Elijah's Hip Hop group 2010

This is a big dance year for Elijah. His tap and hip hop groups will be performing in Myrtle Beach at Nationals and he is so excited! I wanted to publish this picture of last year's hip hop group. They performed a fast, upbeat, high energy hip hop mix and did very well at competitions.

Dance is Elijah's passion and he's very good at it. It is thrilling to watch him on stage and performing.

We can't wait to see this year's numbers and are even more excited to watch Elijah and his friends in action on stage. We know it will be a great year of dance for him and one we won't forget any too soon.

We love Hay!!!

This is Haley. We loooovvveee Haley. She is such a great girl and one of Elijah's bestest friends. Haley and her family moved to South Carolina just after fifth grade. She has been a mainstay friend for Elijah since he started Albany Elementary and even though she is far away, they keep in contact and their friendship is stronger than ever.

We're very excited because this year Elijah has dance Nationals and they are taking place in Myrtle Beach which is only FIFTEEN minutes from Haley and her family. On top of that, Hay will turn 16 while we are there which means Elijah will be able to spend a ton of time with her over her big birthday. We are excited to get to spend some much needed time with the Evans clan. Here are a couple of pictures of Elijah, Kenna, and Haley. The one picture was taken on the last day of school in fifth grade. It was pajama day and they posed like Charlie's Angels. The second picture was taken over the summer of Elijah's freshman year. Same pose, completely different looking kids.

We love you, Hay and can't wait to see you!!!!

Elijah's big year!

Elijah had a big year so far. He went to Delta Sadies with his friend Maddie Walker, he turned sixteen, and he's going to the Sweetheart Ball with his friend Katherine Smith. I did want to included some pictures of his night of Sadies. He doubled with some of his best friends Aaron Jackson and Leah Williams. Some of you might remember Leah from last year as she was Elijah's date for Sadies and Sweetheart.
On our way out of Leah and Aaron's neighborhood, we saw some more of Elijah's good friends. Here he is posing with some of the girls. Gracie (red shirt) is his best dance buddy. They dance tap and hip hop together. She is silly and loud and funny and adorable. Kenna (on Elijah's left) is our neighbor and she and Elijah sit together on the bus everyday. They've been buddies since second grade. Missy (white shirt) also dances with Elijah. She and Elijah had danced together outside of the studio and have become really close over the years. Erin (green shirt) is Grace's best friend and has become friends with Elijah through osmosis.

You gotta love good friends. They make each day worth living and provide so much joy and happiness. Elijah is very lucky when it comes to his friends. We are very thankful for the friends Elijah has. They keep him going, they provide strong shoulders to lean on, and they are all such great kids.

Elijah is 16!

I was going back through my blogs recently and realized I didn't post or blog anything about Elijah's 16th birthday. I'm terrible!!! SO...I'm going to blog about it today and hope Elijah forgives me later! We have some pictures but we got more video than pictures. I'll share a few pics here.

First off, we kept the party planning under wraps. We didn't want Elijah to know anything about the party. In fact, Celeste (one of Elijah's best friends) and Elijah share the same birthday so she helped me out a lot by planning a "fake" party for the two of them to distract the birthday boy. And boy, did it work! (Thank you again, Celeste! You are awesome!)

About a month before the party, I started contacting Elijah's friends. Elijah's birthday is November 3 so we decided to have the party on October 30th and make it a Halloween costume party. The kids were really excited about this. Every week, when we took Elijah to dance on Thursdays, I would go to the Halloween store in Muncie and stock up on stuff. We were so excited and we knew as long as no one said anything, we would be able to pull it off. Sydney did slip up once and it was a doozy but we covered well and Elijah still didn't have any idea.

The day of the party, we knew we had to get Elijah out of the house so we could decorate the garage and get the food ready. The Albany Halloween parade was that night and we had told Elijah that Mom and Dad, Uncle Todd and Aunt Sue, Auntie Val and Uncle Randy and allll the kids were coming over to eat and then to walk up and go see the parade. BUT because of all the stuff we had to do, I wasn't going to have time to run to the store. Brooke "volunteered" to pick up Elijah and they went to get all the stuff. Little did he know the list I gave him of stuff to shop for was all the food for his party. Once he left, we had 2 hours to decorate, get everything ready and have the guests show up.

The garage looked great, the guests were dressed up and in place and then Elijah arrived. He walked into the garage and the look on his face was PRICELESS! He had NO idea and was absolutely thrilled. Chad and I had bought him a priest costume and had laid it out on his bed for him to wear so he could be dressed up with his friends. After the initial shock, Elijah and his friends walked uptown to the parade and then afterwards came back to eat, play games, open presents, and dance. They had a blast.


A highlight of the party was our gift to Elijah. We don't allow our kids to get cell phones until they turn 16. We just don't feel like there's a reason for them to have one earlier than that. Two weeks before the party, we ordered his phone, got him a ringtone, and charged it up for him. We delivered it to him at his party. He was SO excited. He and his friends had so much fun taking pictures and putting in their numbers into his phone and calling and texting each other.


It was a great night. We are proud of Elijah and wanted to celebrate his big birthday in a big way. Happy Birthday, Elijah! We love you so much!