Eliza's basketball and dance

It's been so fun to watch Eliza's basketball games this year. She's on a great team with many of her best friends and the coach is one of her best friend's moms. So it's a great situation for her. And this year, she's really coming into her own on basketball. She's feisty and aggressive out there. She goes after that ball with all her heart and is red-in-the-face and totally sweaty by the end of each game. She's getting better at dribbling that ball quickly and effectively down the court and she's made a few baskets even though that's not her strong suit right now (I think that only comes with a lot of practice and somehow the hoop out in the backyard gets overlooked in favor of homework and violin practice...). And she's got grace out there. She moves like a dancer as she flits down the court. It's sort of a fun combination - aggression and prancing.

That blur in the middle is Eliza, speeding down the court:

Here she is just after going for a shot:

Here's Liza with two of her best friends who are on her team (their team is called "Blue Lightening" - see their exciting matching socks):

Here's the team after their first big win (it's been a hard year since their team is all 5th graders and they've been playing against lots of much bigger and more experienced 6th graders, but they've put forth valient efforts!):

Today Eliza went to a Junior Jazz "Hot Shot" basketball contest with her basketball team. And she came home with this!

She won a medal for dribbling, a medal for shooting and got the overall 1st place trophy. This girl gets to go to regionals now. We were all quite pleasantly surprised.

Eliza's also doing a beautiful job in dance this year. She's performed in two major concerts this year and it's a joy to watch her express herself through dance as she gets stronger and learns more and more about how to move her body in lovely ways. Weekend before last, she performed this truly lovely dance where she and the other 5 girls in her class were flitting falling autumn leaves. I think it was the best thing in the whole concert and that Eliza did a fabulous job.

Here's their dress rehearsal - they were even better in the real thing. Eliza's the one in an orange dress who starts off the whole dance (sad I didn't start videoing just a few seconds earlier!)


But here's everyone at the end of the concert.

They danced wtih these beautiful scarves that they made themselves:

It's so fun to have a daughter who is both tough and athletic and graceful and lovely. Sure, she's got her emotional and dramatic moments and sometimes she turns her feistiness in directions where it's not as welcome as it is on the basketball court and sometimes shows her drama at times when it's not as beautiful as on the dance stage. But we're so very grateful for our Eliza.

And here's a "collage" she made of some of her favorite things right now - violin (she gets to play in her first recital in a couple weeks and she's practicing hard!), writing (the dictionary), art, music, photography, and skiiing (her 5th grade "passport" that'll get her into all the ski resorts in Utah this winter - we'll see how many we can hit!).