Going Green

Have you ever eaten your words? Said you'd never in a million years do something that inevitably you ended up doing? I've learned that most every time I said I'd never, I do the very thing I said would never happen. Case in point: I'll never be a psycho cheer mom.

And now...

Towns is on the Monster Extreme All-Star Mini Cheer Team!
Words. Eaten. For. Breakfast.
It's pretty serious stuff. As in Sunday and Monday practices, along with at least one other hour-long gymnastics class during the week. It's intense. It's insane. It's incredible.
She has grown so much in confidence and in her ability.
In order to be ready for the first competition, the junior and senior all-star team members adopted a mini. The "big monster" learned their mini's part of the routine and then held one-on-one practices to get it perfected.
Towns and her Big Monster, Taylor...

When J came home with the paperwork and info several months ago I said not no, but heck no. There's no way I was ready to commit to one more thing that was that rigorous. But she wanted to do it so very badly, and once we let her try it and saw how much she loved it there was no saying no. She was in her element. So here we are. Here I am. Psycho cheer mom at your service. And I'm here to tell you that all the hype is legit. It's just as crazy as you think it is!
As in eye glue and green glitter kind of crazy...

Mrs. Tracey fixed her up at Saturday's dress rehearsal so that I could learn the tricks of the trade...

In the picture above, she's getting excess glitter off of Towns' face with tape. Genius!
Sunday couldn't come quick enough. We were all so excited! We brought out as much green and black from our closets as we possibly could. We had to dress the part!
We left at least an hour before we needed to just to get to the BJCC to check out the scene. I've never seen so much make-up, glitter, hair spray, springy ponytails, etc. in my life. I almost felt out of place without my eyelids sparkling.
The girls in front of the civic center...

I love this one...

Bethany might have been the most supportive one of the bunch. She was genuinely thrilled for Towns and what she was about to get to do. Pure sweetness! As we were sitting in our seats waiting for the Mini Monsters to take the stage, she looked at me and said "are you going to cry - because I know I am". Did she? Or didn't she? I'll never tell.
The cheerleader with her other biggest fans...

This one is just because I like it and she's pretty darn cute...
When we finally made it inside and saw this big ol' stage, we had to restrain ourselves...
Buggy wanted to rush the stage, and in an effort not to get kicked out before the event started we moved the party to the lobby to get dolled up...
One little red head wasn't missing her shot at the glitter...The minis were beyond excited.
So cute!
My dad came from Dothan to see the show which made for two happy chickadees...
Just before it was time for warm ups, they got lined up to get ready to go. Bless Cate's little heart - we looked over and she was the caboose in the line. She just knew she was going too...Once they trailed off and were out of sight (and Bebby dried her tears), we made our way to our seats and tried to calm our nerves. We were all a wreck!
We watched the first 4 routines, and then it was time.
If the video I took wasn't 3 minutes long, I'm sure I could have loaded it here. But after trying several times with no luck, I had to resort to this (she's in the front row on the right end). If you watch it, beware of the screaming. It was insanity! It's one thing seeing it a dozen times at every practice, but when you're at a competition and in the middle of it all, it puts a completely different spin on it. The junior and senior teams have been so good to the mini team. They all stood at the front of the stage yelling out counts so that the little ones could hear them and know what was going on. Parents of the junior and senior teams were cheering them on. Dads in Monster shirts were all over the place. There's just something about being a part of team that gets me going! This team isn't orange and blue, but it's definitely the next best thing.
When all the younger teams had finished, they all gathered on the stage for awards...They entered this competition as an exhibition team just to get a feel for the stage, so they weren't judged. They still got a trophy, though!We'll do it all again come November 14th...and we can't wait!!
{Disclaimer:: In no shape, form or fashion is this a Toddlers and Tiaras scenario. If she didn't want to be glittered and glammed from head to toe, she certainly wouldn't be! Reading last week's People mag brought that little point to mind.}