Gymnastics

This year our children have had the wonderful experience of being in gymnastics classes. Our friend, Tracy, and her assistant Elizabeth, teach over 40 students each Friday. Here's some pictures and video that I took quite a while ago. (The assistant teacher in these pictures is Kate, who has now gone off to college. I don't have any pictures of Elizabeth yet.)

Andrew with "Miss Kate"

I must admit that getting all the kids ready and out the door by 8:00 each Friday, and packing all their stuff, food, diaper bags, water bottles, etc., and then being at the gym from 8:45 - 1:30 is not the funnest time for me. However, it is such a great experience for our children that we keep going each week.

Andrew "monkey walking" along the bar with his teacher, Tracy.

A few weeks ago, I was watching our children play tag with all their friends at gym, and I just felt so thankful for the great group of friends that they get to be with each week. There were boys and girls of all ages, playing together, including each other, and showing kindness and respect for everyone there. They are all adorable kids, but there wasn't any flirting, teasing, or a lot of the silliness that can be in groups of pre-teens and teens. I was just so impressed with all of them, and also grateful for their parents who work hard to train their children to be polite and intelligent people.


Abby loves going to gymnastics. Even though she isn't technically old enough to be in Andrew's class, Tracy lets her join in too. I've been impressed with how her skills have improved through the year. The classes are filled with fun music, games, and of course, learning lots of new things & how to control their bodies.

Andrew doing a tuck hang

Spencer and his friend Preston practicing above the foam pit (the favorite part of the gym!)

Courtney in the headstand contest

Courtney and her friend Keziah.

Monkey Mally

While the classes are going, the children who are not in class can practice their skills on the side of the gym that isn't being used at that time. So our kids get several hours of playing and doing gymnastics each Friday. It has been great during the long Idaho winter!

Aliysa and Jace do their biology class each Friday morning. I drop them off and pick up our friend's three boys to go to gym with us, then their Mom brings Aliysa and Jace to gym after their biology class. You can read about their biology class at: http://havbioscience.blogspot.com/

Aliysa's favorite things are: the foam pit, her friends, relay races, doing tricks off of the springboard into the foam pit, and being on the beam.

When I asked Jace what his favorite things are, he said that since his parents won't let him do anything anymore since he broke his arm by falling off the high bar, his favorite thing must be running. (His arm is still not able to be straightened yet. We're starting physical therapy this week with it) Actually, he says, his favorites are: front handsprings, backflips, and doing tricks off of the springboard into the foam pit.

Courtney's favorites: climbing the rope, the beam, the bars, getting to buy candy from the vending machine (I hardly ever let them do that), backbends, and lunges.

Spencer: front handsprings, back handsprings (he's learning these right now), the bars, the climbing rope, and playing with friends.

Mallory's favorites: the vault, the foam pit, handstands, playing with friends, and putting wet paper towels on her forehead when she gets too hot at gym.

Zachary's favorites: playing, headstands, and learning back handsprings.

Andrew's favorite things: the bars, the scarves (his teacher has fabric scarves that they use for different things), the foam pit, and the parachute.

Abby's favorite thing is going on the tumble track (a long, long, rectangular trampoline). She also loves everything else, although she is the only one that is not so fond of the foam pit.

My favorite things about gym are getting to spend time with the other Moms, and watching my children enjoy themselves & increase in skill. Usually I end the day pretty tired out by the time we get home, but this week I made a green smoothie to take with me to gym, and I had lots of energy! I'm hooked on these green smoothies from greensmoothiegirl.com. If you want to learn to make them, type in "Green Smoothie Girl" on YouTube, and you can see how she makes hers. Now, a couple more videos, and we're done. I know, this is a long post, but when you need to show pictures and videos of all 8 children, it takes a while!

We're so grateful to Tracy & all the effort she puts into these classes! It is one of our highlights each week.