7th Grade Cheer Camp

 And we're back with more cheerleading! Get ready, one of the moms on Sophie's squad is a professional photographer so I have a feeling we will have more cheer pictures than we will know what to do with! 

FISD hosts all off middle school cheer camps the same week, so every school goes together & are assigned to a different high school. We were at Memorial High School with 7 other schools. I was on the camp committee, so we were there extra early Monday ready to set up and decorate:

We even saw a few of her friends from her FFL Cowboys cheer squad who cheer for a different middle school:

She saw her big sis, Kiara:

and they took a few pictures of their squad for day 1:

Aren't they so cute?! This is one of their practice uniforms & here they are with 8th grade:

Every school got a classroom to use as their base camp so here was ours:

We had it stocked with drinks, snacks & breakfast. The pink jerseys were gifts for the girls that they got to wear the next day. All of the schools have lunch together in the cafeteria and each school got 2 tables to decorate there as well:

They even set up a little photo prop to take pictures at:

and because we are Griffin and we do everything overboard, we made a candy bar with hundreds of bags of candy that the girls passed out to all of the other cheerleaders & coaches on the last day. It really did turn out cute & the girls loved it:

I only stayed to help set up & decorate, but other than that, it was only the cheerleaders, coaches & team photographers who got to stay but of course we still got a lot of candid photos throughout the afternoon:

Day 2, we met early for a photo shoot outside the school. They wanted pictures of all of the big & little sis pairs for picture frames that the girls were getting as a gift the next day:

Lunchtime fun:

Their final day they all wear their game day uniform:

I went back up on Wednesday to bring lunch for the group so since I got to stay, I was able to get pictures of their friends again. Here is their FFL Cowboys cheer squad:

and a few of her friends from Cobb. They are our "rival" school who live nextdoor & we will feed into high school together:

That afternoon, all of the parents were invited for the showoff. Bryan was out of town, so I took a ton of videos for him but thankfully got one action shot:

I love it! You can tell she is loving every minute. You know what else she loved, all of the cheer gifts they got all week:

Who knew cheer gifts were a thing?! They definitely do not do this in soccer but like I said, Sophie loved every moment of the week from the gifts to the decor, the kidnap breakfast and actual camp itself. It was an exhausting week, but they learned so much and are ready for back to school. Go Griffin!

7th Grade Cheer Kidnap Breakfast

The main reason we had to change our family vacation this summer was for Sophie's cheer schedule. She knew we had to get back for camp, but what she didn't know was the surprise she had leading up to camp the day before. Camp started on Monday morning so early on Sunday morning, she had a few surprise visitors:

It is a tradition at our school for a few of the 8th grade cheerleaders to come kidnap the 7th grade cheerleaders literally from their bed. I knew they were coming so I was up, dressed & watching for them at the front door to let them sneak in but they did not sneak into Sophie's room - they went in with cowbells, shakers & a speaker blasting Miley Cyrus:

She did not get up easily - ha! I have a video and it is at least a minute long with her under the covers - she wouldn't even come out. Granted, she sleeps with a sleeping mask on, so even when she came out, she didn't know who was here or what they were doing. I was so excited we were able to keep it a surprise! They gave her a new cheer shirt that she put on over her pajamas and then gave her a few minutes to brush her teeth. Other than that, she left with heatless curlers in her hair:

Speaking of sleeping masks, they actually gave her one that said "little" that she wore to keep her blindfolded while they walked her out to the car and then they went to go kidnap a few more girls:

 Once everyone was picked up, they all met at one of the 8th grader's house:

The whole theme of the breakfast was teddy bears, and they got to find out who their big & little sister pairs were. The girls were so excited to see their friends, visit & have brunch:

We had a service project for them to do together. Several of us volunteer with The Miracle League of Frisco and they have a group of cheerleaders who we made encouragement cards & shaker bottles for:

They turned out so cute! We have signed up to volunteer with them at their first game so we can present them to the girls.

Next up, big sis/little sis reveal! Each of the 7th graders got a small, acrylic, teddy bear with cut up letters inside. They had to unscramble the letters to see who their big sis in 8th grade was:

And she got Kiara!

She was so excited! Next, they filled out forms for their sisters with a wish list so they can do small gifts throughout the year:

Finally, we took several group pictures. Here are the 7th grade girls:

7th grade girls with their moms:

And both squads all together:

It was such a fun morning getting to meet everyone & definitely a fun way to kick off cheer camp. Lots of pictures of that coming up next!