Cheerleading

Heather announced before Spring Break that she would like to try out for Moiola's cheerleading squad. I was very surprised because I didn't think she payed any attention to cheer. Two of our good friends have been cheerleaders so I guess it was on her radar. At any rate, cheer tryouts happened on Friday after school. Dad showed up to pick up Jenna, and Heather got a good luck squeeze from him.

As I've watched the cheer practice and thought about the fact that the number of open spots on the squad was unknown, we did a lot of prepping about the possibility of Heather not making the team. She was excited to try, and we focused on her having a good audition. I really stayed out of the picture so my nerves and/or thoughts wouldn't transfer to her. Except for a couple of last minute pointers from mom, this was all Heather's gig. She came out of the audition SO happy. Here are the pictures from seconds after...

That is one happy girl. You know, when you try out for something you just never know if your audition is going to be what the judges are looking for, so having a good audition is all you can be sure of. I was so happy to hear and see that Heather felt so good about hers. We had about an hour to talk about things--if she makes it, if she doesn't, how she'll react, the fact that no matter what, she felt good about her audition, etc.

We nearly blew it waiting in the car. I guess the judges asked for Heather to come back in so they could remember her. She had been number 1, so they wanted to refresh their memories. We walked up just in time, and she was able to be seen again.

After waiting for about ten more minutes, the results were posted in the office window. Would they take a lot of girls? Not very many? Older girls first? What were they looking for??? When the results went in the window, the screaming started. Darn that tinted window! I couldn't see. Heather was grinning and jumping up and down, and I finally saw the numbers that were posted. Right at the top was...

#1

Wooooooooo-hoooooooo! She made it! She is a Moiola Cheerleader for 2010-2011! So awesome! She is so happy too. I wasn't sure what to hope for. These girls don't look anything like the high school cheerleaders I am used to seeing. I wondered how "good" they had to be. I knew she had a chance because the girls all performed at about the same level, and Heather had her smile and spunky personality going for her. Whatever they wanted, it all worked. All the girls got in (except for one and we don't know the reason for that), and they were elated.

And of course, we had to take more pictures...

The celebration was planned whether she made it or not, but the smiles were probably bigger with this result! First was dinner at Corner Bakery (giant cookie included)...

and then dessert at Cold Stone. Yes, the cookie was a dessert, but the Cold Stone trip was already promised for after the audition. It happened to be dinner time, so Corner Bakery was a total score for the girls.

CONGRATULATIONS HEATHER!!!