hello.....(echo, echo....)

My daughter pointed out to me the other day, after starting up her own blog, that mine is very out of date! I realized that, but didn't have much time to do much about it. But, if any of my family and friends are still out there checking in on us from time to time, I promise to post some updates in the next couples days/weeks! :) Promise!

Kayleigh's First Feis

What's a feis, you ask? Or maybe you're just asking....how do you even SAY feis?

A feis - pronounced "fesh" - is an Irish dance competition. There are probably a lot more Irish dancers around than you think! It's like there's whole underground curly-haired sub-culture that you never even knew existed!

Kayleigh has been dancing for about 3 years now, but had never competed at a feis before. Her previous dance class didn't do competitions, so this was a whole new opportunity for her, and she was very excited to enter it!

So we dragged ourselves out of bed at 4:30 yesterday morning, drove down to Milwaukee, and set up camp at Stage 5 wondering what the day would hold. There were 6 stages running at the same time, with over 1100 dancers competing at all different levels. Kayleigh's goal was to not place last, with the hopes of being in the top 10 for at least one of her dances. (Although she later confessed to hoping for a top 5!)

Her first dance was her reel. I have never seen her so nervous about something ever! But, she stepped out there and did well. The expression on her face was priceless when the results were posted and she found out she had "placed", receiving a 5th place award!!!! It really helped build her confidence when she received her ribbon.

Her second dance was her slip jig. I thought she did well, but I'm biased that way, and she didn't feel very good about her performance, so it was very exciting to get to the results board and see her name listed in 3rd place, earning her her first medal!

Her 3rd dance was her treble jig. It's a hard shoe dance, which she is generally pretty good at. For some reason she started feeling a little unsure of herself going into this one, and at one point during the dance, slipped on the duct tape holding the boards together that formed the "stage." She did a great job recovering and didn't fall but she come offstage renaming the dance the "trouble jig." ;) Of course we weren't surprised that she didn't place in that dance at all, but when we saw the overall results she was surprised to learn that, despite the slip and her lack of confidence, she got 9th place out of 28!

Her final dance of the day was her hornpipe, another hard shoe dance. She just finished learning this one and it's a little trickier, but it's one she was very confident in, and it showed! She stepped out on that stage like she owned it! Unfortunately, it took an agonizing 2 hours to get the results back, although it didn't matter anymore when they were posted and she was listed as 2nd place!

It was a great day! She's going to have to work hard to keep up these kind of results at her future competitions! Her teacher, classmates, and classmates' parents were all so helpful and supportive, making the day even more special for her. I see a lot more of these ahead of us!