Celebrations Abound!

Last week began with Grandma Betti's birthday!  We had a nice, relaxing family celebration, but I had a bit of a cake fail on the birthday cake!  Grandma requested pound cake with chocolate and strawberries, which was a pretty easy request.  The problem came when the top of the cake stuck in the bundt pan!  I was so bummed, but luckily I had started early enough that I had time to make another one the next day in a more traditional loaf pan.  It was a forgiving crowd (thank you, teenage boys!), and people ate the busted cake as well as the "birthday loaf" and a great celebration was had.  We love you, Grandma!

Thursday, we left for Hartford, CT with Evie for her New England Regional Irish Dance competition.  Noah stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa, and he was very sad for us to go.  He ended up having a good time while we were gone, but he didn't like being left behind.  

He got some special cereal to have for breakfast in attempt to cheer him up!

Evie danced at 8:00am on Friday, so we were up at 4:30 to do hair, makeup, have time to eat, do her warm-ups, etc.  She didn't complain once, and she really brought the energy and enthusiasm to get through a very long day!  Two dancers at a time are on stage, and the biggest challenge was that Evie was paired up with last year's New England champion during her soft shoe dance.  The dance order is totally random, and you don't know until the day of the event who will be on stage with you.  Of course, that's a very intimidating situation, but Evie held her own, and the results showed it!

Evie's dance competition went incredibly well!  Her goal had been to place in the top half of the dancers, and she exceeded that, placing 18th out of 56 dancers, and qualifying for the North American Irish Dance Competition (Nationals) in July.   A lot of people ask us for videos of Evie's dancing, and it's against the rules to take any photos or videos during competiton...however, this one was recorded!  I made a little montage of Evie's three dances and the awards ceremony for anyone that is interested: https://youtu.be/SC4xYqIJsSk

Miss Beth with her two dancers on Friday

Proud teacher!

Proud parents, too!

Getting ready for the 3rd round of dancing

Evie and Sophia waiting on results

Still waiting...

Awards!

The girls all hold hands as they wait for results

At the end of the night, Evie's fake lashes came off, and Matt attached them to his glasses.  Ha ha...we were all a little punchy at this point!

Saturday, we stayed in Hartford to support the other McFadden dancers.  It was a more relaxing day since Evie was done dancing - she could eat and drink whatever she wanted, wear sweatpants, and didn't have to deal with fake eyelashes or a wig!  She had a photo shoot in the morning, we watched a ton of dancing, and we also had time to visit with my cousin Lauren who lives nearby.  It was another long day, but a really special time of comradery for the McFadden dancers, past and present.

Visiting with Lauren!

We are glad to be back home now, getting caught up on sleep and getting ready for the big Thanksgiving feast on Thursday!  Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!