Younger Irish dancing daughter finally placed 1st in the Hornpipe today, after six grueling months of 2nd, 3rd, or no place. The way the qualifying for nationals/prelim to worlds works is a dancer must place 1st in all of their six dances (Three soft shoe: jig, reel, slip jig, and Hard shoe: Treble Jig, Hornpipe, Traditional Set). This daughter had the five first by the first six months into the season. Today she finally placed 1st in the Hornpipe and is fully qualified for Preliminary Championships, which only a small percentage of competing Irish dancers actually achieves.
Older Irish dancing daughter placed extremely well today, too. She had her first dance in the Open/Prizewinner competition grade, and placed 4th, which again is a really good thing given the size of the group (20+).
The Oireachtas Competition is at the end of November, and is also known as the Mid-America Championships. Both girls are dancing, and I'm finally convinced that both should recall. It is nice to see that their practice and determination is finally paying off.
Usually these days are somewhat costly, but at this point the girls are immune to medals, ribbons and trophies and no longer ask for trophy holders/ribbons/engravings. They no longer pester me for the competition logo'd souvenir T-shirt which can be personalized at an additional cost.
It was actually a NSD. The competition was happily close to home. My parents came to watch the afternoon competitions and drove us home. DH had to leave to take the boys to a Halloween party. My parents took us out to eat at Stake N Shake (and we were able to eat under $20 - not including tip - because kids eat Free on Saturdays and the waiter comped one $4 shake off of our bill). It helps to have cute pre-teen girls who giggle at cute waiters.
So, DH asked me if we should think about passports and start a separate line item in the savings account for Ireland in the next year or two (unless of course the Worlds are help in Glasgow as they were this past April). I said we should seriously consider it.
All in all, a very good day!
Hello Ireland ...
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