Days with the Dorans

Well~ I survived another stoning day! Stoning day is when all the moms at TDS (or a couple dads if moms can't make it) spend a day stoning costumes with stinky E6000 glue. It's a long day~ cold (because you need fresh air) and back breaking (because you're hunched over costumes for 8 hours). I think I did 5 costumes (which equalled a bit longer than 8 hours). This year, Julia and I had to do the samples too so we met at our house to do two costumes (Jet Set and The Climb- Al happens to be in both) prior to stoning day. I think they turned out great and after seeing all of Ali's costumes I'm really excited to watch her dance next week at her FREE Showcase! One thing I do know is those girls will SPARKLE! We stoned 60,768 stones (yes... someone counted). 

Stoning day was great this year! It went fast and I certainly have gotten better at it. Stoning Day is a day when every dancer at Al's dance studio has a representative come in and work on costumes. The point is to try to keep costs down (I've been told) by having add stones to the costumes ourselves. E6000 glue and a toothpick makes for a long and stinky day. This year I worked on the "Let it Go" costume which is Al's understudy piece. We started at 9am (I was there at 8:20 to set up) and we were done by 3 which was MUCH faster than last year. All the costumes looked great.  Al only had 2 out of her 3 costumes stoned and one (Chelsea's Jazz- Until we Go Down) only had the buttons on the skirt stoned. Her tap costume is super cute. Just regular jeans and this Love T-shirt with the word love in different languages. I think the little stones did make it look cute! While we were stoning, the girls were rehearsing. Al had a break and Stacy took the girl...

Well the Dance Season is starting up here soon and I'm learning what it's like to be a dance mom.  I've watched videos on how to do the hair and make-up (the expectations are different at this level than they were at her last level) and had to BUY a lot of makeup since I don't wear all that much myself. I also participated in stoning day! My friends got a kick out of me talking about how I'd be "stoning."  Basically what it is, is all the girls who are on the team have to have a family member stone for them.  It was mostly moms (of course) and what we had to do was stone costumes one by one until they were all done.  I stoned costumes from 9-5 and only took about 10 minutes for lunch and didn't go to the bathroom all day (it's the teacher in me)!!  Basically we were assigned a costume and we stoned until we were done.  I actually got to work on Ali's tap group's costume and then I did one other costume that I worked on with anothe...