Jr. All-Star Tryouts...She Made the Team!!

Courtney has had the goal of being an All-Star in Pizazz since she was in kindergarten.  When she was in 1st grade, the coach asked some of the little girls to be in a special dance with the All-Stars and she called them Jr. All-Stars for the duration of the dance.  Courtney was hooked!

Last year it was announced that a Jr. All-Star team would be put together.  Courtney went to the tryout clinics but there were only 4 girls who wanted to try out so they decided not to put the team together and wait for another year.  Courtney was bummed but it worked out well because she had another year to work on her skills.

This year they decided to try to put together a Jr. All-Star team again.  They had 9 girls who were interested so they went ahead with the tryouts.  They had 4 clinics beforehand to teach them a new dance, what would be expected, and the various moves they would need to do.  Courtney was busy with everything going on and I was nervous that she wasn't working on her dance enough but stayed out of it because I wanted her to have a good experience.  She went to all the clinics so I figured she would be fine.

The way they pick the team is with a "natural break" method.  That means that everyone is scored on their technique and dance routine.  The scores are totaled up and put in descending order.  Where ever there is a natural break in the scores, that is where the break for the team is.  For example, if there are a bunch of scores and then a break of 10 points before another group of score totals begin, that is where the break is.  The top scores will be the team and the scores under the break will not make the team.  It makes it kind of unpredictable because there can be 12 girls on the team one year and only 7 the next.

We left Courtney's soccer game, went to the building where the tryouts were to be held, changed Courtney into her dance clothes (all black with her hair in a bun) and then got her number (23).  Then we had to wait.  The older girls had their tryouts for All-Stars before the younger girls had theirs for Jr. All-Stars.  And the older girls were taking forever!  But it was great for the younger girls because they had plenty of time in the hallway to practice their routine and all their technique steps.  It was a big blessing.

Then it was time!  The girls were split into 3 groups of 3.  Courtney was in the first group.  The moms were brought so we were settled before the girls came in.  I really appreciated the coach before the tryouts talking to all the moms and letting them know that this was to be a great experience for the girls whether they made it or not.  She wasn't allowed to help them in any way if they forgot their dance.  So she asked us to clap and yell for them so they would feel encouraged even if they were lost in the dance.  She didn't want it to be filled with pressure but just a fun experience for them to learn something new.

Then they began.  They start with the technique.  They have certain moves they have to do across the floor so the judges can see how well they do.  After each group has a turn to do technique, it is time for the routines.  The first group is brought in and one girl stands in front while the other two stand in back.  They do the routine (which includes a solo from each girl that they make up on their own) and then they are asked to switch spots and do the dance again.  The girl in the front moves to the back and the girls in the back move to the front. When all the groups have done their routine it is time for call backs.  With the older girls, only certain numbers are asked back in and they do the routine again.  But with the younger girls, all the groups were asked to do the routine together one more time.

I video taped all of Courtney's technique and I will put it on here if anyone is curious, but you have to watch the last videos of the routine. Courtney choreographed her own solo and it seemed to change each time she practiced.  But in tryouts she did it great, although she did it backward the second time.  I was really proud of her and especially because of her answer when I asked her what would happen if she didn't make it.  She said, "Oh mom, I'm already on the Pizazz team, so it's no big deal if I don't make All-Stars."  But I was still worried for her.

Here is her technique if anyone is interested:

The first time through the routine (she is on the right):

The second time through the routine:

Call backs:

Then we began the waiting game.  The coach was posting envelopes on the door of the building between 3 and 4 p.m.  The envelopes had numbers of them and the letter inside would tell you whether or not you made the team.  We went at about 3:15 and Courtney jumped out to grab her letter.

To be honest, I was pretty sure she had made it.  There seemed to be 6 girls who were at the same skill level.  I was hoping I was correct and that the natural break would include these 6 girls, at least.  But I was still nervous because it is so subjective.  But Courtney did a great job in tryouts and I was really hopeful she would make it.

She jumped back in the van and ripped open her envelope.  She was really nervous and excited.  Suddenly she started screaming.  SHE MADE IT!!

Courtney is now on the first ever Jr. All-Star team!!  They had a "Meet the Team" dinner on Monday night with the girls and their moms so they could see who else made the team.  The 6 girls made it that I thought would make it.  They were all so excited and I think it's going to be a fun team for them.  It was raining really hard at the dinner and they all went outside to dance in the rain.  It was cute!

Soccer Season Begins

Courtney had her first soccer game of the new season on the 6th.  She was pretty excited to be playing but a bit nervous because she was leaving the game early for Jr. All Star tryouts.  She asked to be the goalie...something we weren't too excited about.  She hasn't learned how to play goalie so she was too far out of the box and the other team scored quite a few times.  But she likes being out there.

We left after only about 25 minutes so she didn't get much action but she is excited for another soccer season to start!

Student Council

Courtney wants to do EVERYTHING!  She came home from school with a Cougar Choir form and wanted to sign up to do the choir and the drum corp.  The next day she came home with an application for student council.  She is playing soccer, taking piano lessons, in early morning orchestra, dance and going to try out for Jr. All Stars (a dance team within her dance team).  She is just a firecracker!!

The way they do student council is a bit different at the elementary school.  The students fill out the form explaining why they would be great on student council.  They have to get 3 teacher signatures and then turn it in by the deadline.  The candidates then make a poster and have to give a speech in front of their class.  The class then votes and the top 6 go on to the interview process.

Here is Courtney's poster which she made ALL BY HERSELF!  She didn't want any help, although she had me print the pictures for her but that was all.

The voting in class took place and she was bummed that she didn't make it.  She was the 7th person!

The next week they sent a note home saying that the voting was close and so every student would be going through the interview process.  They have 3 teachers and 3 student council members from the high school who do the interviews.  The committee, along with the teacher of each class, will then make the final decision on the 2 members of the class who will be on the student council.

Courtney is still waiting to do her interview and the decision is supposed to be made by September 19th.  I'll keep you updated!

Crazy Boy!

I don't know if it's because he's a boy or because he is 12 but Ethan does some strange things sometimes.  He loves to watch TV upside down (I actually remember doing this when I was a kid) and he likes to do flips over the back of the couch which drives us nuts!  He springs and does somersaults on beds and he likes to jump all over the place.  At least he is active, right?!

 Crazy Boy!!

Ethan Gets Published

In Ethan's Honors Language Arts class, they are focusing on writing and one of their assignments is to write  the weekly school updates that are published in The Spectrum (the local newspaper).  Ethan was the first to volunteer to do it and he did a great job.  This was due the day we left for the wedding reception and was printed on Friday.  He was pretty happy with the results.  I think he did a great job!

Bottling Pears

I had a woman call me asking if I was interested in going in with her to get some boxes of pears.  I was very happy to go along and so we got 40 pounds of pears.  I have ordered these before and they had to sit for about a week before they were ripe enough to bottle and it was the same this time.  So the Saturday after the wedding, we were bottling pears.  The kids hate helping but it's good for them to work hard and to learn to do things like this.

We ended up with 13 quarts of pears.  Not too bad.   Some of them were swished and not good by the time we got around to bottling them but they were yummy to eat!

Andrew and Jessica's Wedding!

On August 20th, we loaded the van, checked the kids out of school and drove to Provo for Andrew and Jessica's wedding.  We were nervous we would be late for pictures before the wedding reception (we were off on our times a bit) but we made it before the bride, lucky for us!

Courtney had a beautiful flower head wreath.  It was so beautiful and she loved wearing it!

Bryan and Ethan had matching ties and Bryan had suspenders.  Cute boys!!

Then we had family pictures, sibling pictures, niece/nephew pictures, you name it.  The weather was beautiful and the setting was really elegant.  It was a nice reception.

Here are the nieces and nephews.  Packs make cute kids, if I do say so myself!

There were musical numbers performed throughout the reception and Courtney had volunteered to play the piano.

When the reception was over, we went back to the hotel and the kids went swimming.  Then we all went to bed.

The next day was the wedding in the Provo Temple.  We woke up really early and went to the Ogden Temple Open House (I'll post more on that later).  We drove back to Orem and we had some time before the luncheon so we took the kids to walk around UVU (formerly UVSC where I went to school and worked).  It was crazy to see how much it has changed.  I couldn't find much and there were a lot of new buildings.  I could find my old office though.  It isn't the same department but it looks about the same as when I was there.

There were all kinds of new things that the kids thought were fun to play around with.

Then it was time to go to the luncheon.  When the luncheon was over we took Ethan to BYU so he could do homework and study.  He felt really important being on campus and wanted to pretend to be a child prodigy.  He even had an accent all worked out.  It was hilarious!  Courtney went with Brook and Ruston shopping.

When he was finished, we were kind of bored so we went walking around a bit before going to to the Temple to wait for everyone else.  Ethan was asked to babysit Jane while we were all in the Temple and he was prepared with his babysitting bag.  They had a ton of fun outside while we were all inside.

The sealing ceremony was beautiful.  It's always nice to hear the covenants and advice that are given to the bride and groom when you aren't the bride and groom.  It is easier to focus when the focus isn't on you.  It was nice to see all the family in the sealing room also.  Being the youngest has it's benefits because all 6 Pack children and their spouses were there.

After some more pictures outside the Temple, we were off for home.  The kids had school Friday they needed to get back for so we took off.  We bought pizza for them to eat in the van on the drive home and we were on our way home.  We got home late but it was a great wedding!!