Finishing Individual Competition (under construction)

Daniel, Ronnie and Davina went to Paris for a Bat Mitzvah but Talia and I stayed behind because of Talia's last competition in Belfort. A few days' prior, I went to get a rear light changed on my car and mentioned that my breaks squeeked. Thought it needed some oil... wrong! Pads and disks needed changing to the tune of almost 500 Euros. Worse was that I had to take it to the dreaded, always more expensive, Toyota garage since only they could get the parts in time. Ugh!  

At least I was ready for the drive, which was about an hour and a half away, in pouring rain, while trying to follow another parent (who had GPS) in a very small aqua car which blended in a bit too well in the rain...

Here she is warming up....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyiYj7Nj1Bw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHnrgr8jXpY&list=UUbaoc3SwgM6WMXy3JwTnkxg&index=1&feature=plcp

Talia's 10th Birthday (under construction)

For Talia's birthday, we made two cakes; one for the family and the other for the gymnastics group.

Present opening at home.

The card.

 Earings and a necklace.

Hat.

House renovation

Scaffolding! We were well overdue for a repaint.

The end result. We kept the same colors.

It was hard to get these photos due to the bad weather and the short day right now.

Christmas in Strasbourg (under construction)

Just some random photos of Strasbourg at Christmas.

  

Christian Pastry shop is supposedly the best in Strasbourg. They did an owl theme (which isn't that clear in the photo on the left). The building on the right is near the Cathedral and Place Gutenberg and they did a polar bear theme.

I love the Blue Tree at Place Gutenberg.

Grand Rue.

Davina at the Hilton.

 Barbie football game at Ikks on Grand Rue.

Talia's second individual competition

 We did it again!

Krista very nicely loaned her costume to Talia. It fit perfectly! I did a little repair job but no sequins fell off. Luck would have it that it suited the music.

There was some drama. We had to be in Pfastatt at 8:30am, near Mulhouse, about an hour south. So we get to Fegersheim, about 14 km south and Talia realizes that she forgot her hoop. We had to do a U-turn and head back up ASAP! But we still made it more or less on time with Daniel pushing (or exceeding) the speed limit.

Here she is warming up.

Starting.

This was the professional picture taken of her final pose (which was changed).

She had to perform twice. Once with her routine on the hoop and the other was a "hands free" standard dance all the girls had to learn. There was a lot of waiting around. There were only 10 girls but the competition was mixed with two other categories and the awards given out all together. 

Here are the three girls who competed in her category from her club. Océane (Oh-Say-An) on the left and Tomiris on the right. 

Trying to keep siblings occupied was difficult as it made for a long morning. 

This is the awards presentation, what I like to call "retreat" (drum corps people will get that). The results weren't ideal. Océane came in 4th, Tomiris 5th and Talia 8th. The girls were all so strong (except for the one who totally forgot the hands-free routine and freaked). It was close and the other girls do many more hours than ours' do. One more to go after this in December!