She's lovin' it!

Julia is loving middle school, making new friends, and can't wait for cheer practice and game days.

She cheered her first football game today.  The girls did great!  They were so pumped for the game, and much confusion surrounded the game.  We planned our entire day around a 1:30 game only to learn at 12:50 that it was postponed and relocated for 7:30.  We arrived at the field which happened to be at my alma mater thirty minutes prior to game time only to find that a lightning delay during an earlier game threw off the schedule so much that the game prior to ours had not even started.  

The girls got to cheer under the lights.  They cheered non-stop and fit some tumbling in too.  They have great stunts, and they only had two weeks to prepare.  Impressive!

Better yet, this is one sweet group of girls.  Julia loves them already.  Julia is a pretty amazing gymnast, so she did a tumbling pass with eight back handsprings (I am sure she will figure out soon enough that that is overkill).  The girls cheered for her, and Tiffany left the game following one of the girls and heard C say to her dad, "Did you see how good Julia did?  Wasn't that really good?" Tiffany said there was not a hint of jealousy, just sheer happiness for her friend.  I think we are in for one fun season.  I am so grateful to the friend who made it possible for Julia to experience all of this.  

The final piece to the uniforms arrived yesterday.  Wow!  You've never seen so much excitement over white tennis shoes.  They arrived neatly packaged in a handy shoe bag, and that just put the whole team over the top.  The insoles even say touch on one shoe and down on the other so they can get them on the right feet - as if that is an issue at this stage!  The moms were certainly chuckling over the enthusiasm over shoes at the game.

Julia's coach is new to the school and our town.  Mrs. T hails from down south, and I could tell that from her very first email.  She has lots of experience coaching cheerleading at all levels, and she happens to be Julia's math and science teacher.  She's super!  Mrs. T revealed to me that someone from the high school (I am guessing the high school cheer coach) saw Julia at practice and approached Mrs. T to inquire/ state that Julia would be cheering with the high school team this year.  Mrs. T quickly told her no and let her know it's not happening next year either.  I told her that is a-okay with me.  She can't move up until 8th grade anyway, but can you even imagine a 6th grader among girls discussing important high school topics such as homecoming plans and prom dates, not to mention the drama?  Um, no thanks.  What fun would that be for Julia to miss getting to know these sweet girls in closer to her own age?

It was a late night.  The girls could not wait to get out to that field and cheer, and they were really tired when it ended. We arrived home close to midnight.  I am sure Zach never played such a late game, but it was very cool for the girls to cheer their first game under the Saturday night lights.