Cameras Cameras Everywhere

Yesterday was the Yankee Classic ballroom dance competition. DS the younger was competing for the first time with his partner. In the past, both kids have competed Pro-Am with Tatiana. To add fun to fun, we've had a camera crew tailing him (and to a lesser extent, all of us). I'll have more on that as the airing date gets closer. No pressure, right?

We woke up to a typically beautiful June day in Boston:
You know, we New Englanders are a pretty crusty bunch by nature. But if we seem more crabby than usual? This is what we have woken up to Every. Single. Day in June. WTF? I feel like I'm living in the northwest. But I digress...

We got there at about 9:15, and met up with his partner and her family. We got them ready to go and they were stoked. They took their places on the dance floor for the International Standard division. They were really nervous about this one

Note the big honkin' camera behind them. No pressure, right? The I.S. Foxtrot was pretty new to them. They had never competed with the International Standard. But they did great! Here they are doing the Foxtrot

and the Waltz
Note the big honkin' camera in the background. No pressure, right? The last dance was the Tango. Here you see them with the judging panel
The judge in the center is their idol, and Dancing with the Stars pro, Maksim Chmerkovskiy. No pressure, right?

They did great! They took 4 firsts, 1 second and 1 third. Here they are with Max

We had a 4 hour wait until the Latin division. They danced 5 dances this time: Cha Cha, Samba, Paso Doble, Rumba and Jive. Here are a couple of pictures. Cha cha first
Jive was the last dance.
Then there was a long wait between the dances and the awards ceremony

They scored #1 in Paso Doble, with mostly 3rd to 5th place in the rest. But they weren't disappointed and neither were we. They were up against incredibly stiff competition, and they were in a new, higher division than they had been in before. The good news is that they didn't come in last in any of the dances. So now they have things to work on, but we're going to take some time off this summer to let them take a breather.

Poor DS the Elder was such a trooper. He came with us and spent all day cheering on his little brother, and I think I need to do something nice for him. But he was actually pretty proud of his bro, even though he won't admit it to many people. Here are the kids with Tatiana after all was said and done

Sorry to go on and on like a proud mother, but hey, I am! And what do you think of his pants? Those are the Burdas. I asked him how he liked them once he was done dancing and he said, "They were great!" Now we can kick back and relax a bit.

The next project on my cutting table is Jalie 2794, the Sweetheart Top. I'm making it from this Citrus Paisley Mesh from Gorgeous Fabrics.
I have some tips for working with mesh that I'll post once I finish the top.

Happy sewing!