Saint Patrick's Day {2013}

These three lovely ladies danced for the local news crew in Green Bay on Saint Patricks day.

Saint Patrick's Day (2012)

With Saint Patrick's Day being on a Saturday, that meant extra jigging' for this family! I believe we had a total of eight performances throughout the day....

At the Parade

Seamy boy

Bridget dancing at Lambeau

We had Moira with us!

Erin, sportin' her dance socks

Eileen

Teresa, always workin' the crowd

Most of the dance school

Erin, MG and Seamus

Molly, Shannon, Eileen, Elizabeth, Caroline, Kaitlyn and Keelin

Gaelic Storm!

In early March, Eileen and a few other Heritage Dancers had the opportunity to dance on stage with Gaelic Storm at the Meyer Theater here in Green Bay. She also wore her new new solo dress for the first time!

Here they are, waiting to perform...

And the performance....

Saint Patrick's Day

Last year we got so lucky for St. Patrick's Day; it was about 65 degrees and sunny!  This year, not so much. It was cold, windy and drizzly.  The rain held off until the very end of the girls' performance, but overall, it was not a pleasant day. I guess that is my excuse for not getting a lot of pictures :).  It was Molly Grace and cousin Margaret's very first time on stage.  They were very poised and confident. Next time I'll try to get better photos!

Molly Grace, dancing the jig

Molly Grace, far left, getting ready to dance.  Margaret, far right with a smile on her face (just above the head in the way)

Here we ALL are, piling in the Suburban to drive back to the beginning of the parade.  Funny how the camera focused on the beer bottle.  LOL.  Just kidding....it's actually ROOTbeer. 

Saint Mary's Parish Picnic {Irish Dance}

The girls did a little Irish dance performance at a parish picnic in a charming little WI town, that I cannot remember the name of :)  It was the second year in a row at Saint Mary's.  Our four girls, cousin Colleen and another family with five Irish dancers, came together to do several dances. 
Here are Bridget, Moira and Eileen all waiting to begin their part of the dance.  Teresa began the dance with a little solo...

 Here's Teresa, wearing her long, old, frazzled wig for the last time (It was originally worn by Moira and it is time for her to get her own wig.  It actually doesn't look nearly as bad in this picture as it does in real life).  But she looks darling with or without the rat-nest wig LOL.

The whole gang.  From left: Keelin, Katilin, Colleen, Keona, Teresa, Bridget, Keira, Moira and Eileen

The after perfomance group shot with Seamus and Kaelisa

Choir/Irish Dance Recital

Last Sunday we had an Irish dance performance in the morning (Moira, Eileen and Teresa) our choir recital in the afternoon (Eileen and Bridget), followed by our Irish dance recital in the evening (Moira, Eileen, Bridget and Teresa).  What a busy day!  It went something like this:

Mass on Saturday evening.  Mike was in Madison on Sat. evening, so he took A and MG to Mass with him, for the second time, on Sunday morning.
 9:30- leave house with M, E, T, E and S for performance
10:15- Mike take A and MG to mass
10:15- M, E and T put together a quick rehearsal for performance
11:00- performance
12:00- pick up quick lunch on the way home
12:30- drop off M, E for dance recital rehearsal
1:00- get home, feed S, put E and S down for nap
1:30-leave to pick up M, E, and take T for her recital rehearsal
2:00- get home for E and B to quickly change their clothes
2:20-leave for choir performance after waking up S (Mike stays with E)
2:30- feed S in parking lot of choir
3:00-Mike picks up T at dance practice
3:00- attend lovely choir performance
4:00-head home to quickly change for Irish dance recital
4:00 Mike picks up Jimmy Johns for dinner
4:15- eat
4:30- head out the door again, with M, E, B and T, to buy flowers for dance performance
5:00-drop off kids at dance recital, park car
5:15-put on B and T's wig
5:45- feed S
6:15- sit down to enjoy Irish dance recital
9:00- home to collapse....whew!  LOL


Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera to the choir performance. The kids sang songs from Movin' in the Right Direction. I'm hoping I can get some pictures from some of the other families who were there...

I only got a few pictures after the Irish dance performance.  This year they danced in the performing arts center, The Meyer Theater, which had such a great stage and lights!

Moira (ha...notice the finshed black skirts....)

Eileen

Bridget, cousin Colleen, Eileen

The whole gang...

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

We had such a beautiful day! Saint Patrick must have been praying for us!  The temperature was in the mid 60's, perfect weather for our first annual St. Patrick's Day parade.  We had prepared for sweat pants, turtle necks, gloves, etc..to be worn under the girls' dresses, but none of that was needed. Mike's parents came for the day, which is always a treat!  We all walked along the riverfront for the parade and then met up at the City Deck for a little talk by the major, and others, followed by a dance performance which all the girls participated in.  I'll have to gather some pictures from other people to post because I was too far back to get any good pictures of the dancers. 

As part of our celebration for the day, we made sure to include a few treats :).  This is always very welcomed and remembered by the little ones because St. Paddy's Day usually lands sometime during Lent, which is typically sweet-free for us.

Thanks to a thoughtful client and friend of Mike's, we had extra fun, special treats for the day ....

This is the only picture that turned out at the parade...(I'll get more later)

After the parade we had two more performances.  Moira and Eileen went off to the east side of town to dance at a county club and Bridget and Teresa danced on the west side of town at a Hibernian dinner. Lots of fun!

And last by not least, these picture just say it all, don't they??!!

Good Day Wisconsin

Moira and Eileen were up bright and early for this little promo for our St. Patrick's Day parade.  The dance surface was covered with dew, making it very slippery!  Thankfully, they did just fine, with no falls :)  Moira has a short little intro with the TV correspondent and Eileen is right next to her. (If you want to see it expanded, you have to click the image)

It's Almost St. Patrick's Day...

Here at our house, the fact that it's almost St. Patrick's Day means it's one of our busiest times of year!  It's so busy that we generally refer to it as Saint Patrick's week, not day.  This year it almost seems more appropriate to call it St. Patrick's month. Of course we love Dear Saint Patrick, patron saint of the Irish, but our month-long busyness has much to do with the fact that we have four Irish dancers in the house.

The wigs are ready; the dresses are set; poodle socks are clean and white, bobby pins are bought by the dozens; sock glue is handy; spankies are washed; suspenders are found (in the bottom of a dress-up bin); and Irish music can be heard from all corners of the house, usually accompanied by the bang bang bang of hard-shoes hitting the wooden practice floor in rhythmic patterns. I have become so accustomed to recognizing the sound of hard-shoes hitting the floors that I no longer hear it...sort of like how you don't hear trains when you live next to the railroad tracks.  When visitors come over, they look at me with wide eyes, asking, what is that?! LOL .

The girls already had two fun performances last week.  Moira, Eileen and Bridget perfomed with Different Drums of Ireland in Door County last Friday.  It was a late show so Mike took the girls and I stayed home with the little kids.

Here is a group shot of the girls who perfomed with Different Drums (Moira on the far left, Eileen with the pink and green crown fourth from right, and Bridget and cousin Colleen in black dresses near the right)

All three girls are in the front row (Bridget borrowed a solo dress for this number because she only has the "school dress", which is black, and their instructor preferred the solo dresses)

Then, on Sunday, all the girls were able to perform for the CP (Cerebral Palsy) Center Telethon.  They had three dance numbers which were live performances.  The rest of us were able to watch them on TV, which was fun!  I was unable to get a link to the recording of the dances (sorry mom! I think Kelly and Kelley have it recorded).  This was the first time the dancers participated in the CP telethon, not only by dancing, but also by fundraising for the center. It was inspiring to be a part of it, and the dancers and their families raised over $2000 for the center.  The CP Center is a great resource for those with many different disabilities, not just cerebral palsy. We have not used it much ourselves but we may take advantage of the center when Erin is a bit older (they have a wonderful warm-water therapy pool).

Here is a picture of Moira and Eileen's class giving their check to the CP center.

This week we have a moring performance on Tuesday (it will be on TV locally on WLUK, starting about 8:15 am), three performances on Wednesday and possibly one on Thursday.  Happy Saint Patrick's Day everyone, even if you are not Irish :) !!!

Oshkosh Scythian Show

If you asked the girls what their favorite dance experiences were to date, many would tell you The Scythian shows! On Thursday night they danced in Oshkosh, their second Scythian concert of the week. It was so much fun for them. This time, they had a much bigger group of dancers as you can see in the group shot below. (Moira is on the far left, Colleen is right next to her. Bridget is in front, next to Colleen, and Eileen is second from right).

They had a 30 minute performance before Scythian took the stage, which the girls put together with the help of one of their instructors (this group shown is just a small number of dancers compared to the whole school). All practices were done outside of class time. They worked on their dance numbers almost every night last week. Whew!

Here they are getting ready for their opening number...

Moira's back is to the camera, in pink...

Here's Eileen on the left. 

Moira and Eileen in the middle...

Colleen and Bridget...

The whole group...

Scythian was just great! What a great group of very talented musicians! A little extra on Scythian...All four band members have parents who are immigrants to our country. Drummer, MikeyO, has a parent who comes from Jordan. Joe has a parent come from Germany. Dan and Alex are brothers (who were homeschooled, by the way), whose parents are Ukrainian. As you can imagine, their music is quite a unique cultural mix, with a predominant Irish flair. Why Irish when the musicians are not Irish, you may wonder? Because Alex and Dan spent four months living in Ireland. While there, they grew to love the Irish culture and music. Alex, Dan and Joe went to college at Franciscan University of Steubenville, where Dan, Alex and Joe's fathers are/were professors (not sure about MikeyO...someone let me know). While there, Mike's brother, Tim, met them and our extended family has followed them every since. Scythian is from Washington DC but they have played all over the country. Their largest performance was at World Youth day in 2008, where they performed for Pope Benedict XVI and 300,000 youth in Sydney! To find out more about Scythian, visit their website by clicking HERE. You will not be disappointed!)

Here is a group shot of the band members, our family members, and many of the kids' friends who attended the show.

It was a fun but very late night. The younger four kids and I didn't get to bed until around midnight. (It was even later for the older kids and Mike). Erin was soooo tired. I put her to bed with her clothes on. In the morning she was up bright and early, ready to go, still sportin' her Scythan stickers LOL.