Gymnastics Star

So, my daughter's been taking gymnastics classes for weeks now. Yesterday was the last day, and I finally remembered to bring my camera and take some pictures! I know, I know...bad mom! The girl LOVES going. She looks forward to every Thursday afternoon and asks me over and over, "How many days 'til gymnastics?" until my ears bleed. Her interest is increased by the fact that one of her closest friends is also in the class with her. It was a complete coincidence on our part, really. We show up for the first class, and in walks best-buddy-Gwendolyn at the same time. Yea for friends.

One of the areas that Noodle really excells at is the rope climb. Every week, she climbed the highest out of all the children in her class. She has gone all the way to the top knot! I also have to mention that there were about six or seven kids in her small class, many of them bigger than her, two of them being boys. I just have to have a moment of pride and gush about how strong and courageous my daughter is because, hey, where else could I do it? Oh whatever. So maybe I've already regaled you in person for an hour or two of how amazing my daughters are...this week. Even so, Noodle's teacher recommended she skip the next level and go from Kindergarten-A to Kindergarten-C.


Noodle can be very strong-minded (parental code word for stubborn). When she gets an idea in her head that she's going to do something, very little can stop her. For example, when the gymnastics class began, she decided she wanted to be able to do a split. She couldn't really get that close to the ground and was frustrated. Seeing the angry eyebrows and horns growing on her forehead, I quickly told her that it would take practice every day to get her body to cooperate. Guess what...she practices doing a split every day, and has been for months now!

The kids get to do tumbling activities, balance beam, trampoline, rings, uneven bars, and other stuff that I didn't really pay attention to because I was too busy getting in my 20,000 words for the day with the other moms. These pictures show Noodle on the high balance beam. They usually practice on the low ones like the one in the above photo, to her left, because they fall off a LOT. As her teacher helps her cross to the end of the beam, she gets to jump off into a pit filled with foam blocks. How cool is that?? I want to take gymnastics!