Another Thing Checked Off the List

It must be early summer because chaos is still reigning supreme. Between birthday parties (apparently all of Mila's 2nd grade class was born in May or June?), dance recitals, dance competitions, all the end of the school year wildness, and that stuff that's just a part of summer kicking off, there's been a lot. Squeeeeeeezed into there was a cheer competition, the state competition to be exact, and hey! Both girls do that!

First, let me admit I made a critical error at the start of cheer season. The coach placed Mila on a level higher than she was last year and I was all, "Oh, okay," without realizing SUMMOFABEACH I AGREED TO NATIONALS WITH THAT.

So, yeah, Mila's team did well enough this year to earn a trip to nationals, which is great and all except she's still little so it's a different nationals than Alexis goes to. As in, I get to go to cheer nationals twice this year in two very different places and UGH THAT WAS STOOOOOPID. Please send Advil and sleep to me in July because there are two weekends that are going to be super rough, and they happen to have a dance thing shoved in with them.

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to do competitive sports that include travelling out of state all summer long. If only I had learned that lesson a little bit sooner.

ANYWAY. Mila did great at her cheer thing, with her team placing second out of a lot of teams.

(Mila is top left when you're looking at that pyramid of girls.)

It's still extremely shocking that the kid who takes absolutely nothing seriously somehow manages to show up to these things and do her part as well as possible. I always half expect her to just bust into a little twerk on the side and ignore what she's supposed to be doing. But she doesn't.

And then there's Alexis. Of course we expect her to show up and do everything well. That's who she is and it's why she's always front and center.

Alexis does the work. Always. She cares deeply about whether she does it excellently, which is fine because she does. Her team also took second, though I think maybe I'd like to call shenanigans on that. While Alexis' team had a few definite mistakes, the team that beat them didn't try any of the hard things and it seems weird that they scored higher. I clearly know very little about these things, but shenanigans. Nationals will be better, hopefully.

But still, second place.

Just like her sister who turns everything into a party.

So maybe partying your way through cheer practice is just as effective as working hard all the way through cheer practice? It sure seems that way. Ahem.