Give me a c... C Give me a h...H Give me an e... E Give me another e... E Give me a r... R

What's that spell??  Yup, CHEER.  And that's our new favorite activity, I should say sport.  Here's the story - two years ago Mekena and Kirra went to a cheer camp for a week during summer.  I figured it would be fun, give them a little outing and that would be it.  They LOVED it, learned more in a few days than they had after taking two years of dance and begged to join the competitive team.  I was about to have a baby and the commitment was just not something I was willing to sign up for.  They continued to talk about it over the year following.  So last June I decided that if the idea of competitive cheerleading was still on their mind almost an entire year later than we should check it out.  Fast forward 9 months and you will not see a day go by without stunts and tumbling and dancing - if the girls aren't at practice they are cheerin' it up at home.  Who knew you would hand a kid a burrito and up it would go in a stunt, that you couldn't go anywhere without asking them to not do cartwheels and back walkovers, that you'd look outside to see they've rounded up the neighbors to help toss them up and that every piece of furniture would turn into a trampoline - even though there's one in the backyard.  The baby has caught the spirit and does somersaults wherever she can and there is so much counting going on around here that little Reef has forgotten that after you count to 8 you should say 9, 10 but instead starts over and counts to 8 again (dance counts end at 8 and start over and over and over again).  It's really quite cute and fun to see their passion, not to mention they are buffed and can do some serious push ups.  Competitive cheer is not for the meek and fragile.  These kids don't mess around. 

Three competitions down, two to go!  Kirra's team is truly unbelievable, these tiny tiny little things getting on stage in front of thousands and they perform almost perfectly - huge smiles and incredible execution of a complicated routine.  They've taken first twice and second once (lost first by .34 of a point).  Mekena's team is young in experience for her category but they are improving quickly.  They've taken second, fourth and then second again with their best performance ever last weekend... against some pretty tough competition I should add.

Most important they really like it!  It took Mekena some time, I don't think she expected it to be so hard but she plans to do it again next season.  Took me some time too... getting use to the short tops and make up, oh my!