So it's Spirit Week at the girls' daycare.  They have one every year, and every year it's different, except for the Bad Hair Day which keeps rearing its ugly head again and again and again.  The year that Gracie started they had a Hawaiian Day and I made her a cute little dress, but they're not having Hawaiian Day this year, so I can't reuse the dress for Abbie.  I usually try and pick one day that I do something special for them - make something or do something creative with their hair.  This year, the weeks starts off with Team Pride today, and I figured that I would try out a cute cheerleader design that I bought from Designs By JuJu on t-shirts for the girls.  And, of course, I decided to do them in University of Alabama colors and write Roll Tide! on them.  Why?  Well, because that's Steve's favorite team.  So I stitched out a t-shirt for Gracie, and it ended up pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

I actually finished on Sunday, so I was doubly proud of myself because it came out so good and I was done early!  But, I still had Abbie's to make.  When I sat down on Monday morning to stitch hers out (so much for the being done early scenario), I realized that Steve wasn't the only one in the family with school pride.  I did, in fact go to a college, a college that does in fact have sports teams, and that at least one of those sports teams is in fact, good - very, very good, as in National Champion more than once in the sixteen years since I graduated.  And in fact, it is the high season for said sport - March Madness, anyone?  So, I decided to let Gracie be Daddy's . little cheerleader and let Abigail be mine.  So I went back to my Embird Software, changed the wording and the colors on Abigail's shirt, and this is what I came up with  Now if that isn't the cutest Blue Devil ever, then I don't know who is!  So, I sent my girls off decked out in the school pride, and for the first time in a long time, I actually thought about Duke basketball and how, in 1990 when the team made it to the Final Four, everyone jumped out of their first floor dorm windows, and ran to the main quad and started playing in mud, sliding around like the mud was snow, screaming with joy that our team had made it.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.... And I remembered all that school pride that I felt then, and still do I guess, when I tell people where I went to school.  But, I've pretty much been a fairweather fan - I haven't paid much attention to Duke basketball since Gracie was born, and even less since Abigail was born.  But, that little shirt inspired me - I decided that since it was playoff time, I would start watching Duke for the rest of the season.  So, I got to work and checked the brackets for the playoffs, only to learn that Duke lost in the first round.  So much for team pride.  Whoops!  Well, Abbie still looks cute in her shirt.  And maybe I'll be a better alumnae next year!







And just for fun, here's the Alabama girl and the Duke girl together.



And, if you just need to see more pictures of the Spirit Girls, here they are:

http://www.graciesfamily.com/spiritgirls/index.html