We just heard that in the overall Junior category J TIED FOR 2ND PLACE!! And 3 of her teammates placed 5th, 3rd, and one tied with her for 2nd. This is out of all 8-12 year-olds doing all types of dance. It's so exciting when our studio is one of the highest scoring there. We only brought 11 kids from the studio (out of about 35 of us altogether). Most other studios average about 50-150 on their competition team and there are usually anywhere from 10-25 studios at each competition. The scoring was pretty tough at this one - we got her scores yesterday. For her 3 solos, with 3 judges scoring on a scale of 1-10 in 10 categories on everything from choreography to strength to emotional commitment, J got 22 10s, 65 9s, and 3 8s. She is so proud of herself and can't wait til next week.

Sooooo, today we went to the CIRCUS! Ringling Bros. comes to Madison Square Garden every spring. We haven't gone in 5 years. I love it because B gets us luxury skybox seats - which, if you haven't experienced that yet, I highly recommend. I decided to drive there - which took all of 10 minutes, but I should have remembered that a few years ago I swore I'd never drive in Manhattan ever again. The packed garage charged us $45 to park (we could have taken the train for $20) and getting back to the 59th St Bridge (the only one back to Queens without a fee) took forever.

But it was great anyway. We made it there early enough for the pre-show, where you can go out onto the arena floor and see some stars of the show do their thing. We got some cool pictures and some clown noses. 3 escalators and 1 elevator later, we were at our skybox and it was packed with food and drinks - and came with a beautiful private bathroom. It's like a hotel room. The kids sat up by the viewing window and B and I sat at on stools at the high table right next to the food, lol. More food was brought twice while we were there. The fridge was fully stocked with beer (but none of us felt like that at 11am). Several other families joined us (the room holds like 15 people). Thankfully we didn't have to spend any money there (just the ripoff garage people). The kids didn't even ask for a souvenir - wow. Here are some pics from today:

Out the car window on 34th Street

Outside the Garden

Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus

At the Pre-Show

Girl on Ring (the kids have this at circus class!)

Clown Noses

The Skybox

The Circus