Staying after school

I'm probably one of the only bloggers out there who is not posting about Halloween today, but this is what's on my mind, so this is what it's about today!

If you ever stayed after school with me on a Thursday, chances are you were here for cheerleading practice. Yesterday was most likely our last practice this year. The regular season is over and we are starting playoff games this weekend. Tomorrow we play against a team who killed us, 30-something to 0 when we played them before, so I'm not planning on us winning this time, either.

Yesterday's practice was a LITTLE crazy, to say the least. Out of 23 girls, I had 9 show up for the majority of the time. 4th and 2nd grade were on field trips, and the 6th graders rolled in about 3:40 from the middle school bus. So from 2:45 to 3:30, those 9 wrote on my white board, read cheer magazines, and played. They were crazy wound up from Crazy Hat day of Red Ribbon week and classroom Halloween parties. Here they are with S crowning each one Queen of whatever they wanted to be Queen of...

Apparently, S already thinks she is Queen of the Nile...
Then, we headed down to the gym to work on our half time cheer for Sat.'s game.

We also worked on our stunts, but trying to connect a pyramid with only 9 girls is a little tough.

Yes, that's my BigGirl on top of the elevator in her princess costume!

I was a little sad to say goodbye to my "seniors" after practice. These are my oldest girls who will be trying out at the middle school in a few months. They are in charge if I can't be there and really are super leaders for the younger ones. You can tell they were having fun with the crazy hat day...

D, on the far left, was super shy before she started cheering with me 3 years ago. Now she is obviously as far from shy as it gets and loves being in front of the crowd. M, in the middle, has cheered 2 years and is my sophisticated diva. She informed me on day 1 of practice that she only came back to cheer again this year because it was fun and she wanted to see the football players. She does not plan to try out for middle school cheer because it might be too much like work! M, on the far right, has also cheered 2 years and wowed everyone on her first day last year with her super tight arm motions and how she could pop right up into a stunt without ever cheering before. She is also the best booty shaker!

Second from the left and second from the right are C and C (same name, different spelling). These are my favorites, although I'm not supposed to have favorites. Both of them have cheered with me for 5 years and are really special to me. C on the left is silly, funny, loud, and the only other red head besides me. She once played the role of me in a school play! She has been so much fun to cheer with. C on the right is my most motivated cheerleader. She has been taking stunting and tumbling classes for over a year now and is the sweetest thing. She and I always make sure to watch the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Making the Team reality show and compare notes on who gets kicked off. She cried at the end of practice yesterday. I will probably miss her the most. I love these girls to pieces!

And here is what BigGirl did back in my classroom after practice...

Yep, that's a bubble map of US presidents. I did tell her some of the names, but not all. I was not really paying attention to what she was doing, so when I turned around and saw this I was pretty impressed! Here's a close up...

That's called inventive spelling, folks! Pretty good for 1st grade!

Halloween pics and post tomorrow, I promise!!