We're home!

I'll start off with the job interview. It went really well. I filled out a lot of forms, was asked a lot of questions, and will have my references and background checked. I was asked about the **cough, cough** 10-year employement gap and when I told her I spent that time raising 3 kids, she was actually impressed. I am scheduled for a second interview tomorrow afternoon. I think that's a good sign. I guess people have to go through and initial "screening" before being cleared to be sent to the direct boss. I'm happy - but somehow not really overly excited. B still has to find out if his hours can be tweaked a bit. I'll post another update after tomorrow's interview.

We spent the weekend at our last regional dance competition of the season! It was the biggest one yet. There were 23 different studios there from all over New England. At this one the dances score Bronze, Silver, Sterling Silver, Gold, or Platinum. J won Gold for her solo and she qualified to be a semi-finalist at Nationals for Title. Woohoo! Out of J's 4 group numbers, 2 received Gold and 2 received Platinum. One got 1st Runner-Up for High-Score Production (whole company, 5+ minute number), and one received Overall High-Score Large Group AND Junior Ultimate Champion (which means J's group tap number received the highest score out of all the 73 Junior numbers - from 5 to 12 yrs old - of this regional!). In total, the studio received 9 Platinums, 12 Golds, and over $1000 in prize money (for overall high scores in almost every category) that will go towards dancers' costs at Nationals. What a weekend!!

The hotel was wonderful, too, as usual. The kids all hung out in the pool all Friday afternoon and all had pizza in one of the moms' rooms. We parents all brought lots of cocktails (lol) and had our own little party with margaritas, pina coladas, rum punch, and plenty of cerveza (in honor of Cinco de Mayo, of course!). We got to bed pretty early considering, since the kids had to be at the theater by 7:30am - fully costumed and make-up'ed. Saturday was a whole day of competing and awards and we got back to the hotel by 7pm. All the kids hit the pool again together for a couple of hours and had dinner together again after that. At one point we had thirteen 9-12 y/os in one room just relaxing and talking about what a great competition it was. K likes these kids way more than her school friends (and I prefer them as well because they are so much more of a positive influence). They treat K as if they've all been best friends for years (even though K doesn't compete) and I find that so uncommon - especially at this fickle age. My girls just really LOVE these weekends. I believe that all the parents love them too! LOL!