Halloween - Part Deux

Here's a couple more costumes I've done: This one was for a date party last year for Kristen's sorority. I made this young man's costume too, can you guess who they were?
I made Kaitlyn a Dorothy costume one year. This was a colonial costume I made for Kristen in middle school for a Colonial Fair but they ended up not having it and no one ever wore it. I did win an art contest with it though. I won a $20 gift certificate. Seeing it hanging up doesn't do it justice.
I've also made a female pirate that both girls wore at various times. There's been so many over the years. Kristen still asks me to make stuff for themed date parties. This was a egyptian costume when Kaitlyn was portraying Cleopatra in a "wax museum" book report/project in 4th grade.

Halloweens Past

I love to make halloween costumes. Over the years, I've made costumes for the girls that were a cow costume (and the udder "bag" was for the candy), Little Mermaid, Jasmine costumes (2), a nurse, a prom queen. Here's when I made a 50's day costume for Kristen in the 5th grade. Kaitlyn had one too with a pink jacket I made her.

An 80's day costume for Kaitlyn in middle school.A little house on the prairie outfit for the Rose Hill School visit in 4th grade for Kaitlyn. (Rose Hill was a one-room school house in Oklahoma at Statehood in 1907 in Perry, Ok) I went with the class and made myself one too.A Medieval costume for a Medieval Faire in Middle School for Kristen. Norman has had a HUGE Medieval fair every April for about the last 30 years. Thousands of people come to it and dress up. It's a lot of fun.

Clarification on Post Below

I mentioned below in my post about the Westmoore pom squad and how good they are. I had forgotten until I got on www.varsity.com this morning that there is a web documentary about their squad on there and their road to Nationals (when you first go to the webpage) and you can see when they went to pom camp this summer at the University of Oklahoma (with Kaitlyn's squad). I even saw Kaitlyn a couple of times in the background of Westmoore's video. Westmoore has an amazing routine. Check it out!

Wayback Wednesday - 2006

Here's the picture of Kaitlyn at the State competition for cheer in 2006. She was on the large varsity co-ed squad and they were runners-up.

This is a picture of her stunt group. She's on the bottom right.

Pom Squad Wins State

Due to a string of bad luck this fall (fortunately, if you want to look at it that way), Kaitlyn's pom squad won their 1st state competition (in a long time) in Small Varsity Jazz. At the beginning of the summer, they started out with 16 girls, which put them in Large Varsity Jazz. This also meant going up against Westmoore HS out of Moore, OK (where the F-5 tornado went thru in 1999, 7 miles up the road from us). Westmoore has been the national dance champion for the last 2-3 years. It's the competition you see on ESPN each year out of Disney World in Florida. They are big-time good. Anyway, one of Kaitlyn's good (??) friends, who was one of the captains on Kaitlyn's squad got DRUNK AT LUNCH before a big pep rally back in August and was carted away by the Norman police and school administrators and is no longer on the squad. The other captain has a fracture in her back and is under doctor's orders not to do ANYTHING until they release her (possibly in December after the 2nd State Competition). So that put Kaitlyn's squad down to 14 people, putting them into the SMALL varsity jazz category. So, Norman High finally won a state competition and we didn't have to go up against Westmoore nor did we have to compete against our crosstown rivals, Norman North, who most years have a state winner in either pom and/or cheer. Last year our pom squad went to a Nationals competition in Fort Worth, TX (where we will go again this year) and won Nationals in Large Varsity Hip-Hop. However, we didn't have much competition in our category.

When Kaitlyn was on varsity cheer they were state AND national runners-up in the large co-ed division. They had a boy on their squad that just happened to be in Kaitlyn's stunt group as a base. I have a picture of Kaitlyn at State as a flyer. Anyhoo, the pom squad is all excited and looking forward to their 2nd State competition in December where they will compete in Small Varsity Jazz and Small Varsity Hip-Hop. As I mentioned above, we will go to Fort Worth for the Nationals competition in February. We're going to ride the Heartland Flyer Amtrak train down to the competition. It should be a lot of fun.

Walking in the Neighborhood

When I'm walking each day, I try to put my thinking cap on and think while I'm listening to my ipod. But I also enjoy the various things to look at and be thankful for while I'm walking. I pass by the elementary school (Monroe) at the top of my street where my children both went to school from Kindergarten to 5th grade. And I think about all the little children that go there and also that this is Kaitlyn's senior year. Wow, how time flies. It seems like yesterday when we ran up to the front door in August to see what teacher she got and which one of her friends was in her class.

Then I pass by houses that are more decorated for Halloweeen than ours is. Joe is a fanatic about Halloween. These people go all out....

I'm thankful I have a sidewalk to walk down a busy street. And that the street is tree-lined and in a few days will be covered with bright yellow and red leaves.

And then I circle back to our little house. The one we've lived in for 21 years. The one where my children were brought home from the hospital and I'm very thankful. Thankful that I have a home, a family, and yes, even the crazy halloween decorations that scare the pants off me whenever they start moving or making their various noises, etc. when I walk by them. And this is tame compared to our next door neighbor. It's usually a contest (think the Griswold's in the Vacation movies) between our two houses. But it's all in fun.

State Routine

Tonight was the parent showing of the state routine for Kaitlyn's pom squad. They perform it on Saturday at the state competition. Kaitlyn is in the front on the left.

Here's a picture of Kaitlyn and Lindsey in their costumes.