Cheer camp!

[Disclaimer: If you have been around me recently, the following will mostly be review (maybe even word for word). These are some of my favorite stories to tell in social settings for the last several days, but I also wanted to preserve them for posterity. So I am taking the chance that some of you may be bored by the repetition.]

Lil’ P went to Cheerleading Camp last week. She had the best time. I was a little concerned about the whole thing since the camp was originally planned for girls who had completed kindergarten. Since Pressley has not yet started Pre-K, even after I got permission to enroll her, I worried that she would get frustrated and not be able to keep up, or that she would need extra attention and take away instruction time from the rest of the girls. But, we did it anyway. And, I’m so glad we did.

She came home every day saying that she’d had a good time, but as is her habit, she wouldn’t give a whole lot of details. One night she treated us to a “cartwheel” demonstration. I guess the funniest thing was when I (after watching Evan and Pressley both give it a shot) said, “No, guys. Not exactly. It’s like this…” and proceeded to try to do a cartwheel. Yeah...in my mind I can still do a cartwheel. The reality is not pretty. So I had to add, “Well. Not exactly like that either. That probably looked a lot like Pressley’s, huh?”

Another night, when I was tucking Pressley into bed, I was listening to her saying her prayers. I had my eyes closed, but noticed that her voice sounded different and she was pausing between each phrase. So, I opened my eyes to peek. She was cheering her prayers. It went something like this: “Now I lay me…[shake, shake, shake some imaginary pompoms to the right]; Down to sleep…[shake, shake, shake them to the left]” and so on. Hilarious! It was all I could do not to laugh out loud.

Finally, on Thursday, the parents were invited to a little exhibition at the end of the day to see what the girls had been doing. It was the cutest, funniest thing ever. First of all, Pressley was in her element. As the gym stands filled up, I’m pretty sure she thought all those people were there just to see her. Once they got all lined up, she could not stand being before an audience without saying something, so she started shouting out the one liners and they continued between the chants.

“Oh, I’m so excited!”
“This is going to be so great!”
[Instructor reminds the girls to be loud…]
“Wait til you hear how loud we’re going to be!”
“Oh, I just can’t stop giggling!”
[Scratching her mosquito bites] “Oh, I just can’t stop scratching!”

And on and on. There was also some weird posing. In one pose, she kept her arms crossed in a sort of gangsta pose while she grinned cheesily from ear to ear. In another, she’d put a toe out to the side and wave furiously with a sly little smile.

The cheering itself was also a sight to behold. She did really great considering the age difference between her and some of the other girls. She was usually a second behind the other girls – particularly when they jumped. The older girls had usually landed a jump and gone on to the next move before Pressley was ready to hoist herself off the ground. But we were so proud. And thoroughly entertained.

Oh, and then there was a tumbling demonstration. Pressley was supposed to walk out onto the mat and be helped down into a backbend. Instead, she came out and did a “cartwheel”. After her “cartwheel,” I think the instructor and her helpers expected P to get back at the back of the line, but she stood there during the other girls’ demos until someone finally realized she wasn’t going anywhere until she did her backbend.

I took several videos of the chants. And one of the dance. I wish I had kept rolling in between chants. And I wish I had kept rolling the whole time between the “cartwheel” and the backbend. But sometimes I had to stop filming just so I could really laugh or talk to the mom sitting next to me. Now I realize it would have been better to film those things than to miss some of Pressley’s antics. Oh, well. Lesson learned.

Here’s the link to the videos: http://picasaweb.google.com/apmccarthy1/CheerVideos. The quality is not great, but if you choose to watch them, it should take about 5-6 minutes to watch them all.

Here's a parting shot of all the girls during snack time. Can't wait to sign her up again next year!