Gymnastics

My kids have been taking gymnastics. And if you thought I would let an entire semester of gymnastics go by without one picture, you don't know me very well. Fortunately, I only brought my camera once, to Mary's last class.

Mary loves to run. In fact, she wanted to spend most of her last class just running.

But she did manage to squeeze in some practice on the equipment. She even posed for me once or twice.

David missed his last gymnastics class. I was in Wisconsin, and he had to help my mom take Roderick to the vet. He was pretty sad about it, so Mary's coach said he could tag along to his little sister's last class.

David's class is in the big gym. He did his best on the toddler-sized equipment in the smaller gym.

I think he had a good time. A big foam pit is really all you need, right?

Mary has come so far. She really feels like she's in her element during gymnastics.

Little girl. Big trampoline.

At the end of each class, the kids get to play with balls. This lavender one is Mary's ball. She was obsessed with it! Heaven help the person who dares to touch Mary's ball!

At the end of class, there was a cute little ceremony. Mary received a ribbon.

Since David had missed his last class, Coach Erica presented him with his big kid WinKids dog tag.

Coach Erica and the Wednesday morning class. (Minus sweet Hope, who wasn't there.)

Most of the classes are much bigger, but we lucked out with this little group. It was wonderful!

When we first moved here, I thought WinKids was some conspiracy to trick parents into giving up lots of money. I somewhat reluctantly put my kids in (and payed for) gymnastics classes, but now I am a huge fan of good gymnastics classes for little kids. David and Mary both gained so much more confidence in themselves, and David learned, as he pointed out, "When you practice, you get better at things." Gaining confidence and learning the importance of practice can come through any number of activities, but gymnastics turned out to be a great match for my kids this year. I'm so happy we did this! (I'm not sure how my mom's couch feels about it though, as the kids bring their skills and confidence home with them!)