Dancing and Singing in Pictures

Here are some pictures from the pageant and the dance demo. If they look familiar some have been on facebook, but I like to give my loyal blog reader(s) a little something extra!

This is right after the dance demo when Lizzie got her flowers for a job well done -- and she did really well, so they were deserved. Hannah wanted to wear her crown and sash to the demo, but we compromised on the blingy shirt. I had no control over Bob's hat:

 Lizzie's modern dance outfit. She did not care for modern dance at all, but will probably take it again next year. She's kind of an old-fashioned girl.

 This was the dance from one of her three ballet classes. It had a tango theme and was really cool. She liked this dance a lot!

This is a little in reverse, but I took this picture just before she left for the demo. Her hair is pretty much down to her waist these days (depending on humidity which curls it up!) so I am always very proud of myself when I get it all into a bun!

And now onto pageant photos, which are in NO particular order because it was taking too long to move them around. In this picture Hannah is receiving her crown case. Truth be told Lizzie was holding it for Hannah and dropped it and it cracked, so now I'm on the lookout for a new crown case, although the superglue repaired it nicely and you can't really even see the crack. Hannah was so tired when it happened (and it was so clearly an accident) that she didn't even complain:

 Newly crowned new royalty on stage with the previous year's royalty.

 It was the year of the Latina at Cinderella. Hannah's here with the teen winner (who is Mexican) and then the tot winner (who is not Latina but absolutely adorable!)

 Hannah and Daniela again, this time posing with the Mini Miss winner Madison. Madison can DANCE ... she was amazing. I heard Daniela was, too (she's a ballerina and trained with the ABT) but I was almost always dealing with Hannah when the teens were performing:

 One of my favorite pageant photos (and I took it in almost no light!) of Hannah's first official wave.

Lizzie thought for about 30 seconds that she might like to do the pageant next year (since Hannah won't be competing) and she certainly could -- but then I reminded her that she'd have to talk to people (her least favorite thing) AND wear dresses (her second least favorite thing) so that dream died pretty early:

The top three girls in the Miss category giving each other a hug for luck before the grand finals. One of my favorite things about this pageant is that sportsmanship is really stressed and the girls really do root for each other!

Susan was 1st runner up in the Woman category and she and Hannah got to be good friends throughout the weekend. Here they are at the disco dance:

 The girls all introduce themselves during casual wear. This is Hannah on the big screen:

They had fireworks during the disco party (it was the resort not the Cinderella people, but we did have a great viewing place outside the party!) Rob and Lizzie watching:

 Hannah at the disco party with Adriana (who became the Tot). Everyone who knows Hannah knows she loves little kids, so a bunch of them always seek her out at the Cindy stuff.

 Time for an ice cream break, after the casual wear competition. (Hannah couldn't eat hers until we got back to the room and she changed out of her outfit!)

The Miss contestants (there were 13 this year) in their casual wear.

Rob and Liz at the disco party:

 Hannah's friend Alexa is one of the few people from our side of the state. They live in West Chester and we'll probably get the girls together for a playdate over the summer sometime. They met at last year's pageant:

One of Hannah's official portraits (looking a little tired, I think - it was an exhausting three days!):

 My favorite photo, taken by the Cinderella photographer, seconds after Caitlin crowned Hannah (Sabrina Auge is the adult -- a former Cindy winner herself). I love how joyful she is and Caitlin's bittersweet smile. And so begins our year...

Dancing and Singing!

The past two weekends have been CRAZY and I've been able to see how talented both my daughters are (as if I didn't know!)
First up is Lizzie's dance recital. This was her first year on pointe and she was wonderful (in my humble and totally correct opinion!) Here's a video of that performance. It's a little hard to see her since all the girls sort of look alike! In the beginning of the video she's the girl on the far left wearing the dress (as opposed to a tutu). When they start doing the turns she is the first girl to cross the stage and during the double turns she is in the first pair, in the front.  She finishes the dance as the girl second from the right. She was very very very nervous before she had to dance, but she really rose to the occasion. She also danced in two other ballet pieces and one modern, but I didn't video those (we get a video of the performance which is probably better than mine!)  but wanted to make sure we ahd a record on the blog of the first toe-dance!
Here it is:



 Last weekend was Hannah's pageant. She won the overall title, so her new official name is 2014/15 PA Cinderella Miss. My new name is Queen Mum!
The Cinderella scholarship program isn't a once and done thing. Hannah now needs to represent PA in Las Vegas in July and then she has duties throughout the year. The program emphasizes poise, good manners and a well-rounded person as their winners. Talent is 50 percent of the score.
Hannah sparkled all weekend long. Here's her song though -- I'm pretty sure this put her over the top. More pictures of singing and dancing in a subsequent post but I wanted to get this up here for all you non facebook types:

Bouncing Beans

As some of you may remember we lost our swingset a year or so ago to a freak windstorm that took down several trees -- one of them right onto the swingset.

We loved that swingset even though it was never used for it's actual purpose. It was something to do in the backyard and it served a variety of jobs; most significantly the leave-mom-alone-for-a-few-minutes job.

But we couldn't justify another swingset with two 11-year-olds. So instead we got a trampoline
Yes, you read that correctly. I got a trampoline for the two girls who can break an ankle jumping on their beds.

Here's a couple of photos. Since these were taken we did put the enclosure around the thing, to make a little safer. But I've still got the ER on speed dial!

High-Five on the trampoline!

 How high can you go? (Really lots higher than this!)

Happy, tired girls!

Model Citizens

As most (all!) of you know, I take a few pictures of Hannah and Lizzie here and there. They get annoyed at me AND I don't have to be in the photo, so it's a win/win. :)
However, with the pageant coming up I decided to pay someone else to take photos and to even get me in a couple. I wanted to see how someone else saw my daughters and what he or she could get out of them in a photo.
We got great pictures ... not necessarily greater than the pictures I take of them, but it was exactly what I wanted - a different perspective on them.
AND Lizzie wore a dress, so that was a bonus.
Here are the pictures:

First, my two favorites. This one of Lizzie took my breath away. I am always telling her how pretty she is and she is always disagreeing with me. But even she had to agree this is a great photo of her (and the real her -- the sort of intense, deep, tomboy her):

And this is Hannah, smiling, happy, always game to have her picture taken. She said she felt more like a model when he was shooting her, and wasn't sure if she liked it. When I shoot them, I just try to make them laugh so they look natural. But I do love this setting and the barn-wood against her coloring. 

Hannah, in black and white.

And in living color. It's hard for her to look serious in a photo, but Randy did manage to capture this one of her looking sort of pensive. Or pissed:

Okay maybe this one is my favorite of Lizzie  -- I call it her Mona Lisa pose. Hannah hates it because she's blurry and that makes no sense to her fashion diva self:

Lizzie looking all artsy. And it's a great shot of the dress. She loves it, but when she wore it on Easter she complained the whole day (THE WHOLE DAY) that it itched her.

 Lizzie in black and white:

The girls ... I love this photo and it made the whole session (an hour of walking around St. Peter's Village) well worth it:

Anyone recognize this chick?

So that was our adventure in modeling. I may actually pay someone else to take picture of us again in the future and Rob can come to and we'll have an actual photo of ALL FOUR OF US. Wow ... :)

Holy Smokes!

Was the last time I blogged really March 15? Wow.
Okay, so it's time for some catch-up.
First up ... the Lincoln Center Weekend.

Lizzie's dance company was invited to participate in an event at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall waaaaaay back in March. She rehearsed for it every weekend and she made the trip by bus while the rest of us Rasmussens were in the car.
It was ALMOST like Lizzie was with us, though, since she texted me about 15 times and sent me TWO videos of her on the bus. She called me a few times. For those of you doing the math -- this was all in the 2ish hours it takes from our house to NYC.
She was most impressed with the bathroom and the televisions on the bus. Oh, yeah, and NYC was kind of cool, too.
We arrived a little before the show started which was good because while Rob parked the car 17 blocks from LC (he had a coupon!) he also dropped me off about a mile away from the entrance. So it took Hannah and I a good 20-minutes to find our way. I did have to ask a subway cop how to get to Avery Fisher Hall (much to my chagrin he did NOT say "practice.") because we had taken so many twists and turns.
And I got a blister.
It was worth it though. Lizzie had a great time, looked beautiful and the other performances were good enough to hold my interest.
AND, we got to spend the rest of the weekend with the New York Garritys!
Here's the photographic evidence:

Lizzie, guess where? :

These are the somewhat iconic fountains at Lincoln Center. (And by iconic they were there when I lived in the city in the 1980s!)

 Here's the Lincoln Center Gang. We gave Lizzie the elephant Beanie Boo for her collection because we were going to Somers after the show:

Hey, who are those people waaaaaay up there outside the third balcony?

 It's these three. Lizzie and the rep company watched the show from way up here, while Rob, Hannah and I had orchestra seats.

 Did I mention it POURED the whole time we were there. (Even in the fountains picture above, you can see her squinting into the rain!)

And then it was on to Tommy and Brenna's house (as I was told 14,000 times during the show...) Here everyone is eating homemade waffles with chocolate chips.

 And being generally silly. It always amazed me how much taller Tommy is than the girls since he is only 5 months older than they are!

 Hannah, getting her hip hop on for the TALENT SHOW!! Yes, even though Aunt Anonymous was not there to coordinate (and you'll see how much we needed her, in a few pictures...) the kids sallied forth with a talent show:

The dog was already scared and it hadn't even started yet!

 There was a sword fight:

 Tommy constructed something (i have no idea what) from legos while Hannah did some sort of interpretive dance behind him:

 Lizzie was the emcee for the show:

 Brenna provided the cuteness and a few songs (and possibly a magic trick):

 But then suddenly, it all went horribly wrong:

I have no idea what's going on here ... but we did make the kids promise to never again attempt a talent show without Aunt A. :)

Way Back Weekly

I really do want to start up with these again ... especially inspired by these two videos. They will probably be of no interest to anyone other than family, but they are pretty priceless.
We all gathered at my brother's home and on the night of or before my mother's funeral three years ago the Garrity/Rasmussen kids put on a talent show. Aunt Anonymous is usually the instigator and this one was no different, except that I am certain it helped us all get through a rough few days. I found the videos when I was looking for some early videos of Hannah singing, so it was kind of a nice little bonus. Tommy, Hannah and Liz are 8 and I think Brenna is 3.

She's a Finalist

Hannah's made it into the finals of Pottstown's Got Talent, a fund raiser that will support the Relay for Life Team in Pottstown (which supports the American Cancer Society.) This is the video that the official videographer posted and it is much better than mine (in case you saw it on facebook). He, being a professional and all, did not cut off her head like I did.
One of the judges asked her some questions after the performance. He asked her age, then her name, then her full name, then if she'd ever sung before and then if she'd ever been in any productions. Then he said that he just wanted to find out a little more about her. I think they told him after that not to ask anyone questions, because he didn't do it again.

Right now Hannah has no idea what she wants to sing for the final so she may do this song, or "This Is the Moment" or something entirely new. The problem right now is stemming from the fact that she doesn't want any of the songs that I like and all the songs she likes are completely inappropriate for an 11-year-old to sing. So we are at an impasse!

The final show is April 27 at 3 p.m. at the Sunnybrook Ballroom in Pottstown. Tickets are $10 in advance and I can hook you up. They're $15 at the door.