She has passed every level in one shot, which is pretty unusual. She is now in Basic 8 (the last of the Basic levels), and while I still think she likes to dance more, she has made so many friends in skating. She just hit her one year mark in the sport. Let's take a quick look at the years highlights and then I'll tell you what she plans to do next year.

 Jazz Dance Recital- June 2015

 
After the recital, Chloe traded her jazz shoes for skates. By Christmas she was in Basic 5, and skated with her group in the Holiday Ice Show. She skated to Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree.  I was too lazy to scan pictures, but this was her professional pic.
 
A little locker room fun. I think there were 18 people in the routine. I have a pic of the full group somewhere, but whatever.

Of course, Chloe loved the gifts that were sent to the locker room and the fun with friends more than the actual skating.
 
Alyssa only skated with her synchro team in the Holiday Show, but since they were both in costume, I grabbed a picture of the two of them. Sidenote: The blue eye shadow was mandatory, but it looks like whoever did her make-up that night got a little heavy handed. 

 
For the Spring Show, Chloe was in Basic 7, but she decided to give Synchro a whirl rather than doing a number with her level. In the Spring they have a Synchro Exhibition Team that practices from February to May and then performs in the Spring Show. It is a less expensive/less time intensive way to see if they might like to try out for a competitive synchro team. They skated to Madonna's Material Girl. 
 
 
As always, Chloe loved the locker room and the team, but the skating....she could take it or leave it. 
 
This is Chloe's post, but let's dump Alyssa's Spring Show pics here as well. I had them take one together.  
 
This was Alyssa's costume for the Opening Number. You have to be in Freeskate 4 or higher to be in the Opening Number. Alyssa is in Freeskate 5, and this was the first time she qualified. She was so excited. The theme of the show was Viva Las Vegas, so they skated to a medley of Katy Perry's Waking Up in Vegas and of course, Elvis' Viva Las Vegas. 
 

 For her Freeskate Number she skated to a medley of Little Less Conversation and All Shook Up. This is literally the ugliest costume we have ever seen, but I thought she looked pretty so I bought the darn picture anyway. Alyssa also skated with her synchro team, so she was in three numbers and had to change on the ice behind the curtain. Those boot covers made the quick change quite a challenge.
 
She is the only one with her hair down. Oops! They used to require them to pull their hair back for pictures. It still has to be up when they skate, but this year they said it could be down for pictures. I have so many dance/skating pics of them looking bald, so I jumped at the chance to get pictures of them with hair.

 More Alyssa updates forthcoming...

For now, let's finish talking about Chloe. Chloe had a lot of fun skating this year and made so many new friends. When it came time to try out for synchro teams for next season, she said she wanted to give it a go. We have had many talks about what that requires. It is too expensive to do just to play with friends. She has to gain some discipline. I know, she is only 8. We don't expect ridiculous amounts of discipline and training, but we did make it clear that she can't blow off practice and that she has to commit to this for a full year. She agreed, and tried out for next season. She was placed on a Beginner 2 team, which is the same level Alyssa skated for her first year of synchro, (The NYNY routine) There are 14 people on her team, and practice starts in July. I still get sad that she quit dance, but we weren't very impressed with the studio here, and we wanted her to be able to have the kind of team experience that Alyssa has had with skating. We are excited to see her in her first competitive season.

Her first official piece of Ice Stars garb. 

Let's Start With School

My kids still log on to this dang blog to read old posts, and they still ask me to start updating it again. I don't know where to start, so I am just going to skip all over the place. For today, let's talk about school since that is one of the reasons I had to walk away from this for awhile.

I graduated with my bachelors degree on December 18th, with a 4.0 GPA. What, what! When I got my associates degree, I graduated with a 3.9, and it has bugged me ever since. This time I was not leaving with anything less than perfection, so forgive me for bragging, but this was seriously the fulfillment of a dream. Now, enough about me.

Let's talk about the kiddos schooling. We have had SO many schooling changes in the last year.

Alyssa- Alyssa loved e-school in 6th grade, but not so much in 7th grade. It was largely because I was not a good e-schooling mom. I was teaching seminary and going to school. I had no time to even sit and eat lunch with her. She decided she wanted to try to get into a charter school for 8th grade. I put in applications at two schools for all 3 kids. I realized that Alyssa is really the only one that e-school would work for. Alex gets too frustrated if he doesn't have a teacher or if I try to be his teacher. Chloe doesn't even like summer break, because she needs lots of human interaction. She needs to go to school. I decided to try to get them into a K-8 charter school so that they would be covered for middle school as well. I will get to the other two in a minute, but Alyssa did not get in anywhere. We decided to do one more year of e-school, and I promised to be a way better mom. So far, this year has been fantastic. Better than 6th grade even. She sleeps in, she gets her work done in a few hours each day, we eat lunch together, and we go to the rink a lot. But, we always knew she would go back for High School, and our plan has always been to get into Lakeview Technology Academy, or as we call it, Nerd School. Lakeview is a charter school, but unlike the other charter schools, they do not just draw names from a lottery. You apply, and your grades and test scores are considered. Alyssa has always been an A student, and she has always had super good scores on her state tests, so we sent in her application and then waited. We were pretty confident, because the principal called us before she applied and told us that she needed to come in and shadow at the school for a day to make sure it was a good fit, and he assured us that she would be selected. She shadowed and loved it, and a few weeks letter she got her official acceptance letter. We are so proud! I will miss having her at home, but this is an exciting new opportunity. Alex also really wants to go to Lakeview, and your application gets higher priority if you have a sibling that goes there so if he can keep his grades up, he will join her in a few years.

*Photo not available. I meant to take her down to the e-school campus and take a pic, but it never happened. Just picture her in skating gear or jeans, a flannel and either Harley Quinn or Jack Skellington converse.

Alex- As I mentioned before, I put in applications for all 3 kids just to keep our options open. I was hoping that Chloe or Alyssa would get in somewhere. Then Alex would have moved to the top of the list for the next year and been able to start at a new school in 6th grade. It is no fun to move for your final year of grade school. As it turned out, no one got in anywhere. Then, about 3 weeks before school started, I got a call from Brompton. It was my second choice charter school, but they had an opening for Alex, so we grabbed it. It was so hard for him to move in 5th grade. Alex gets nervous like me, and for days before school started I could see how frightening this move was for him. It turned out to be such a great fit. It is a small school with only 25 students per grade and that is comfortable to him. He also dealt with some bullying at his old school and has not encountered any of that this year. He was behind, because they use books that are a year ahead of grade level. He has worked really hard to get to where he needs to be, and we are also so proud of him. His artwork is also being featured at the museum for the 5th year in a row.

As you can see, Alex's school requires a uniform. He was a bit embarrassed to wear it the first day, but once he saw everyone in the same thing it was never an issue again.
 



Chloe- Since Chloe is only in 2nd grade, we were not worried about getting her in anywhere right away. Because Alex was in at Brompton, she would go to the top of the list for the next year. We took her supplies to her old school and met her new teacher, and then, the day before school started we got a call from KTEC. They had an opening for her. This had been my first choice school, so I hated to turn it down. We decided to send her there and then we could compare the two charter schools. She would go to the top of the list at Alex's school and he would go to the top at her school, and then we could stay at two different schools or choose the one we liked better. So, we went and picked up her supplies from our neighborhood school and moved her as well. She also went in behind. I have always wondered if the charter schools were really any better than the assigned schools, and now I know that they are. They immediately assigned Chloe to a reading interventionist. She stayed after school every day for a couple months and got caught up and then some. I begged for help with Alex's reading at that age and the school just blew me off. She is doing well now and memorizing her times tables, which I did not do until 4th grade. She has struggled though. Being behind made her feel "stupid" to use her own words. At times she has begged to go back to Southport, but she has made a lot of progress, and as is always the case with Chloe, a lot of friends.
 



So now the only dilemma was what to do about next year. Alex got in at Chloe's school for next year, and Chloe got in at Alex's school. I agonized over whether to move them both to the same school or just keep them in different schools. Alex had always wanted to go to KTEC, because they do coding and robotics, but he is comfortable and wasn't sure he wanted to move again. Chloe always wanted to go to Brompton, but she is afraid of being behind again and her entourage doesn't want to let her go. I like both schools. Brompton feels more like a private school. Very small, with everyone very involved. They have a parents table in the cafeteria, and it is chuck full every day. KTEC is a bit bigger, and it is easier to hide from involvement, but Chloe's teacher is the best we have ever had. Both schools have contributed to great academic growth in my kiddos, so ugh, what to do! I kept hoping something would help me decide. On the day of the deadline, we got a lockdown call from KTEC. This is the fourth such call this year. The school is not in the best neighborhood. Usually the disturbance is actually at the middle school next door—the one I did not send Alyssa to—or it is a false alarm, but it still made me wonder if it was an answer. I stressed like crazy, and then the kids just kind of worked it out. Alex said he did not want to move, and Chloe said she was okay with moving and even excited for a new school and new people. Phew! After I called and made it official, Chloe had a bit of a meltdown about switching schools again, but now she has gone back to being excited. I hope I made the right call, but it was nice to be on this end for once...with too many good choices instead of too few.

And now I need to try to figure out what to post next and try to catch up on other people's blogs...if anyone is still blogging. Alex deleted hundreds of pictures from my phone one day. It broke my heart, but it will also give me less stuff to catch up on. Silver lining. 

Chloe's Winter Pre-Baptism Photo Shoot

Yeah, it's been 6 months so I can't just show up like I've been here all along. I will make all the proper excuses and catch up at some point, but for today, I am just posting pictures of Chloe. I need help choosing a picture for her baptism program and on the off chance that anyone sees that I have an update and wants to weigh in, I would love the help.

I took Alyssa's pics at Lincoln Park in the summer since she is a summer baby. I took Alex's at Lincoln Park in the fall since he is a fall baby, so for years I had visions of Chloe's pics at Lincoln Park in the snow to complete the cycle. This turned into a huge undertaking.

First we had to find something dressy but warm. I wanted a navy blue dress and white jacket, which I have often seen at Gymboree during the holidays. Not this year. All they had was Christmas-y plaids. I looked everywhere for something else. I finally found a overpriced cute coat at Chasing Fireflies. I ordered it in a size 8 and it was too small. I shipped it back and requested a 10. They informed me that a 10 was out of stock until March so I canceled the order. By that point, I had already lost $37 on shipping to and fro. I started looking for something else. Then I was notified that a size 10 was in stock, so I ordered it and lost another $20 on shipping, not to mention the price of the overpriced coat. But, Chloe had her heart set on this coat so whatever.

Then we just needed a snowy day. Since her baptism is not until February 19th, I thought that would be the easy part. We had one big storm in November and we were en route to Michigan for skating that weekend. I figured we would have plenty more snow in subsequent weeks and months. Nope! We have had a few nasty cold spells, but every time there is precipitation, it warms to 38 and we get rain. This has been the snowiest winter everywhere else, but we have had NOTHING! Yesterday we finally got about an inch of snow. It was stupidly cold and the snow did not hang from the branches as it had in my vision, but it was now or never. I dragged this poor child out, and the subzero winds kicked our trash. I ended up with frostbite on my cheeks. I won't post a picture of that, but it is ugly. Thankfully it somehow failed to get Chloe.

Here are a handful of the pictures we took. Yes, she closes her eyes when she smiles. I spent the first few years of her life telling her to open her eyes in pictures. The effort to open her eyes while smiling would leave her looking like the joker. I finally realized that her eyes smile when she smiles. I love it!

#1
 
#2 Seth likes this one. It is very Chloe, but I think she looks a bit too much like a 25 year old supermodel and not an 8 year old.
 
#3
 
#4 Alyssa loves all the ones where she is making sassy faces.
 
#5 
 
#6 Chloe likes this one best. She is attempting to hold her hair out of her face because it was so windy, but it kind of looks like an intentional pose. 
 
#7 This one is not an actual contender, but I included it because she totally cut and pasted that expression from her daddy. 
 
#8 I think this is one of my favorites
 
#9 Alyssa says Chloe will grow up to be a model because she is such a poser. Actually at my sister's wedding recently, the photographer LOVED her. He told many family members what a diva she is, and told me that both my girls are beautiful but that she has the "it" factor. She really does. 
 
#10
 
#11

 
#12
 
#13
 
#14 
 
#15 I really like this one, but you can't see much of her. 

 
#16
 
#17 So Chloe! 
 
#18 I saw this one and liked it because that is Chloe's real, un-posed smile. She saw it and said, "that one is a real smile." 
 
#19
 
#20


 
#21 Alyssa likes this one. I think she only likes the silly, sassy ones. 

 
#22
 
When we were done, Chloe quickly jumped into the car and bundled up into warmer clothes and a hat. I think we should have used a hat to keep her hair from blowing in the pictures. Thankfully, Chloe loves pictures so she was more than willing to go pose in the cold. She was rewarded with donuts and hot chocolate and a 2 hour late arrival at school. I would have done it after school, but snow has been so rare that I didn't dare wait and let it get away. 

 
Now which ones should I use? I need a full length one for the program and maybe a close up to frame for the table.