THIRD PLACE BABY!!!!!

 The 2011 Annual Cheer Competition at Cole Field House at University of Maryland was yesterday.

It's an incredibly long day, after an incredibly long, intense few weeks of practice to prepare.

Olivia's squad practices 4 to 5 nights a week, 3 hours a night to get ready, so by the time competition rolls around everyone's exhausted and getting sick.

Thank God for adrenaline.

Waiting.  And waiting.  AND waiting....

We got there around 12:45, but the girls didn't perform until 4:00.  

Here they are - finally on deck warming up and saying a prayer.

They performed about 4'th in their division.

I was really worried after watching the other squads - the competition definitely stepped it up this year.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of drops on the stunts (never something you want to see, no matter who's squad it is).

I knew our girls had struggled a bit with their stunts and all I could do was pray that they didn't drop anyone.

Apparently all the prayers from the parents and the girls helped, because they NAILED their stunts.

So Proud!

It was awesome!

Storming the floor

After all the teams perform, they clean up the floor while making the crowd compete for the Spirit Stick for their organization.

It's very loud and I always have a sore throat and headache by the time a winner is announced - ha!

 (unfortunately, it's never our organization because we never have as many people as some of the others).

That's a lot of cheerleaders....

Once the floor is clear and the Spirit Stick awarded, they bring ALL the girls down to the floor and play music. The girls dance for a few songs to allow the judges and volunteers time to get ready for awards.

This is always everyone's favorite part of the night!

This picture is a little like Where's Waldo.....

Did you find her??

Finally - the girls are announced - THIRD PLACE!!!

Going to get their medal!

They were all VERY happy with that result, given the competition.

And we were so proud!

Cheer Bow

We drove home and went to get something to eat since we were all starving and it was about 9:00.

Olivia and her medal - she's collecting quite a few!!

We were all in bed, asleep, by 10:00.

It's now 9:00 Monday morning and the girls are still sleeping.

I told the girls they could sleep in this morning - they both need it - especially our little cheer champion.

Olivia's not sure if she'll cheer next year and I'm on the fence about whether or not I want her to.

But I do love going to the competition and watching my girl shine!