This parenting gig sure is complicated at times!

Case in point is the high school cheer tryouts last week. For months, Ainsley has been talking about how awesome it would be to be an HHS cheerleader.  She begged for tumbling lessons, and an extra cheer tumbling class... in fact it was all she wanted for her birthday and according to her it would make the difference of being selected as a HHS cheerleader.

Being a parent is a funny thing... it's a fine line of being completely honest with your child and keeping your child's dreams alive.

There were talks with Ainsley that went something like this... "IF you really want this, you should be practicing your gym skills, in the basement when it was yucky outside and in the yard when it was nice."

There was ALWAYS an, "I know or I will in a minute!" but it was never a priority for her.  Friends on Snapchat or calls on Facetime were always more important.

As the months ticked down other interests became a priority like track.  I remember asking her if she really wanted to divide up her time between cheer tumbling and track and she had a good comment... "It will keep me in shape!"  As true as that was it was also an extra time commitment and sometimes she was too tired from school, had too much homework or was exhausted from 2 hours of track to head to tumbling to work on her back handspring... even if she was close to getting it on her own.

Last week was the grueling week long tryouts for cheer.  Interviews were done, headshots taken, letters of recommendation from 6 people were required and she had to have a current GPA filled out by the registrar at school before she could even learn the cheer, dance and the prance!

Mid week she became stressed... majority of the other girls had not only had their back handsprings down they were doing complicated aerials in the air... she was pretty sore... check out her knees...

She also requested special athletic tape for her ankle that had to be applied by a chiropractor (that was a No.) had tons of homework and was often still up when we went to bed... so you imagine the crabiness around here!  Ha.

I had a hunch she wouldn't make it... but tried to keep her spirits up without saying, "If you would have practiced... etc."  She needed to come to that realization herself.

Friday tryouts came and afterwards a very long wait to see if she made one of the 8 spots available... 11:30 pm to be exact!!  She hung out with friends, I took her and BFF (her cheer BFF who 3 weeks earlier had broken her leg and was unable to tryout) to get frozen yogurt at 10pm!

(yes, I'm hanging out in the car taking pictures... evidently it's the place to hang out on a Friday night... I stayed in the car to avoid embarrassing the teenager.. plus she needed to process it all and prepare herself for the results with a friend and not her Mama.)

On the way home from frozen yogurt we stopped by the high school and sure enough there was a large gathering of girls hoping for one of elite 8 spots!  She hugged girls along the way up to the door to check the results... I again stayed in the car and literally held my breath...she did not make the team.  And she was really okay with it... she was bummed of course but I think that not having any other close friends make it helped. Only 1 from her current Middle school team made the group.

The competition was so good in fact the most of the soon to be freshman made the JV team putting the soon to be sophomores back on the freshman team!

She and broken leg BFF have a summer plan to get ready for next year's tryouts together and I think/hope Ainsley learned the valuable lesson that if you REALLY want something you need to put in the work to achieve it.

We personally as parents were glad she didn't make the team this year... first off it was outrageously expensive, would have been extremely time consuming and we really want her to enjoy all areas of high school next year.

Last week's track meet we were bundled up... in true track season this week found us desperately looking for shade and searching in the car for any leftover sunscreen!

Walker was our only kiddo this week participating in the meet.  Ainsley had cheer tryouts for high school all week long! (more on that later).

Little Bug found some competitiveness this week and has set a goal on distances he hopes to achieve in the next couple of weeks... love that!

He threw further in shot put this week by 2 feet!!

and in discus he threw just about 20 feet further. It was down to he and another student for first place... it was the last throw and they ended up beating him by inches!

He can't wait for Saturday so that he can go practice!

Track season is in full swing for these two...

This year Walker was only interested in throwing events... discus and shot put even though we encouraged/demanded that he try all the events... grr!  The stinker only signed up for those two events for the track meets.

First meet he threw 24 ft 1/2 inch in shot put and in discus he threw his best during warm ups but managed to get on the board with 42 ft... which was about 20 feet short of his usual throw.

Ainsley this year tried triple jump which she actually kind of liked...

She also continued with discus, long jump and got suckered into shot put...(one of her BFF's is the only 8th grade girl shot putter and since Ainsley was standing by watching her... she got put on the list too!)

Every night practice til 5 and every Wednesday and Thursday meets until the beginning of May.

Walker's first year of choir this year and he got asked to move up to the boy's choir.  Boy's choir is usually reserved for 7th and 8th graders that try out but his choir teacher decided to put he and one other 6th grader in this class.

That being said he certainly has taken a real liking to choir and decided to take on a solo for his first District Choir Festival. This was an optional event but he really wanted to participate... even Ainsley was amazed and said, "Wow Bug... I couldn't do a solo by myself."  She performed in a group with 3 other friends again this year.

He is really into Celtic/Scottish music lately and picked the song... Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond.  He got a copy of the piano music and played it until he had it memorized and then sang this song with doors closed or in the shower for a couple weeks.  He came home grumpy one day from school because he had sung it for his peers and he said it didn't sound good... but he didn't want to practice etc... so leading up to the parent performance he was cranky... nerves were settling in and he was in full teenage mode of "I know!" when we tried to give him encouraging words of wisdom.

I got some pictures of him in his new choir clothes and thought... OMG he looks so grown up and handsome... like he's going to PROM! (So not ready for that yet!!)

By the time he was to perform I thought I was going to throw up... all that anxiety and nervousness!

He did amazing... so very proud we were!  He performed the following week for the District Judge and received a score of Excellent... awesome for his first year!

Last Thursday, the day before Ainsley's birthday I got a text from one of her friends asking if they could throw Ainsley a surprise party at our house.  So fun... how could you not say yes!

I was in charge of the food, and getting Ainsley out of the house so that everyone could arrive and hide.  Her friends were in charge of invites sent via texts, the cake and decorations!

The amount of deceit and lies I had to tell... oh my!  Stewart got Ainsley and Walker out of the house by encouraging them to go and practice discus at the school.  The kiddos arrived a half hour before Ainsley was due home to decorate and set up.

One friend made a 3 layer cake by herself..so cute... I'm glad I was the only one who noticed "birthday" was spelled incorrectly, after all that hard work!

We pulled out the couch so that they could all hide behind it... oh my the loudness... I thought for sure she'd hear them before she even got to the door.

It was a classic "Surprise"mis-cue (luckily Ainsley was still getting out of the car with headphones in and didn't notice) to enjoy the real moment...

Such a fun night to remember... these friends are all her choir lunch buddies!

This was THE year for Ainsley.  She has grown, changed and transitioned into quite an amazing person. While many kiddos struggle with the middle school years she has truly blossomed in so many ways!

She will especially look back at this year as being one of the best times in her life!  Being in Cheer and Franklin Singers not only was a fun thing for her but it boosted her confidence and pushed her out of her comfort zone to try new things... being a flier for one!  Life long skills were learned... getting along with people in the midst of girl drama!

She is loved and liked by all she encounters... a recurring saying from friends and classmates is "You are the nicest person in the world!"

As we start the year of 14... I'm nervous, happy, hopeful and excited for her and all her adventures that await!  Love you to the moon and back my sweet girl! You are an amazing girl... "have courage and be kind" as you start the next phase of your life!

Somewhere along the past 6 months these two kiddos grew up right before our eyes...

Saturday morning started out at 5am so that I could get Ainsley's hair done for the Cheer Competition.  Earlier in the week the coach asked for the girls to get a hair piece to wear... so now we can add 1 more thing to my "have never bought in my life" category.

They needed to have an upside down french braid that turned into a bun and then the hairpiece and competition bow.  Whew... first try it turned out awesome!!

Here is the front of my cute girl...

Saturday was one of those days when we had to divide and conquer as parents.  Ainsley's performance was at 9am and Walker's Basketball game was at 8:30am ( I'll talk about his game in the next post).

Middle school's were only allowed to perform their "Show" piece... this is the one that they didn't place in last week. They had a bobble and dropped one of their "fliers"... she fought hard to stay up but ultimately it was just a freak thing as they are always spot on.

Ainsley is in the middle... love their face expressions... truly having fun!!

Ainsley is holding the "S" sign here...

They ended up missing 2nd place by 1 point!!..and took 3rd even with the bobble.

I was in charge of doing the cheer gifts this week... you know me gotta do something crafty! They turned out super cute though and who knew Stewart also had awesome crafting skills since he helped me with production.

The girls with one more trophy for the school and gifts...

And one more of the cutest one...

Here is the video from Competition #3...

We are always proud of our kiddos but every now and then they do something extra special that makes us even more proud... if that is even possible!  Case in point last week was Scout Sunday at mass. Walker was sitting with the other scouts and I noticed him participating and singing all through mass not because it was required because only a handful are catholics... but because he wanted to.  After communion my heart was again full to see him praying... not because he had to (no one else was), not because I do after communion but because he wanted to on his own... so proud!

Last Saturday the girls had their 2nd cheer competition and had their brand new uniforms to wear!!  They turned out so cute!!!  I love that the Vice Principal ordered competition bows for the girls that matched exactly... too funny... this is his first year at the school and he has turned into the "mother hen" for the cheer team.

The girls performed two routines.  The first routine was called "Show" and they were the first ones to start off the competition... always hard to be first.  They didn't place with this new routine... partly because they just don't have the numbers of girls like the other teams do to perform the stunts... they did an awesome job though!

The second routine called, "Pom" is the routine that they did the previous competition and they won this event again... these girls so cute... so awesome!  One more trophy for the school!!

This weekend is another competition... they will just perform the "Show" routine for judging and will perform "Pom" just for fun during the break.