Crafty Card Night!

On Saturday we were invited to Sandy Appelhans' house for an evening of crafts and fellowship.  She is a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and regularly hosts classes for the community.  Turns out we can be pretty creative in more than just dance :-)

Looking back it's really funny to see how each of our personalities came out during the card making process.
 
Laci loves to figure things out for herself. She took on the challenge of  just looking at the example card and ignoring the directions.

Amy is by the book. Not only did she follow the directions but checked them off one by one as they were completed.


Erin has her own way of doing things. She decided that even though the cards were beautiful she'd rather mix up the colors and rearrange things a bit.

Melanie loves COLOR! She spent the most time with the watercolor markers and didn't want to move on to the next station. 


Card #1 Telescoping Fall Card- This one was a challenge at first. All the colors on the top were actually painted on with chalk!







Card #2- Maple Leaf Woven Card- This one was the favorite of everyone. The inside of the leaf is painted with the watercolor markers that Melanie loved. See how the edges of the "woven" part look burned? Don't worry, we weren't playing with fire. It's actually torn and brushed with dark brown ink to appear burned. Very cool.

Card #3- Thank You Banner Card- This was the first card we attempted and it was intimidating at first. With words like Big Shot, Embossing Folder, Dimensional, and Huffing we knew we were in a different world. It is interesting how the arts develop their own jargon and they'd probably be just as intimidated if we started talking about arabesques and pirouettes.





All Done! 4 projects in one evening, whew!



Apparently Stampin' Up! demonstrators can be found all over so look online for classes near you. If you're in the Wichita area check out Sandy's classes at http://sandyappelhans.stampinup.net

Thanks again Sandy for letting us crash your class!

Our 2011 Midwest Tour so far...

We began our Midwest Tour with a weekend in Siloam Springs/Springdale, Arkansas. We arrived late last Friday night at Erin's great aunt and uncle's, Paul and Louis Kimball. It is always extra fun when we get to spend time with one of our families on tour.

On Saturday we held a 6 hour workshop with the beautiful students of Adonai Ballet Academy. New Creation (a new professional dance company from Little Rock) also came and participated in taking our workshop that day. We had a lovely time with all of these dancers and are very excited to work with them again in the future.

On Sunday, we performed during a service at Siloam Springs Bible Church (in Arkansas) as well as danced for a nursing home right on the other side of the road in Oklahoma. It was very strange to be so close to the border and dance in 2 states in one day! Monday night we premiered our new original concert "Rain; Hope in the Midst of the Storm". We packed the house at John Brown University and received such a wonderful reception of the concert that we can hardly wait to share it with all of you.

On Tuesday we packed up and said goodbye to Arkansas headed to Kiowa, Kansas (a very small farming town). On Wednesday and Thursday evening we had the privilege of working with the girls from CH Dance Productions (a studio with a location in Alva, OK and one in Anthony, KS). We spent an evening at each location and we were very impressed with the girls' eagerness to learn and dive deeper into ballet technique. For more pictures of these events, visit our Facebook page.

We are so excited for the rest of the tour and what God has in store for us!

Goodbye Summer and Sleeping In...Hello Fall and Aching Feet :-)

The beginning of the season is always a little rough trying to get back in shape. We started taking classes in August this year to try to lessen the amount of bubble and/or ice baths we take. It definitely helped but ultimately warm bubble baths are just part of our job!

Now the season officially started August 30th, but let's face it, we were working all summer. We started the season having 5 new dances choreographed and half our Midwest tour booked. We are very excited to be expanding our Kansas tour to include Arkansas and Oklahoma. Make sure you check out our calendar to find out when we are near you. God willing, later this year we will be heading back to Michigan, Minnesota, and Wyoming, and hopefully will be making our first Southern tour to Texas. (If you know anyone around those areas that might like to host an event, let us know!)

We are also very excited about our concert this year. It is entitled "Rain... Hope in the midst of the storm" and it follows the story of the Flood from the perspective of Noah's wife. We can hardly wait to share it with all of you.

Though we did get to sleep-in more than usual over the summer; we definitely kept busy too!

This past summer, Erin headed back to Ecuador for 5 weeks. She went with 3 of her siblings to work with an orphanage in Shell. While there, they taught bible classes, helped tutor the kids for school, took them on special outings and activities, and taught a couple of movement/dance classes to some of the younger kids. This wad her 3rd trip, and God willing, she is looking forward to returning.

Amy spent most of summer teaching at The Ballet Society of Colorado Springs. She taught ballet , worship, jazz, and choreography classes, even an adult ballet aerobics class. When she was not teaching, she was busy taking care of 6 newborn puppies. They decided to keep one and they now have 3 beagle doggies named Regal, Royal, and Raina.

If you wanted to say hi to Melanie, you simply needed to stop by Focus on the Family where she was giving tours this summer. She even had the privileged of giving tours to students from past BE workshops from Kansas and Wyoming. What a small world! Melanie also became an aunt this summer to a beautiful little boy named Walker.

Laci wore herself out working camps this summer yet again. She was even the dean of a dance camp in Michigan for 4th-6th graders. She and Nathan also moved into his Grandmas to take care of it for her while she spends more time at her cabin in the mountains. Now that they have a back yard they decided it was time to add a member to the family. His name is Leo and he is currently a little ball of fluff. But wait about 5 more months and he will be a 50lb husky!

Check back for updates on our Midwest Tour!