Magic or Tragic? Either Way, It's a Trip to Disney World

Amber and Karli had their first cheer competition of the season on Saturday. They looked adorable and did a great job! Both of them competed in the Tiny division (age 5 and under) with their cousin Gracie. Amber also competed in the Mini division (under 8) and did a grand job considering she had two minutes to run off the mat after Tiny, change her uniform, and line up to go on with the older girls.

The Dazzles (Mini division) are the class that my brother-in-law taught in October. Their routine has a military theme and they were darling! They ended up in third place, which is downright respectable and impressive to me as their coach. They worked really hard and it was so fun for me to watch Amber in a "big girl" routine.

The Twinkles (Tiny division) were so darling, mostly because a few of them including Karli were off in their own world for a majority of the routine. There were a few girls who really rocked out, improvising and dancing their little hineys off for the judges. Eventually, most of them came together and did the routine like they were supposed to. I was really proud of them for being as composed as they were and for remembering most of the steps.

Once both of my teams competed, we raced out the door. As much as I love cheerleading, I just can't stand to be at one of those events for more than 20 minutes. It's loud, crowded, craziness that I simply can't tolerate. We didn't stick around for the awards, since (bad coach!) I didn't think my girls would place. They were great, but comparatively, I didn't think we had a chance.

You can imagine my surprise when Angela called to tell me the Twinkles took third place. I was thrilled and so excited to tell them what a great job they did. Little did I know, she actually said "first place" but I couldn't hear because she was still in the gym. I nearly wet my pants when I found out they earned a winning score. Additionally, they won a trophy that is the same size as some of them AND a bid to the national competition at Disney World in March (the weekend before Amber's birthday). Since most of the Twinkles have older sisters on teams that also qualified, we are trying to work it out for their team, too! I think it will be a blast and am really excited and proud of my little girls.

Sadly, I don't have any pictures because I was running around like a crazy person and answering all sorts of (I thought) dumb questions from parents, students, etc. and trying to get my teams where they needed to be. I'll round some up from my dad and Leslie and post them later. Rah rah rah! Gooooooo Flash!