6 years ago
Sydney got her Aerial!
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Sydney has been practicing so hard for the past two months. Every night she practices in our backyard--after dinner and homework is finished. Finally on Friday night, in acro class, she was able to do her aerial twice. The next day, I had her go to a gymnastics coach so he could help her with the correct form. Mark took this video after she had already practiced for almost a half hour with the coach so she was pretty tired. We are so excited for her!!! She did a few aerials in our living room today, which kind of scares me. I'm still a little nervous about how she flings herself up in the air.
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Hawaii
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Mark and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary in Hawaii this year! It was the best place I have been so far! We stayed in Waikiki on Oahu. Waikiki beach was about a block away from the hotel.
Of course since we are Poulsen's we had to stop at Costco to load up on supplies like beach towels and giant cream puffs and Doritos (for Mark). I fell in love with the gelato in the sugar waffle cones for only $1.50. Seriously they were so yummy. We stopped back a few times during the week just so we could have a gelato cone. I am so sad that none of the Costco's in AZ seem to carry the gelato on the food court menu.
This was Kailua beach. It was amazing to see beaches that look picture postcard perfect. Our favorite beach was Lanikai which was actually about 1/2 mile from Kailua. The sand (at Lanikai beach) was white, super soft and the beach was that perfect turquoise blue. It was gorgeous.
Mark and I went to see Pearl Harbor one of the days. While we were there, we also visited the U.S.S. Arizona (battleship) and toured a submarine. The submarine was so tight that it made the battleship seem large and roomy--even though it wasn't in the least bit.
We did a little surfing on Waikiki beach along with hundreds of other tourists.
One of our favorite places we visited was the Polynesian Cultural Center on the other side of the island. We tried the fresh poi and it really wasn't too bad! We both loved the buffet in the evening and the night show "Ha Breath of Life".
Other fun things we did while we were there was tons of snorkeling...no pictures because we were always in the water. Seriously, we snorkeled almost every day and at almost all the beaches we went to. One afternoon we hiked to Manoa Falls which was kind of inland a bit--in a jungle. I can't forget my favorite place we ate at was Haleiwa Joe's Seafood Grill. The other wonderful thing about Oahu was the weather. It was nice to breathe fresh air and walk around outside without the heat from Phoenix. I definitely think we will have to take the kids back during the summer. 
Tooth Fairy!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
As usual I am catching up on things I wanted to post on my blog. Here is the story about these two tiny teeth pictured below. When Sydney started Kindergarten...a few years ago...many of her friends started to lose a tooth or two. She waited so patiently for one of her own teeth to fall out and was very excited for the expected visit of the tooth fairy. However, Kindergarten passed by and none of her teeth fell out. I was sure that at least one would fall out during her first grade year. Again, first grade came and went and she still had not lost any teeth. She was very sad about all the stories she heard from friends at school and cousins who were losing teeth and having a visit from the busy tooth fairy. I hauled her to the dentist at the beginning of last year to figure out what was going on and the dentist assured me that she would probably lose a tooth last summer. Summer came and went, again no teeth fell out...not even a tiny loose tooth appeared. Imagine my surprise one September day when I peered in Sydney's mouth and there was not one but two tiny permanent teeth poking through, behind her baby teeth. I was horrified. My daughter is not a shark and doesn't need double sets of teeth. I took Sydney back to the dentist and he again reassured me that her baby teeth would loosen up in no time and fall out. By Christmas, the two permanent teeth had come completely in (behind her baby teeth) and although we worked on loosening up her baby teeth and she worked on wiggling them, they refused to budge. So during Christmas break the dentist pulled out both of Sydney's teeth. I guess she doesn't have any cute teeth gap pictures because her permanent teeth moved forward into the space within a few days! This was a picture of her tiny baby teeth the dentist pulled. She is half way through second grade and has finally officially had her first tooth fairy visit!
I felt kind of bad that Sydney had to wait so long for the tooth fairy to come. She practically does not believe in the fairy any more. Plus it was a bit dramatic having to get her teeth pulled instead of just losing them like other kids. So...the tooth fairy wrote her a special letter...
slipped into a special envelope...and paid quite nicely (I think)...for the tiny baby teeth left behind!
This was a puzzle my family started around New Years when they came to visit. I finished it a few days later. All 2000 pieces we carefully fitted together. I love puzzles so if you come to stay at our house...there are plenty of puzzles to do--in the drawers of the guest room night stand!
I picked Sophie up from preschool one day and was horrified to find a screw in the sidewall of my tire. We made it safely to Discount tire. The guy informed me that I couldn't drive anywhere on the tire and that the replacement tire wouldn't be in until the next day. So I called Mark from work to come get me. He rearranged his schedule, came all the way to the tire store to pick me up...and then the guy told him that actually they could put the spare tire on so I could have driven home. Yup, I was slightly annoyed.
Nutcracker 2010
Monday, January 24, 2011
In December, Sydney participated in 6 Christmas shows for dance plus an additional performance of the Nutcracker a few days before Christmas. Sydney had a blast and I was exhausted after the unglamourous job of the behind the scenes mama! I am very good at make-up and hair...specifically sleek buns after all those shows. Oh, and I can do hot rollers in her hair in less than 10 minutes. The Nutcracker was a pretty cool experience for Sydney. She was a Snowflake (and performed during the Snow Fairies' scene) in the Moscow Ballet's Nutcracker in Phoenix. We arrived at the huge theater downtown several hours before the performance and went in the stage entrance. The security guards waved us on by and down the stairs we went to do hair and costumes, pictures and rehearsal.
Most of the dancers spoke only Russian but a few spoke a little bit of English, at least enough to communicate about the ballet performance. During the dress rehearsal, a few of the moms snuck in to the front row seats to watch. It was pretty cool to see all the dancers up close, especially since our seats were pretty far up in the balcony. Here's Sydney right before the show was about to start. I left her backstage and went to find my seat. I was so nervous for her once I realized how huge the audience was. There is this part in the middle of the Snow Fairies' scene where the Snowflakes went to the front of the stage (close to the audience) and I didn't want Sydney to get stage fright.
Although, this isn't a picture of Sydney's specific group, this is just the one part where the snowflakes are out on the edge of the stage. I couldn't have taken pictures even if I wanted to because our seats were too far up. It was a beautiful performance and Sydney did a great job. There was no need for me to worry.
At the curtain call, Herr Drosselmeyer lead Sydney (she was holding onto the rest of the Snowflakes) out on stage. She thought that was pretty cool. Sophie loved the whole ballet from start to finish. I can't even begin to count the number of times we have listend to the Nutcracker soundtrack since October. Ha, we are still listening to it at least once a week, although I hope the CD goes into hiding soon. There is only so much Nutcracker I can tolerate. Sydney loves to dance and especially loves ballet. I have to admit it was so amazing to see my little girl on the big stage with all the beautiful ballerinas!
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