Zach's Birthday

On May 28th, we went to a birthday party for Zach Nielson.  Paula and Casey had a barbecue along with cake and ice cream.  Here are some pictures I took at the party:

 Lighting the candles on Zach's cake.

 I took these pictures with my I-phone, so they aren't the best, and the sun was bright!

 Blowing out his candles!

 One of the gifts Zach received was a snow cone maker.  Here he is getting ready to make some snow cones.

 Adding the ice.

Making snow cones!

It was a fun party and the weather was nice.  School is out, summer is about to begin--I love this time of the year!

BDT Officer Retreat 2012

On May 13 & 14, 2012 we attended the BDT Officer Retreat.  It was held at the Zermatt Resort in Midway.  Five of my six new officers were able to attend.  

 Picture they took of them as we arrived.

 Brooke, who was the Historian, made these cute notebooks for the officers to take notes in at the retreat.

The retreat began with some discussions/workshops.  The girls receive a binder full of information.  One of the first things we did, was design a cover for our binders.  Then they also got to take their picture in a photo booth that was there.  It was fun.  Each of them received a copy of the pictures and they put them inside the front cover of their binders.

One section of the workshop was about "leading with love" and they used ballet to demonstrate it.

 Ballet Class

 Fun times!  Notice Kendrick in the bottom left corner of this pic.  Yes, he went with me and after I decided he would not attend BDT Camp with me!  He is mobile and doesn't want to sit in his stroller anymore!  He was also loud when I needed him to be quiet.  Not fun!

They were given some play dough and they had to design a shape all together and work together to make the shape.

 Working on the shape.

 What they came up with - I think it was a monkey?

 I think this was a second try?  Not sure?

 Another game - I think they were trying to build a tower or something?

 They had a lot of fun, as you can see.

 Good officer bonding time!

Later, they were able to learn a fun jazz routine from Travis Lake.  They loved it!  We will probably use it and teach to our team for a football performance.

After they excused us, we went back to our rooms and the girls went to the pool for a while.  Then we met in their room to discuss our officer goals for the year and plan out a lot of stuff.  We were up quite late, but we did accomplish a lot! 

We decided our theme for the year would be "Unlock our potential and soar!"  We would use keys and locks as our symbols.  I really liked the theme and I like how we somewhat incorporate our school mascot, which is the golden eagle, by using the word soar.  I also think it could refer to our team name, Ellevé, which comes from the ballet term which means to rise up.



 Day 2:  Ready to work!

 Writing our goals/team dreams on a balloon.

 Outside, to let our balloons go.

 Maybe they didn't want to let their balloon go? :)

 They soon did, as did everyone at the officer retreat.  All of the balloons soared up, up and away!

Posing with the little house by the large chess set at Zermatt.

It was a great bonding time for my new officers.  We had a good time and got some great ideas for our year.  I'm so glad we were able to attend.

Unfortunately, a few weeks after we came back from the retreat, one of my officers decided to quit.  So, our team actually has a different historian now.  We also have two new members.  Here is a picture of the 2012-13 team with the new members (we are however, missing one girl):

So excited to see what the year holds for this team!  They are very determined and want to have the best year possible and make everyone on the team feel important and that they are loved!  Our theme will definitely be put to use--we plan to UNLOCK OUR POTENTIAL AND SOAR!



Ellevé Banquet

On Thursday, May 10, 2012, we held our annual Ellevé Banquet.  It was held at the Magleby's in Springville.  It is always a fun night where we recognize the seniors, give some awards, and celebrate another successful year.



 Makayla - reading some of the "awards" that the officers give to the team.

 Kaitlynn - giving some more awards.

 The Team - minus Jamie Topham, who couldn't be there.

 Seniors!

 Me and the seniors - Neisha, Makayla, Kaitlynn, me, Kimber, Hailey, Aubrey.

 Kaitlynn and me.

It was great food, as always, and a great time.  The team received cute bracelets with a fleur de lis charm on them.  It was a tradition we started the first year.  I also received a really cute necklace with some charms on it.  I love it.  When I got home, I put all of my charms from the three years onto one bracelet.  Hopefully we can keep up the tradition and find the charms each year that go with our theme.  I also hope the team keeps their bracelets so we can add to it each year. :)

Ellevé Showcase 2012

On Friday, May 4, 2012, we held our third annual "Ellevé Showcase".  It is always a great night.  I love seeing the girls perform all of our routines one last time and also perform some fun, new routines. 

The pictures that I have in this post were taken by Makayla Wilson's mom, Nancy Wilson.  I hope she doesn't mind! :)  She always gets some good shots of the performances and I am always busy in the sound booth during the show and I only have someone there to video the performances.  So, Makayla, who was our drill team President this past year, is featured in all of the pics.  But, I just like to have a memory of each dance here on my blog.  I guess next year I need to remember to hire a photographer! :)



 Military - I usually put military near the beginning of the show.  Not sure why, I guess because it is always first at Region and State?  Oh well, it always gets every one's attention and is a good way to start the show!

 This pic is of Makayla during the officer routine.  The officers always choreograph a short officer's dance and I'm always amazed at how great it looks with the short amount of time we spend on it.  This year they used the music, "Long Live", by Taylor Swift.  It was a song we had as a theme from the previous year.  Also, as a side note, the green tops I borrowed from Payson.  Thank you Paysetters--the tops looked great!

 Tiger lily - our dance routine.  The costumes looked really great on the stage with the lighting.   The dance looked good too!  Didn't have to worry about boundaries at this performance!  ha ha

 I'm going to miss my seniors - they are such strong performers!

 Our hip hop routine is always a crowd favorite!  I had a student write in their critique of the show, "the drill team should do more of this type of dance, or put it at the end of the show, it was the best performance!"

 The team definitely gets into hip hop!

 Lyrical routine - "Turning Tables".  This was my first time competing in the lyrical category.  It was a great experience.  Luckily I have some awesome lyrical dancers and we did ok for not really practicing it as much as the other routines!

 Makayla is a beautiful lyrical dancer.

 I love this photo!  It is the beginning of the Senior Dance.  This year we used the song, "Girls Run the World", by Beyonce.  It was a fun routine and we wore our dance costumes from last year.  They looked good for this routine too!

 Fun routine with a lot of attitude!

 Beautiful leaps!  Aubrey, on the left, is an amazing leaper!

 End pose!

 Another tradition of the showcase is the couples dance or the Guys and Gals routine.  Each girl gets a guy to come learn the routine and then perform it in the showcase.  It is always a crowd pleaser as well.  I think because it is a break from all of the regular drill routines and it involves boys!  This is Makayla and her partner, Tyler Thomas.

 The routine was to four popular songs at the time - "Starships", "Where Have You Been All My Life","Call Me Maybe", and "I'm Sexy and I know it".

 They did some fun partnering and lifts.

 It was a fun routine to watch!

 Tyler's face is funny in this one!

 The girls also have the option to perform a solo in the showcase.  Some opt not to, but some have every year they have been on the team.  This is from Makayla's solo.  It was so pretty!  It is always so fun for me to watch their solos!  I only wish she would have competed, she would have done well!

 We also performed our character routine, "Samba Adagio".  It was fun to review it, we seriously had not even thought about this routine since State.

 We didn't change our hair or makeup though, not enough time and we didn't want to have the audience wait for us!

 End pose - I wonder if she is thinking, "I'm never going to dance this dance again."?

 Our final number was a lyrical dance entitled, "This is Your Life".  It was choreographed by my assistant, Lexie White.  It was a beautiful routine with some cool lifts in it.

 I also liked the lyrics to the song, it really fit for a final number for the team to perform.

 Final bow - it's over.  Always a few tears shed after the show.

 The 2011-12 Drill Team Seniors - (minus Hailey Bishop) Six of the seven seniors were three year member and the last of the original Ellevés.  I will always remember the original team--those first three years.  Those teams helped establish the foundation of a great drill team at MMHS.

 Aubrey, Kaitlynn, and Makayla--All State Members and such a great part of the team for the past three years.  It's going to be weird without them and their parents.  They have been awesome to work with and great supporters of the drill team.

Awe, I love when the drill team alumni come!  Here are some of them that showed up to the showcase.  I hope I will see them come as much as they can to all drill team events!  Ellevés for life!

I really love the tradition that we started with the Showcase.  It is sometimes hard to go back and work on the competition routines again, and sometimes I think, why are we doing this, the girls are tired and you just want to do nothing and not come early to practice, etc.  But, that night, it is all worth it and I'm always glad that we do the show.

It is a special night and I love that we have it in the auditorium.  I also think that it is fun to include the new team and have them perform and then announce the officers for next year.  Another fun part is the introductions at the beginning and having the girls dress in a formal gown and be escorted by their fathers. 

All in all, I love the tradition that we started.  It is a great way to end the year and begin the new one!