GMS 7th Grade Lady Gator Volleyball

Sophie has been on the sideline cheering for her sister for 2 years & last night she finally had her turn - middle school volleyball has officially begun! They had try outs the first & second week of school and then found out teams last week. Of course, we had to sneak up to the school to surprise the girls & decorate the locker room:

Have you noticed a theme? We are still loving bows this year:

But my favorite part is the name signs we make for all of their lockers:

Along with decorations, we had drinks for the girls to go with their pre-game dinner:

We were even more excited when we showed up and she was the only one wearing white, which meant she got to play libero:

Can you tell how giddy she was?! These girls played amazing for their first time together and won in 2 sets. In fact, all 3 7th grade teams won last night in 2 games. I am so excited for the beginning of her lady gator journey in the next couple of years:

Chomp Chomp Gators!

GMS 7th Grade Cheer Pics

I know the girls took a lot of pictures at cheer camp this summer, but right before school started, they had their official photo shoot at the Star. All of the pictures turned out so great so I couldn't help but share them all as we get ready to kick off football season:

Lots of individual pictures! After we took some in this area, we headed to the turf:

Of course we had to take team pictures also:

These girls have been working hard & are ready to cheer for football season. Let's Go Gators!

NCL Kickoff Meeting & Philanthropy Fair

Last night we had our NCL kickoff meeting & philanthropy fair to start the new year & this year it was extra special since all 3 of us got to go! Somehow, they talked me to into being on the board for a 2nd year so I am the treasurer again. It looked so good when we got there last night with this year's theme & decor:

Sadie has soccer on Monday nights, so she only got to come for the first hour then she had to sneak out but not before I made her take a picture:

This was Sophie's first official meeting with all of the patronesses & ticktockers together:

They called up each girl from the class of 2032 with their mom & we got yellow roses. She has a huge class:

They also gave awards for last year & Sadie won for completing 30+ hours of community service last year, but of course she wasn't there to receive it:

This is such a great organization to be a part of & I look forward to serving together with the girls throughout both of their middle & high school careers:

Wakeland Wolverine XC

Sadie played all of the sports in middle school, but it's harder to do that in high school so she has decided to specialize & concentrate on soccer. No surprises there - I think that's what we have been working towards. However, school soccer is more of a winter sport, so she has decided to run cross country just to condition for soccer. There are several soccer players who do this. They run all summer at 6:45 every morning so Sadie spent most of the summer training with them, when she was in town:

The last Saturday before school started, they had a breakfast bash at Little Elm beach. They ran, had breakfast & then played some sand volleyball:

Those are a few of the freshman girls & here are all of the girls from all grades:

It's been great so far & she enjoys the camaraderie of meeting other students before school started:

When school started, they bumped the practice time up to 6:30 & they finally had their first meet last Friday. She was excited to miss school already but not excited about being dropped off at the school at 5:45 in the morning. Ha! 

They have 3 teams for boys & girls - Varsity Elite, Varsity Open & JV and we were surprised when we found out Sadie made Varsity Open! Huge accomplishment for putting in the work this summer. Here are the girls in her group ready to race:

And here is a group picture of most of the XC girls:

They had 6 different start times and hers was in the middle. There were 140 racers in just her group & over 40 schools at the meet. I was not expecting it to be so large!

It was hot & I think she was nervous for her first race, especially since she was running with older girls, but she did great! Bryan & I had fun trying to follow her on the course, but she was hard to keep up with at the end because she sprinted towards the finish line:

There were a few freshman who ran with her on Varsity & I was so proud of them all:

It was a fun morning & I am excited for the upcoming meets & to see how her time improves along the way.