"Feel the Thunder" Cheer Camp

Practice practice practice

On our way to the performance!

Waiting in line for her T-shirt

Strike a pose!

All dressed and ready to go!

So excited to be on the field!

Watching the players enter the field

The Thunder :)

Waiting patiently in her "train"

Performing her cheer with perfection (she was one of maybe 3 girls who actually knew the cheer) :)

Nice "T" Annabelle!

Blurry yet adorable. Couldn't bring myself to delete it :)

Rally!

The Simpson girls came to support and surprise Annabelle! Fun and post-game ice cream for everyone!

Woohoo!! I did it!

Annabelle was darling at the Westlake Cheer Camp! She loved it and had a blast. I was close to losing my mind throughout the entire ordeal, but she had the time of her life :) She not only fell in love with cheerleading (who doesn't love to yell loud and jump around like crazy, right?), but she also fell in love with the Westlake Thunder :) Still to this day the "Thunder" colors are among her favorites, and for Christmas she asked for a "Westlake Thunder" suitcase.

Annabelle was a good girl throughout the workshop process, but in all actuality it was complete chaos. If she hadn't been enjoying herself so much I would've asked for my money back and called it good. I think it's difficult for teens to teach a large number of little girls when they haven't had any experience teaching children. I don't believe the coach had any experience teaching children either, if I'm being honest :) The good thing was parents were allowed to stay and watch from the bleachers, so thankfully I could pick up the routines in my head and work with her at home. I was also grateful I was there during the moment when they told the girls to drop into their splits after warming up for 30 seconds--I am sure I turned a few heads when I went down, pulled her up and told her not to do that :) To make a long story short, it just wasn't very organized, much of the "technique" portion was not age-appropriate, the only reason she knew her parts was because I taught her at home, and lastly, getting out of that football game after halftime was a nightmare :)

BUT...look how happy she is! :) She had a great time and loved performing. When she was on the football field for her routine, she was darling and toe-touched her little heart out even when she was supposed to be sitting still :) She looked gorgeous, loved seeing her grandparents and cousins there supporting her, and had a great time eating ice cream and playing at Arctic Circle after the game. Her favorite cheer was this:

"Form the cloud, form form the cloud;
Make it rain, make make it rain;
Feel the thunder, feel feel the thunder!"
Rally!!!!!!

Great Job Annabelle! V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!
*Please don't be upset when we don't sign up for next year's camp. I hope you'll understand when you're older* ;)