ahead of the game - step up dance academy concert 2021

after weeks of practice and stage rehearsal and dress rehearsal, our step up 2021 end of year concert: ahead of the game, went off without a hitch. this year madeline was in three dances and i was so proud of her, she did an incredible job!

in her ballet class, she was placed front and centre for their "dance of the sugarplum fairies" and danced like an absolute superstar. all her hard work has paid off and grandad's insistence on putting her in ballet was clearly worth it. she has such a natural grace and it shows so well in ballet. it may not be her favourite, but she is so good at it.

her contemporary dance to "take it to the heart" was stunning. our girl had a little solo part and was lifted in the middle of the dance. i honestly don't know where she gets her grace from, as i am so uncoordinated, yet she moves with perfection.

the girls have had the most amazing teacher in miss amelie and love her so much. it's so fun to see.

seeing them all smiles back stage before they went on was the best. they all love dancing in their little squad.

their last dance for the evening before the finale was their "singing in the rain/ umbrella" jazz mash up.

❤

side of stage all ready to go with the lovely miss amelie.

the time came for presentations and we snuck in the back door to the empty top seats to watch. 

kaz and i were thrilled to see our girls take out a class trophy each and a medal for their lyrical troupe.

madeline took out the jazz technique trophy and was thrilled to pieces - as jazz is her favourite! she was so happy to be recognised for her efforts.

well - another year is done and dusted. i am sure madeline and madison will be dancing all through their break - but we are officially on break - until school starts next year! ❤

taylor swift!

friday night was one of the most amazing nights of this seven year olds life. maddie is living a completely charmed life and it got even better due to life getting in the way for her daddy and i. dom, our friend luisa and i bought tickets to taylor swift late last year and due to me deciding to have a baby in there, who was just 8 days old at the time... doug was going to go in my place. only life reared its ugly head and he was needed elsewhere by his mum who had an important hospital appointment... so when the time ticked closer and he still hadn't made it home, madeline got to take his place. 

oh. my. word. i have never seen a more excited child in my life. she was bouncing off the walls and waiting by the front door counting the minutes until aunty dom arrived to pick her up. 

her report was that "it was amazing! i loved it all. taylor swift is the best! i did fall asleep for a few minutes, but then i was happy again afterwards." lol

i am honestly glad she had a cool experience but i'm just amazed over here that she got to! i don't think i went to my first concert until i was out of high school!! what a lucky girl. i am just super grateful for my amazing friends who took her and didn't mind one bit. 

just for laughs, here she is the following morning, on our way to ballet, looking super cool and rocking out to taylor swift in the car. ♥

ed sheeran does perth

last night my friend dom called me and asked me if i was going to be busy tomorrow night (tonight)... i was like uhhhh nope, putting my kids to bed? then, she proceeded to offer me her spare ticket to see ed sheeran live in concert. um, well, who would say no to that?! so off we went. i can honestly say i was completely blown away! i have always liked his music, but i was expecting him to have a band backing him up, or least a drummer, but he had nothing! he is a complete one man show! turns out he creates the entire backing for every song by setting it up at the beginning, recording a beat by hitting his guitar, backing vocals and any extra guitar riffs he may need with a loop station at his feet. amazing!

i have never been so impressed with a concert in my life. for a better explanation, check out this article here... but he absolutely blew me away with his show. it was the most incredible night too, had been an awfully hot day, that ended with the most gorgeous sunset as the pre-show was on. it became lovely and cool... and then started to rain, but no one minded, even those on the grounds in standing room.

he played heaps of stuff, even rapped a few songs and ended with a stripped version of his first hit single "a team", with a sea of mobile phone lights in the crowd. 2 encores later it was time to make our way home...

we love ed!

i have to admit though, when dom first called me i was more excited about the pre-show, one of my favourite bands rudimental was touring with ed and i was stoked beyond belief to see them live. their set was incredible, full of energy and great to listen to. so happy to have seen them live, and look at that view! i couldn't stop thinking about how crazy lucky we are to live here in perth. great one day, perfect the next.

ahhhhhh rudimental ♥

and of course, just because we can... maccas all day breakfast on the way home. yummmmmmmm. hotcakes never tasted so good (at 11:30 hahaha)

backstreets back alright!!!

all my teenage dreams came true tonight when i scored a last minute ticket to the backstreet boys concert at perth arena. my friend dom had bought two and was going to take her mum. when they were here last week i said jokingly to her mum, "if you feel sick let me know, i'll go" and next thing i knew i was being informed that i was going! what an awesome surprise that was!

the concert was pretty epic i must say... the boys came out dressed to the nines in blue slim fit suits and white shirts to do their first set... and oh did they dance. those 90s boy band choreographed dance moves were out in full force and the crowd loved every single minute of it.

as you can see we were pretty excited!

during one of the songs, they asked the crowd to put on their phone lights and holy moly was it bright in there.

i have to say also, i was so impressed. back in the day when i was a teenager (in fact their first song was released the year i turned 12) they just sang and busted out the occasional dance move, but now they all sing better and play instruments and write their own music! it was a really good show!

but... as it was to be expected, nick carter is still by far the hottest - and thousands of girls in the arena made sure he knew about it... so he was putting on a good show for them. including an impromtu dance solo during one of the last songs. i could not stop laughing. most of the night, in fact.

so after 20 years, they are still going strong... and backstreet's back alright!!

bastille concert

last night my best friend jennifer and i had a little treat... we got to see bastille live in concert at perth's challenge stadium. doug bought two tickets for me for christmas, but actually doesn't like them at all, so i was told that the tickets were for me and a friend (who he had already called and asked for me ahead of time). six months had passed, the band had actually arrived in perth... and woooo off we went!

i got to hear bastille's album a year ago when i was in melbourne for a wedding and a friend was kind enough to drive me and madeline from place to place whilst blasting it in his car. i loved it from the get go and was so excited to go to their concert...

when we arrived, the pre-show entertainment "foxes" had just started and oh were they incredible! their singer wrote the song "right here" which is on the rudimental album "home" and also features on the single "clarity" by zedd. she had an amazing voice and kept us more than happy during the wait for bastille. i will definitely be looking for her album, she was amazing! she even rocked out a mashup version of pharells happy mixed with massive attacks teardrop. so cool.

i was thrilled when they opened with my favourite song from their album "bad blood" with heaps of red lighting. awesome... their set was so good. they all do pretty much everything, each of the bad members were switching from singing, to guitar, to keyboards, to hitting a drum of some description... and they certainly were just as just on key live as they are on their album, which to me is always a good sign. they are certainly very talented.

doug bought us some awesome seats, in the front row of available seating, a few sections down, to one side of the stage. at one stage though, the lead singer came into the crowd with his mic and was wading (for want of a better explanation) through the crowd whilst singing. super cool. they finished and left the stage to much screaming from the crowd seeing as they hadn't even done pompeii (the song they are most well known for) but came back after we kept yelling to sing it with great gusto and the assistance of foxes and alice in wonderland, the girl that dj-ed between the two bands.

such an awesome night and i am so glad i went... what an awesome husband i have! 

kings of leon!

last night doug and i went to see, in his words - the greatest band on earth - the kings of leon, at nib stadium in perth. i actually bought the tickets for doug last christmas, but the tour was postponed because the drummer had to have surgery. it was a freaking awesome show though, awesome tunes, heaps of energy - and that fabulous voice!! 

here's us - waiting for the show to begin!! it was our first night ever away from maddie, she went to sleep at cody and dannii's house just before we left - and was a very good little girl, apparently she didn't make a sound the entire time we were gone. :)



as you can imagine, biggest crowd pleaser, sex on firrrrre. they did a fabulous job - and was definitely worth every cent. loved it! check out the perth review here!