It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year....

It's that time again! Time for glitter, time for sponge rollers, time to spend what's left of our life savings on our nine-year-old daughter. It's cheer season! If you or someone you love has ever been sucked into the world of competitive cheerleading, then you know the hard work that goes into it from all parties involved. The athlete puts in hours upon hours in the gym, the mom spends hours learning and perfecting makeup and hair-styles, and the dad... well the dad spends countless hours at work trying to come up with the hundreds of dollars to pay for uniforms, competition fees, hotel fees (traveling team), makeup, curlers, warm ups, food, and things you can't imagine. All Star cheerleading is a super demanding sport, but we're a cheer family, and we love it. We will continue to love it, right up until the money runs out!

Last season; doing makeup.

The finished product.

Our first competition is this weekend. Everyone is super excited! The team has been doing a great job perfecting their routine, the girls are so ready to get that adrenaline rush that takes hold when they step out on the spring floor. Being a travel team, we're accustomed to 2 day competitions, and stuffy hotel rooms, but this season is keeping us a little closer to home. Most of our competitions are one day, and within 150 miles! Awesome! I think that we only have 2 that are out of state. Trust me, that's a good thing, considering last season had us living out of a hotel room every other weekend. I swear I saw Indianapolis more times last season than I saw my hometown! But for all of my traveling woes, I will say one thing, it's really a treat for my kids to get to see all of these great places. Last season took us to Chi-town. Since our children were home schooled at the time, we took an extended weekend and hung around for a mini-vacation. It was a real blessing. We plan on doing the same this season with another out of state competition.

Jamfest Chicago February 2010

All in all, cheer season is my favorite time of the year because it makes us all cheerleaders. We spend an abundance of time together as a family, we get to cheer for our daughter, and at the end of the day we all feel like we won.

Big bear hug from Dad after winning!