Feis-a-palooza

I know every entry I've posted within the last week has to do with Irish dance but that's kind of where we are at right now. Don't worry! The school gets a week off after all the craziness of hosting our own double feis this weekend so we'll have other things to talk about. But exciting stuff today! First, Chris debuted his solo vest!

And he danced very well in it! He took second place in reel, fourth in treble jig, and he got first in his hornpipes! This means that he moves his hornpipes up to the Prizewinner level! Now he has all three of his dances in Prizewinner! This means two things (warning: you're about to get an Irish dance tutorial)... When he gets first place in all three Prizewinner dances, he moves up to the Preliminary Championship level (aka, pretty big deal). Also, a dancer has to get first, second or third place in each Prizewinner dance in order to qualify for Oireachtas (aka, regionals). At this point, Chris has one first and one third in his Prizewinner dances. So he is a third of the way to Preliminary Champs. In Christopher's age group, his teacher is allowed to nominate him for Oireachtas (which he did) but technically, he is also 2/3 of the way to "officially" qualifying. There will be a test on this later! Here are his awards...

Since this double feis is being run by our school, I volunteered to help today and tomorrow as a stage monitor. That was a new experience but all went well! It is also difficult to describe these feis weekends and the state of us all when the day is over. This morning, we left the house at 7:15, got there, waited awhile before putting on the bling, bought the tee-shirt, looked at vendors, and waited some more. Then after about an hour, one dance and then wait some more. Today it happened to be another 3 hours and then wait some more. Then more waiting and the final dance. Everyone also had to then wait for me to finish my shift before we could pack up and leave. I hardly eat during these things because it's a mix of nerves and excitement being a "dance mom!" So by the time we all leave, we are all exhausted and starving. So today, we had dinner at 3:45 at the Blue Moose! And then it's "Shaun the Sheep" for an hour or so while everyone decompresses. And guess what? We get to do it all again tomorrow!