Clark County Cinderella Pageant

Etta had a local Cinderella pageant this past weekend.  What made this pageant really special is that her best friend from first grade came to cheer her on.  After taking pictures with my cell phone I realize my phone takes really crappy pictures but I just don't have the patience to carry around my nice Nikon.
Etta loves to interview but I heard she was pretty fidgety while sitting through interview.  Good to know so we can work on that.

Just before interview with judges

 All my pictures of casual wear and party dress were too blurry to add to the blog so I'm going to skip right to her talent routine.  She changed her old routine a little to add a couple of new skills.  She bobbled on a few things and she ended a little early (she always rushes when she's nervous) but over all it showed what she can do.

She didn't win the Overall Mini Miss title but she did win the Talent title.  One of the judges came up to ask where she takes contortion and mentioned Etta was her first choice pick which really made Etta happy.

 Here are the contestants, State, and Local title holders.

The little girl in leopard print won the tot Overall Title and I helped her prepare for the pageant the two weeks before hand.  She's so full of personality and super cute.

Kiera, super excited about her trophy and crown.

Sunday is normally contortion practice but the contortion classes and Kung Fu classes were going to perform at the Chinese New Year Festival just across the street instead.  Etta was excited when she was given a little routine to perform with another girl her age with similar abilities.  They performed twice that day and enjoyed getting up on stage in front of everyone.  Sorry the video is from behind stage.  I would never have made it to the front of the audience in time to video it.

AAMTC Talent Competition 2013





Etta has been working pretty hard for several months on a couple of talent routines for the American Amateur Modeling and Talent Competition with the plans on just doing the talent part.  The modeling is a little more free form and Etta likes structure.  There are 8 different categories girls can compete in: tap, jazz, ballet, acro/novelty dance, vocals, song and dance, musical theater, and novelty (any other talent not listed).  Etta wanted to do 5: tap, ballet, vocals, acro, and contortion.  Eric and I basically forbade her to ever sing as a talent but she really wanted to do it.  Today was a reminder why we are against singing.  Unless she wants to have voice lessons, we won't be doing that again.

She actually started with tap and looked super cute.  She was having headband issues during her performance and it was downhill from there.  She just looked terrified and kept messing with the headband.  Turns out the little ponytail that the comb was stuck in broke.  Go figure.  There were maybe 8 or 10 girls in the 7-8 year old age group so I was not surprised when she didn't place in tap or vocals.  I omitted those videos for a reason.

 

Ready for tap

Ballet was her third event and it went pretty well.  It wasn't her best job on the routine, but it still looked cute.  Not sure how many girls were entered in that event but she ended up with 3rd place.  Here is her routine.



 

Her 4th event was her acro dance routine.  I have to admit it was looking pretty dang good then near the end she forgot something and you could see her face go blank.  She skipped to the next thing but then she ended about 15 seconds early and thought she could just fill the gap with back walk overs.  So, I lost track of how many she did then she finally ended.  Needless to say, even if your routine is strong, if you mess up at the end that's what the judges are going to remember.  She did not place.  I was banking on her scoring well on ballet, acro, and contortion.

Etta's last event was her contortion routine in the novelty group.  There was a girl that did a monologue and several piano players.  Etta's routine looked great except she ended early.  Luckily the routine itself looked good.  She ended up winning first place in that event.  (oops, missed the first part of her routine on the video after placing her balancing canes on stage).

 3rd place for ballet

 1st for novelty

The girl with the most amount of points (only counting their top three places) won Talent of the year.  Etta wanted that so bad but it didn't happen this year.  I figure if she could work on these routines all this coming year, she'll be sitting pretty for the 2014 competition.

A Busy April

I have been missing in action from my blog.  I've been at a spot where there isn't much to talk about other than the girls and their activities or things going on that most people really wouldn't want to read.  But, I figured I'd come on here and say hi to everyone and do a little catch up.  We've been working on getting everything ready for the upcoming Cinderella State Pageant.  We had the girls get pictures taken together as well as some head shots of Etta for the catalog.  I still haven't figured out which one to use.  We are encouraged to find companies to purchase advertisements on Etta's behalf.  This year Eric and I decided to buy a page to just wish her luck.  If anyone would like to purchase an ad (quarter page, half page, full page, or even a business card) or just want to ad something to our page, let me know.  Here are some of my favorite pictures taken of Etta.  Which is your favorite?

 

For the last month or two Etta and Chloe have both been grumbling about gymnastics.  I told them they both could quit if they wanted.  I put in our two weeks notice two weeks ago.  Of course a week later Etta realized that she would miss it too much and asked if she could keep doing it.  I had to make sure she realized she'd be competing again and her BFF will probably be moving and won't be in class with her after they move.  She's now determined to stay.  I was so close to freedom from the gym but another year of gymnastics is in our future.  Chloe however is done.  She is so excited that she won't be going anymore, which I'm fine with but told her she has to replace it with something else.  We're going to look into horse back riding through Horses 4 Heroes this coming week.  They are both in dance and have their recital June 8th at the Smith Center.  I don't think Etta will be in dance next year but Chloe says she wants to do just tap.  Fall is pretty far away but I hope she keeps with it.  I really want her to find the activity right for her.
Etta is still in contortion and enjoying it.  She can't take an extra class now that she's staying in gymnastics due to scheduling conflicts (of course).  Here are some videos of her practicing yesterday.  I thought it was awesome!

We've got a great week ahead of us.  Both the girls are getting their dance pictures taken Friday and Saturday and can't wait to see how it turns out!  Their costumes are super cute.  That reminds me, I need to take in the straps of Etta's ballet dress.  Better get to work.  Seems like a mom's job is never done.

Contortion Class

Etta is loving contortion class.  I think it's because she's just naturally good at it due to her flexibility.  Whenever Etta's teacher manipulates her, the class stops to watch.  I think they just want to see how far Etta can go on some of the moves.  She didn't do anything crazy disgusting this weekend but Zula did have the girls stacking on each other.  I forgot to video one of the stacking moves which I thought was even cooler.  Enjoy the videos.

Contortion & Dare to Dream Meet

Saturday was a busy day.  Etta had contortion class followed by a gymnastics meet at their own gym.  Here are a few video's of Etta at contortion class.  I just need to start video taping every time Zula puts her hands on Etta.  I missed one that was CRAZY.  She was basically into a tight circle laying down.  You could hear all the parents going "Uhhhh" because of the unusual position she was  molded into.

 

This was the first gymnastics meet Eric came to so it was exciting for Etta.  Since our gym Go For It was hosting they had plenty of room for a play gym off to the side for younger siblings to play in during the meet.  So, we pretty much didn't see Chloe unless she was thirsty or hungry.  It was awesome!

Etta during warm up.

Etta blowing kisses while warming up with Coach Ashley.

Etta started with vault and got a personal best, a 9.2 which was 4th place out of nine girls.

Next was bars but it was too far away for me to get a video of it. However Eric got a picture with the zoom lens.  She got a personal best on bars as well, an 8.95 (7th place).  She didn't have the best landing on her dismount and I'm thinking it needs to be changed for state in two weeks.

The third event was beam which is Etta's most difficult event since she is so loose (probably due to her flexibility.  I always tell her. "don't fall" just to keep her score from being terribly low.  She didn't fall but you'll notice on her handstand her hands were way too close to her feet and she didn't get her feet all the way up or together.  She ended up with an 8.65 (7th place).

 Her last event was floor which I thought was her best event.  I thought she was going to have a solid high score but was surprised to see an 8.9.  She ended up getting 7th place as well.

Etta was actually grouped with the older girls in the Xcel bronze which was really hard.  There was one other girl a few months younger than Etta (but she practices 16 hours a week (not the 6 hours bronze class) at our gym but is allowed to compete bronze...can you see my frustration?) but everyone else was a good head to a foot taller.  Competing has not been good for Etta's confidence in gymnastics.  I continue to tell her how proud I am regardless of where she places, but she doesn't understand her scores in relationship to where she stands on the podium.  It's slightly heart breaking.

Here she is getting her ribbon for vault.

I love this picture. It's like a first grade problem.  'Circle the one that doesn't belong in the group'.

Etta won 7th place All Around out of a group of 9.  I'm proud of how well she performed yesterday!

Contortion Class

Etta started contortion class last week after a free trial.  I wasn't sure if she'd like it or not but given her flexibility I figured it could be a fun challenge for her.  After hours of Google-ing and searching the Internet for any information on contortion teachers and classes in the Las Vegas area I found a class in Chinatown just off the strip.  The teacher is in some of the Cirque shows on the strip (which I have yet to figure out which ones since we don't end up talking much) and work with the kids really well.  Etta loved the first class and asked to keep doing it.  Of course we are suckers and said sure.  I didn't take a camera or anything last week but made sure to for this lesson.  It was a pretty big class today but Zula worked Etta like a rubber band.

After class the teacher came up to me and said she noticed Etta wasn't feeling well (must have something to do with the last 5 days or throwing up and diarrhea) but that she really likes Etta.  She said she wants to work with her a little while and then use her for shows downtown.  She said they are often looking for young talent and that Etta would be perfect with some work.  Etta was all smiles hear about that.  Add that to my calendar!