Singing the blues

Jess is on her third ball leo for this season.  THIRD?! you say?  Yup, third.
Her original ball for the season was a very pretty glitter hot pink that she loved.  Loved too much it seems, as it developed patches with no glitter.
So we bought another ball - which was waay more used than we (or the person selling it) realised, meaning it had no grippy surface left on it at all.
Then we borrowed a ball (thank you, Clemmie), a sparkly gold one that I made the wet look black leo for.  Unfortunately, the ball was only able to be on loan for the one comp so back to the drawing board we went.  Fortunately, at that one comp we were able to purchase a beautiful swirly blue ball (thank you Bev & Olivia), for which I made this silver with blue leo:

Jess loves this leo, but it only lasted 5 minutes on the practice floor at Sth Is Champs as the direction I'd cut the fabric to have the silver hologrpahic run vertically didn't work on the butt (which needed the stretch to be horizontal).  Still, it was worth making it for the opportunity to play with shaping the hemline - something I'd been wanting to have a go at for ages but was too scared to do.
So, after a long consultation with one of my fellow gym moms who is very fashionable re the best colours for Jess and another rummage in the stash, we got:

Jess loves this one too - and the butt copes with competitions just fine (I learned my lesson and the butt is in plain matching lycra with even stretch on both grains).  I'm thinking of adding more silver sequins - what do you think?
Gotta love velvet for its sheen... and Picasa for the photo effects, lol!

Trying it on for size

More from the stash... these are sizing leotards: the blue is child size 10 while the purple is child size 12.

Into a courier bag they go, heading south.

and all that jazz

As you wonderful faithful followers will have noticed, Tink did her Grade 3 jazz exam last week.
I like NZAMD jazz exams, as I've mentioned before, due to the way the results are given out.  No 6-8 weeks wait, plus the examiner always puts a positive and a something to work on comment on the results card.
So Tink came dashing out of class tonight and proudly handed over her results cards from her exam and medal test.
The medal test she passed, and the card had a very positive and detailed comment on it - mentioning (again) how well Tink used those long legs of hers in "the most amazing leg kicks".
Her exam result card also had a glowing comment on it, and this time she got Very Very Good in all the sections except for Attitude where she got Excellent - I'm so pleased!  Such a consistent performance is awesome, and a good improvement in her work.  Net result, you ask?

Honours

For the third year in a row - go Tinkerbelle!!

Clarence, the Cross Eyed Lion

Meet CC, our new kitteh.  About 6 months old, we got her from Forgotten Felines on Monday.  She is extremely curious, loves ping pong balls and has picked up the "circling shark" ethic of our other cats already - the fastest of all the cats we've ever had.  Very affectionate, with a very loud rumbly purr, she is still quite skittish.

She's also just slightly cross eyed - very endearing!

Still at it

I'm still playing in the lycra stash, working through ideas.  Tamsin saw the one I was working on and said "Could I wear that for my jazz medal test?"
Yes, yes you can.

Tink had fun at her Grade 3 jazz exam and junior bronze medal test, coming home proudly with her bronze pin.  The examiner, when awarding her the pin, commented that Tink had the longest legs she'd ever seen!
We've known that since before she was born - even the radiologist commented on it, lol.

Yippeeeee!!

Today was the Aspire AER Champs - Tink's last chance to qualify for Nationals in Step 4 9-11yrs.
Her first comp in Invercargill was a bust when she just had to stop a bit over halfway in to what was looking to be a good clean routine, thanks to an upset tummy and her then undiagnosed asthma.
Second chance was ZM Series 3 a month ago where she did a complete, good clean routine but missed the qualifying mark by 0.8.
The girls' AER coaches are based in Alexandra in the South Island, so it's been a case of intense training when Sally and Glenn were ever in Auckland backed up by practice at home.  Tink has faithfully done at least one routine a weekday since late April, with the odd Saturday practice supervised by Jess.
So out onto the comp floor she went today, bolstered by some warm up routines under the watchful eye of Glenn, who happened to be in Auckland this weekend and who managed to make time in his busy schedule to be there for his "Auckland girls".
One complete, good, clean routine later we got: 13.3 and a ticket to Dunedin for Nationals.

WAY TO GO TINKERBELLE!!!

And then there were three...

Dini didn't turn up for breakfast this morning.  This isn't unheard of.  However, on getting to the end of the driveway to go grocery shopping, I saw why this morning was different.

No more head butts

No more meows that took her whole face to make (and she was the only one who did actually "meow" - the rest peep, cry or yowl)

No more fur left everywhere (she was the fluffiest of the five four)

Dini had the most beautiful yellow/green eyes

And the longest whiskers

Dini was our ratter...

20 minutes from leaving the house to coming back with daddy rat,

then a bit later on with mummy rat was the record

The house feels even more strange now...