today was the ceremony for the  end of the upwards program football season. the kids each got called up front and were given a really nice duffle bag. its kind of sad to see the season end, but on the other hand, im very much looking forward to having NO evening sports or dance to have to run off to. mandy dropped out of ballet a few weeks ago. she LOVES ballet. she loves her teacher but she hates having to go out or be out when daddys coming home. she would take ballet six days a week if the classes were during the day.

anyway, mandy did cheerleading for the first time and she really liked it and learned all the cheers very easily. even though shes at the age to be in 4th grade, she was in the 6th thru 8th grade squad due to the fact that her best friend, who's 2 years older than her, was on that age group squad. i was really proud of how quickly she learned the cheers and how great she did up against all the older girls. shes an introvert and extremely shy, but she got out there and cheered with the best of them; and they were all 2, 3, and 4 years older than her! heres the squad pic from todays ceremony. can you guess which one she is? (psst...  shes the youngest and smallest)




and heres a shot of joey and then mandy running up to the front during the ceremony to get their duffle bags and included in that shot is a pic of the 2 of them together. the real team! 'cept when theyre trying to kill each other!




of course i cant resist sharing a picture mandy and her 2 years older, bestest friend, kaitlyn. they love each other and i pray they stay friends forever!