I made the Lucas girls rugby team!! I am so excited!
He said
Well all the rugby tryouts over the last week and a bit culminated in decision day of who made the final roster for the Lucas Rugby Team. After some confusion over practice time Monday and only 3 hopefuls total showing up Monday morning for the 7:00am practice and the rest of the team thinking practice was after school that night, they decided to hold one more tryout Tuesday and then have the final roster solidified and announced on Wednesday evening. After some initial very confusing moments where Emelia thought she was cut, it turned out she actually did make the team and we now had a rugby player (in addition to all the other sports she has done) in the house. Her wrestling coach from last year who was adamant that she would make the team and put in a good word for her, was right.
This week Allegiance worked really hard putting the polishing touches on their routine to get ready for Nationals which we are – as of today’s practice – two practices and two weeks away from the competition. They are pretty routinely doing full-outs at every practice and they have been doing so much better at it. A lot of the changes didn’t make sense to us at first, and for sure they were having trouble adjusting and hitting it perfect, but now they have really worked hard at it, and the repetition is paying off, it feels like it is all coming together and Nationals may be their best performance of the season—saving the best for when it matters most we hope. They did two full-outs tonight and both looked great!
The other big piece of news this week is that Emelia finally exercised the roundoff-back-tuck demons. She had lost her back tuck after a fall at gymnastics and then also having issues with her back. She has been working hard at this level-up skill for two seasons. Really wanting to move up next season, she has been taking every chance with privates (lessons) she gets. And the last few she has done with Coach Jenna who used to coach Emelia at Gymnastics and has also moved over to cheer. So, it was perfect that yesterday in a private with Jenna, Emelia finally was able to do it unspotted and on her own!! And not just once but multiple times!
And finally cycling! I know you’ve all been waiting for this. But we have officially moved into the month of April. At the end of this month, I am doing my first race of the season, returning back to Paris to Ancaster. I am super excited about that as it was so much fun last year. And even better is a bunch of friends I have made through cycling will also be doing the race as well. But, the other thing with entering the next month of the year, yesterday and today I was able to knock off a couple of outdoor rides to keep my streak going and I am now 4 for 4 months this year! And pretty much all the snowy months behind us! Last month I got in 23 rides in 31 days which I am super proud of. I know April will be a lot more of the same. And, it will end with a bike race to boot!!
She said
I feel I say this every week but wow what a busy week. As parents we will not ever have to say the words we have a lazy, unmotivated teenager. Emelia has proven to be exactly the opposite. For anyone who knew Emelia as a little girl to see who she has become as a teenager is nothing less than extraordinary. She blows us away!
Even 2 years ago we had an anxiety filled introverted girl who didn’t believe in herself and was hard to pull out of her shell. At 16 she has really become her own person. She has become more sure of herself and after a lot of heartache she has found the most incredible group of friends. She has her besties at cheer and there she is just killing it. But in school for years she relied heavily on the twins to be her social bubble. This year she has really expanded her friend group and now has this large, supportive and close group of girlfriends. What this has meant is we have a very busy social girl. She comes home every time with her girlfriends happy and loved. And we couldn’t be happier.
So with cheer, work, school and her friends Emelia has now officially added rugby to our weekly activiites. It was a long two weeks of hard tryouts but Wednesday night she officially made the team! What this has meant is she had rugby training in the morning (6:50 am) 4x a week before school, cheer 2x a week, work 2-3x a week plus school and her social life. We have stressed to that if this insane schedule became too much she needs to talk to us before its too late. But so far she is loving every minute.
This weekend was a very busy one, we work on Saturday to get Emelia to our photographers so she and her cousins Zoe and Abi could get cousin pictures done together. We cannot wait to see the pictures, the girls were so sweet together. After the pictures we rushed off to the cheer gym to meet up with Jenna for another private training session. Emelia who is a perfectionist was determined that if she was going to get her tuck on the floor it had to be perfect. So after a few spots she told Jenna she was ready. And finally she got it!!! That big monkey is off her back and once she had the tuck the first time she did another 20 or so clean. She killed it! We are so proud of her for never giving up, never complaining or making excuses. She knew she had to the work an she did! Way to go kiddo!
Today was cheer, the girls had a fun and two full outs. The first one was clean and hit zero. The coaches were so excited. The girls have worked so hard through all the changes over the last month. We are so proud of them and know that if they can pull off what they did today they will kill it at Nationals. It is hard to believe after all the challenges this season that there are only two more practices until Nationals! We are proud of this team, not matter what they have overcome they have stuck together! Way to go Alliegance!